Design Thinking Interventions for Combating Post harvest loss to achieve Food Security

Every day we encounter images of drought which starkly remind us of the importance of food for human health and posterity. Despite knowing agriculture as the economic backbone of most African Nations, food security remains a significant challenge. In existence is an incongruous disconnect between the economic value we place on agriculture compared to food albeit them being parts of the same whole.

Food system’s inefficiency alone contributes to up to half of all crops that never make to the market, let alone making to our plates: Post harvest Loss. This refers to harvested produce that is lost between farm and table never to be recovered. Post-harvest loss happens when food rots in the markets, when it is poorly stored hence can no longer be consumed and when there are insufficient uptake from buyers. Sadly enough these inefficiencies in food systems are rarely part of the national conversation.

A close market examination shows that almost 30% of the inputs of time, energy and finances spent to grow; transport and process foods are ultimately lost. What tremendous market inefficiency? As a matter of fact research estimates that post-harvest loss between farm and fork totals about 30% of all grains and 50% of all fruits. Imagine how much more food could be on the market if we solved this problem. Globally, combating post-harvest loss could result in as many as 1.2 billion undernourished people becoming food secure.  

Population in Africa is projected to be to double in the next 30 years, lending urgency to the need for solutions. The economic imperative to combat post-harvest loss is clear. Farmers could unlock the full value of their investments, food distributors and processors would gain invaluable produce inputs that could boost their businesses. Consumers on the other hand would save money from not having to pay more due to price inflation that mitigates the cost of food loss experienced earlier in the food chain.

A number of actors are beginning to recognize the opportunity presented by a focused reduction on post-harvest loss and that the investments needed to reverse this reality are attainable. Multilateral action through the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 12.5) and the Malabo Declaration by the African Union to halve post-harvest losses by the year 2030 and 2025 respectively has provided global and regional benchmark to which others are already responding.

Through collaborative efforts, researchers and designers and developing low cost innovative solutions for faster food processing, solar drying, active and intelligent packaging and cold storage units all to enable small scale farmers to not only manage their reliance on the market but also sell their produce to the best price.

Take the case of The Rockefeller Foundation which is at the fore front of promoting integrated solutions to address post harvest losses in Africa. Through the YIELD WISE Initiative, a seven year $130 Million investment targeted at reducing food loss, the Foundation is helping farmers link up with finance and market access technologies, aggregate and receive training, with the overall goals of increasing quantity and quality of food in Africa.

In Northern Nigeria for instance, YIELD WISE has fostered partnerships between local tomato farmers and the DANGOTE Farms Tomato processing plant, enabling the plant to start production for the first time in three years. In Kenya, over 4,000 small scale mango farmers were linked with new buyers such as dried fruit processors and traders, resulting in approximately $1.2Milion sales in 2016. The security of these buyer agreements allows the farmers to invest with confidence, knowing that the market will absorb their harvest. Along with technological innovations of that track the food value chain and the widespread use of mobile money platforms, buyers and farmers can harvest the full financial value of their investments in ways that were impossible in the past.

Collaboration across these myriad actors and innovations is key for systematic change. After all, many post-harvest loss interventions are already in use for export market producers, but change has been slow to come to domestic food markets. Small holder farmers have not had the type of access to the financing and partners they often need to afford new technology. Evidently focusing only on one segment of the system is an insufficient approach and will remain ineffective in providing long term and lasting solutions to closing the food value chain gaps.

The gains from closing the post-harvest loss gaps are life changing for thousands of people – those facing food uncertainty as well as the farmers whose livelihoods depend on selling their harvest. Rarely have moral and economic imperatives been so equally aligned. Practically everyone has an incentive to act.

Africa as a continent cannot afford to waste food. With the opportunity before us and the recipe in our hands, the final ingredient is the will to put collaboration and partnership first so that we may unlock the outsize gains not only for farmers but for all of us- consumers of food.