Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi
Reducing food loss and waste are important policy objectives prominently featured in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. To optimally design interventions targeted at reducing losses, it is important to know where losses are concentrated between the farm and fork. This paper measures...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Artículo preliminar |
| Language: | Inglés |
| Published: |
International Food Policy Research Institute
2017
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148002 |
| _version_ | 1855526267564064768 |
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| author | Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan |
| author_browse | Ambler, Kate Godlonton, Susan de Brauw, Alan |
| author_facet | Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan |
| author_sort | Ambler, Kate |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Reducing food loss and waste are important policy objectives prominently featured in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. To optimally design interventions targeted at reducing losses, it is important to know where losses are concentrated between the farm and fork. This paper measures farmlevel postharvest losses for three main crops—maize, soy, and groundnuts—among 1,200 households in Malawi. Farmers answered a detailed questionnaire designed to learn about losses during harvest and transport, processing, and storage and which measures both total losses and reductions in crop quality. The findings indicate that fewer than half of households report suffering losses conditional on growing each crop. In addition, conditional on losses occurring, the loss averages between 5 and 12 percent of the farmer’s total harvest. Compared to nationally representative data that measure losses using a single survey question, this study documents a far greater percentage of farmers experiencing losses, though the unconditional proportion lost is similar. We find that losses are concentrated in harvest and processing activities for groundnuts and maize; for soy, they are highest during processing. Existing interventions have primarily targeted storage activities; however, these results suggest that targeting other activities may be worthwhile. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace148002 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2017 |
| publishDateRange | 2017 |
| publishDateSort | 2017 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1480022025-11-06T06:19:39Z Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan crop storage food storage production agricultural production food wastes groundnuts sustainable development goals cereals households farmers transport storage crops farm storage maize vegetables soybeans agriculture harvesting nuts processing food processing postharvest losses Reducing food loss and waste are important policy objectives prominently featured in the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals. To optimally design interventions targeted at reducing losses, it is important to know where losses are concentrated between the farm and fork. This paper measures farmlevel postharvest losses for three main crops—maize, soy, and groundnuts—among 1,200 households in Malawi. Farmers answered a detailed questionnaire designed to learn about losses during harvest and transport, processing, and storage and which measures both total losses and reductions in crop quality. The findings indicate that fewer than half of households report suffering losses conditional on growing each crop. In addition, conditional on losses occurring, the loss averages between 5 and 12 percent of the farmer’s total harvest. Compared to nationally representative data that measure losses using a single survey question, this study documents a far greater percentage of farmers experiencing losses, though the unconditional proportion lost is similar. We find that losses are concentrated in harvest and processing activities for groundnuts and maize; for soy, they are highest during processing. Existing interventions have primarily targeted storage activities; however, these results suggest that targeting other activities may be worthwhile. 2017 2024-06-21T09:23:39Z 2024-06-21T09:23:39Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148002 en https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147988 https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148132 https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-8489.12237 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Ambler, Kate; de Brauw, Alan; and Godlonton, Susan. 2017. Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1632. International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI): Washington, DC https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148002 |
| spellingShingle | crop storage food storage production agricultural production food wastes groundnuts sustainable development goals cereals households farmers transport storage crops farm storage maize vegetables soybeans agriculture harvesting nuts processing food processing postharvest losses Ambler, Kate de Brauw, Alan Godlonton, Susan Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title | Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title_full | Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title_fullStr | Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title_full_unstemmed | Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title_short | Measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in Malawi |
| title_sort | measuring postharvest losses at the farm level in malawi |
| topic | crop storage food storage production agricultural production food wastes groundnuts sustainable development goals cereals households farmers transport storage crops farm storage maize vegetables soybeans agriculture harvesting nuts processing food processing postharvest losses |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148002 |
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