Waste Not Want Not: Post-Harvest Loss

Earlier this week, Peggy Carlson, Partners’ Vice President of Development Programs and Senior Director for Agriculture and Food Security, participated on a webcast panel to discuss improving agriculture and increasing access to nutrition in the developing world. Ms. Carlson and the other panel members touched on a number of topics including food waste and loss.

The World Bank estimates that between 1/4 and 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted (Figure 1). While the majority of food lost in developed countries is primarily due to consumer waste, food loss in developing countries – including our F2F core countries Haiti, Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and Nicaragua – occurs during production, storage, and transport. Many of you know about F2F’s work over the past 24 years to reduce production-related losses (pests, diseases, etc.), but F2F also focuses on post-harvest handling, processing, and storing as well. For instance, in the last few years, F2F has worked with peanut farmers in Haiti and vegetable farmers in the Dominican Republic to improve storage and handling practices, thereby improving the quality and quantity of products that smallholder farmers can later sell.

F2F actually has a few upcoming volunteer opportunities to train Guatemala’s National Association of Deciduous Fruit Producers in post-harvest fruit physiology, handling, and storage! You can check the opportunities out at http://www.partners.net/volunteer-us .