Small holder farmers lose 50% of their total Harvests due to post harvest losses

According to FAO, approximately one third of all food produced globally is lost each year. The environmental impacts are immense, with 1.4 billion hectares of land—almost 30% of the planet’s agricultural land area—producing food that is never eaten.

Perishable food especially fresh fruits and vegetables start to deteriorate as soon as they are harvested because they are cut off from their source of water and nutrition. They lose weight, texture, flavor, nutritional value and appeal. Cooling significantly slows down the rate of deterioration, thereby increasing the storage life of the produce.

Lacking electricity or sufficient cold storage units, small-scale farmers incur post-harvest losses of 50% because they can’t afford modern storage facilities and resort to using polythene bags which easily contaminate their produce resulting into food wastage.

Food spoilage creates significant economic losses for small-scale farmers. As unrefrigerated fresh produce, such as tomatoes, avocadoes, and mangoes, starts to spoil in the heat, intermediary produce brokers exploit farmers’ urgent need to sell, often offering subpar prices for crops.

The Present-day postharvest loss is a threat to food security, economic stability as well as environmental protection that cuts across most farming communities in Africa and around the globe.