This is the 29th post in a blog series to be published in 2021 by the Secretariat on behalf of the AU High-Level Panel on Emerging Technologies (APET) and the Calestous Juma Executive Dialogues (CJED)

The United Nation's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Number 2 is striving to eradicate hunger and malnutrition in the world by 2030.[1] The goal is to ensure that all world citizens, especially children, have sufficient and nutritious food. In Africa, this is articulated by the African Union's Agenda 2063 Goal Number 6, which encourages Member States to pursue adequate agriculture to bolster food production and security to feed their citizenry.[2] Therefore, the African Union is challenging Member States to ensure food security through the adoption of sustainable agriculture by supporting small-scale farmers. African countries are also encouraged to ensure that women, girls, and the most vulnerable groups have equal access to land, technology, and markets.

Despite the numerous efforts to enhance food security in Africa, hunger and malnutrition have remained an enormous barrier to Africa's socio-economic development. Africa's food insecurity is attributable to persistent droughts and natural disasters such as floods caused by climate change and global warming. Furthermore, food insecurity is also caused by wars and conflicts in several African countries, as well as food wastages and food post-harvest losses. Notably, it has been estimated that approximately 1.3 billion metric tonnes of food in Africa are lost immediately after harvesting and does not reach consumers.[3] This food is estimated to range between 30% and 40% of the food African farmers produce. However, if the appropriate measures and mechanisms were established to curb the post-harvest food losses, such saved food can adequately feed approximately 1.6 billion African people across the continent.

Significant drivers of post-harvest losses in Africa include poor handling mechanisms of farm produce between harvesting, storage, and distribution. Furthermore, post-harvest losses are caused by the decomposition of the food due to high temperatures and humidity. Some of the fields are inadequately harvested with limited drying methods before threshing. In addition, most African farmers have limited storage facilities. Storage challenges, due to the inappropriately built roads, it becomes lengthy, tedious, and difficult to transport crops and produce to the available markets.[4]

The African Union High Level Panel on Innovation and Emerging Technologies (APET) encourages African farmers to utilise smart technologies and techniques to curb food losses to empower the continent's food self-sufficiency. This can enable consumers to have access to fresh, properly matured, and insect-free and disease-free food. To ensure the appropriate food availability and reduction of post-harvest losses, APET encourages the utilisation of post-harvest technologies and techniques to stabilise food supply and reduce seasonal fluctuation of food availability and resultant food prices.

The "Yield Wise Programme" in Kenya, Tanzania, and Nigeria has applied modern technologies towards decreasing post-harvest food losses for smallholder farmers. For example, in Nigeria, Tanzania, and Kenya, smallholder farmers lose approximately half of their annual harvest.[5] However, adopting modern cooling chambers has enabled smallholder farmers in these African countries to preserve fresh tomatoes through home processes such as making tomato pastes and dried tomatoes. In this way, the smallholder farmers are able to extend the shelf-life of the tomatoes and enhance market value addition.[6] Consequently, the smallholder farmers profited an additional US$ 1.4 million through the utilisation of these Yield Wise Programme's preservation technologies.[7]

The adoption of digital technologies such as mobile phone applications, television, and radio communication technologies can also be used to inform farmers on available markets, and that can reduce post-harvest losses. For example, in Zimbabwe, smallholder farmers use digital technologies to meet timeous market demands and avoid market congestions. Such timeous market information enables smallholder farmers to avoid post-harvest losses due to evidence-based decision-making capacities on their farming activities.[8] Furthermore, through smartphone applications such as WhatsApp and Facebook, African farmers can access market information on inputs and produce advisory services and weather data. In addition, mobile phone money transfers and crops insurance have enabled African smallholder farmers' decision-making processes when selling their crops and produce, even during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown regulations.

Several Southern African countries use maise as their staple food, and post-harvest maise losses significantly contribute to the region's food insecurity. Therefore, to address this challenge, Malawian farmers utilise "Purdue Improved Crop Storage" (PICS) bags to protect their maise grain. Essentially, the PICS bags are airtight storage bags that prevent the penetration of pests into the stored grains without using chemical preservation. As such, this enables the maise grains to have a longer shelf-life during storage.[9]

APET encourages African governments to create awareness platforms and engagements with farmers on the applicability of the suggested technologies. Such engagements and the adoption of technologies to preserve food can enhance Africa's food security. Furthermore, APET urges African governments to enable direct investment interventions so to reduce post-harvest losses effectively. African governments should undertake such interventions so to address the human, economic, and social costs as well as the negative impacts of food insecurity and malnutrition, more especially in rural communities. However, to enable such actions, African governments should collaboratively formulate the essential policy frameworks, measurable implementation efforts and mechanisms, and adequate capacity strengthening measures at all developmental levels.

Furthermore, Africa's development partners are encouraged to support the ongoing efforts spearheaded by African governments and regional economic communities through well-organised and monitored progress towards achieving the Malabo Declaration[10] and the African Union's Agenda 2063. African countries can explore catalytic and innovative solutions that can effectively transform Africa's food value chain systems, including production, harvesting, processing, and consumption processes. Furthermore, the transformation of Africa's food systems should incorporate Africa's political, economic, social, and cultural and climate change challenges.[11] These food security ecosystems should incorporate Africa's indigenous best practices and expertise related to post-harvest losses management and agriculture. Food preservation technologies and practices should be adapted to local contexts and realities in a cost-effective manner.

APET also urges African governments to mobilise the necessary human, technical, and financial resources to enhance sustainable post-harvest losses management frameworks and cost-effective post-harvest technologies and techniques in Africa. Such frameworks can enable Africa's smallholder farmers, traders, and agro-processors to benefit from such technologies and management systems. Fundamentally, simple and accessible technical solutions should be identified and promoted to capitalise on African community practices that can best facilitate access to knowledge at the local level. Thus, local environments that favour the learning and absorption capacities of African communities should be developed to encourage inclusive, participatory methods. Such engagements can facilitate local ownership and sustainability of the innovative technologies and techniques, especially by women, youth, and disabled Africans.

In conclusion, African countries should expand their countries' post-harvest policies and strategies by adopting market-based approaches and indigenous preservation technologies and techniques. These market-based methods should explore value addition measures to smallholder farmers and agro-processors through inclusive food and agricultural industrialisation. Furthermore, the necessary private sector investments should be implemented to enable sustainable and effective post-harvest solutions in Africa. APET believes that this can promote inclusive and sustainable socio-economic growth across the African continent, augment trading and market access, reinforce the workforce capacity and enhance job and wealth creation. Most importantly, African governments should urgently invest in public awareness campaigns on post-harvest losses, food wastages, and food waste management. This can enable countries to improve income, nutrition, and food production and processing ecosystems.

Finally, Africa is moving towards eradicating hunger and malnutrition in Africa to achieve AU's Agenda 2063: "The Africa We Want".

Featured Bloggers – APET Secretariat

Justina Dugbazah

Barbara Glover

Bhekani Mbuli

Chifundo Kungade

[1] https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/goal-02/,

[2] https://au.int/agenda2063/goals.

[3] https://theconversation.com/why-reducing-post-harvest-losses-is-a-priority-for-africa-87312.

[4] https://biologyreader.com/post-harvest-loss.html.

[5] https://www.technoserve.org/blog/farmers-in-nigeria-use-climate-smart-techniques-to-reduce-post-harvest-losses/.

[6] https://farmradio.org/reducing-food-waste-with-new-partnerships-in-nigeria-kenya-and-tanzania/.

[7] https://www.technoserve.org/blog/farmers-in-nigeria-use-climate-smart-techniques-to-reduce-post-harvest-losses/.

[8] http://www.scielo.org.za/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0301-603X2016000200011.

[9] https://wire.farmradio.fm/farmer-stories/malawi-farmers-use-airtight-storage-bags-to-prevent-losses-and-avoid-chemicals/.

[10] https://au.int/sites/default/files/documents/31251-doc-the_country_caadp_implementation_guide_-_version_d_05_apr.pdf.

[11] https://docs.wfp.org/api/documents/WFP-0000115278/download/.