Rob Vos SPECIAL EVENT Reducing Food Loss and Waste – Making it Personal Co-Organized by IFPRI, Stop Wasting Food / Selina Juul, World Resources Institute (WRI), Champions 12.3, and the Embassy of Denmark in Washington, DC MAR 12, 2019 - 09:30 AM TO 11:00 AM EDT

1. Addressing Food Losses in
Developing Countries:
Complex causes, simple
solutions

2. The quality dimension of food losses…
• Most studies focus on
discarded quantities of food
• Our research:
• Consider food losses
across the value chain.
• Important to consider
ECONOMIC LOSSES
because of QUALITY
reductions
• We find such losses are
more important,
consistent across
countries & crops
Photo: Genetic Literacy Project
Photo: Luciana Delgado (IFPRI)

3. Quality losses occur
because of multiple
complex factors that
involve poor field
practices, low prices, lack
of adequate storage,
transportation, etc.
There are simple
solutions but work only if
they:
- Incentivize farmers to
reduce food losses
- Raise farmers’
awareness of benefits
of reducing FL
- Are cost effective
Photo credits: Eduardo Nakasone, Luciana Delgado, IITA, Getty Images.

4. 1. Quality-based contractual arrangements
(beans, Guatemala):
• Directly incentivize farmers
• Link farmers to corporate buyers (interested
quality)
• Premium for high quality maize
➔ Impact: reduction quality loss by 7%
2. Hermetically Sealed Storage Bags (maize,
Ethiopia):
• Prevent losses in storage
• Hermetic bags cost $2.5 for a 90 kg
capacity bag
• Cost-effective compared to silos
➔ Impact: reduction quality loss by 9%
3. Extension-based approaches (potatoes,
Ecuador)
• Improve farmers’ knowledge of crop
management.
• Input decision support tool Photo credits: Eduardo Nakasone, Purdue University, CIP