Abstract
Postharvest losses (PHL) result in direct food and income losses to farmers and consumers globally. PHL reduction strategies offer unique opportunities to contribute to sustainable food systems for increased food security and farm incomes for more than 200 million food insecure people in sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of empirical information remains a major challenge to operationalization of PHL reduction strategies in many countries of the region. This paper utilizes cross-sectional data to determine the extent and factors that are influencing postharvest losses in the cooking-banana value chain in Uganda. We find that 14.9% of all the cooking bananas that are produced in Uganda suffer postharvest deterioration along the value chain (7.2% of the bananas deteriorate completely and have no residual value, while 7.7% deteriorate partially and are sold at discounted prices), mostly affecting retailers. At farm level, female headed households experience more losses than those headed by males. Household headship, household size, proportion of land allocated to banana production, and monthly banana production are the principal determinants of PHL at farm level. At retail level, such losses are mainly determined by sex of the vendor and group membership. The findings call for comprehensive and gender-responsive PHL reduction strategies.
Highlights
The reduction of postharvest losses (PHL) reduction has become a central pillar of sustainable global food systems
This study examined the extent and determinants of postharvest losses in the cooking banana value chain in Uganda
The results show that reliable estimation of PHL along the chain depend on the quality of the data collected—often a major challenge in the midstream and downstream segments of a value chain—and on adequately taking into account specific value chain characteristics, such as storage and handling at the farm level, during transport, and at the retail outlets
Summary
The reduction of postharvest losses (PHL) reduction has become a central pillar of sustainable global food systems. The World Bank [2], for instance, estimates that up to USD 4 billion in value of cereals is lost to PHL in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA); this exceeds the value of food aid received in SSA over the last decade [4]. One of the main constraints to operationalization of PHL reduction policies and strategies is the lack of clear and empirical information on the magnitudes, distribution, and determinants of these losses. This information is crucial in the identification of solutions and in guiding priorities of action [3,4,10]. We present and discuss the main results and draw conclusions for future research and development efforts
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