The cost of postharvest losses in Ethiopia: economic and food security implications

Abstract

This research was designed to estimate the food security and economic burdens of postharvest losses of important food and cash crops produced in Ethiopia. Data of food production, food values and consumption patterns as well as the number of severely and moderately food insecure persons were obtained from FAOSTAT database for Ethiopia. The food security implications of the postharvest losses in the country showed that a volume of crops that could feed over 23 million citizens could be saved with proper postharvest management. The economic meaning of the losses of major food and cash crops was 1.2 billion US dollars per annum, which literally is 10% of the average annual national budget of the country for the years 2018–2022. If the losses could be managed to be lower by 50%, it could have meaningfully contributed to the food and nutrition security as well as the GDP of the country. The approach used in the current analysis could be either adopted to generate clear data for awareness creation community education or it could be developed into a more robust model to estimate annual losses or food security and economic gain potentials.