Post-harvest losses

The Committee on Public Accounts (COPA) was informed this week that annually Sri Lanka trashes about 270,000 tons of fruits and vegetables as post-harvest losses, resulting in a staggering Rs. 20 billion in losses. This has been a decades-long problem with few solutions and policymakers need to urgently address this issue to move the agriculture industry forward. 

The United Nations estimates that 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted annually. Food waste is especially challenging as it is related to a number of factors: the land which is used for agriculture and livestock, excessive water and energy demand, breeding and slaughtering of animals, chemical usage on soil, packaging and transport, climate change impacts, globalised supply chains and transporting food from producer to consumer.

In Sri Lanka, even though successive governments have spoken of improving agriculture infrastructure and infusing technology to increase productivity, no steps have been taken to even provide basic needs for keeping food fresh and transporting it efficiently. Sri Lanka’s post-harvest losses are estimated to be as much as 40%, which is heart-rending for a low-middle income country, which still has over a quarter of its labour employed in agriculture. Installing climate-controlled warehouses is one step, but many similar measures are needed across the value chain to improve food security and access and to provide better incomes for farmers.

The World Bank estimates the demand for food will increase by 50% as the global population grows, creating more food waste. More people, more waste. According to a Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) study, 54% of food wastage occurs during production, post-harvest handling, and storage. In Asia, the wastage of cereals and rice is particularly high, leading to large impacts on carbon emissions and water and land usage. Compared with that, Latin America’s high income regions are responsible for about 67% of meat wastage.

Causes for food waste are a combination of consumer behaviour and lack of efficiency in the supply chain. Governments need to take responsibility for creating the necessary policy, legal, institutional and fiscal environments for sustainable agriculture, social protection, good nutrition, health and education.

Farmers and other primary food producers, large and small, must produce more, and more diverse food more effectively, using less inputs and reducing post-harvest losses, while at the same time adapting to climate change. This is a massive task that all stakeholders have to support. This is especially hard in Sri Lanka’s low tech environment where data is sparse and inaccessible. 

People must examine their individual and family food habits and lifestyles, reducing household waste, favouring healthy and nutritious foods of good quality, and matching food quantities to activity levels.

The private sector has a particular role to play as the interphase between Government, farmers, agri-business and the consumers. Investment in sustainable food production facilitates the expansion of modern technologies and good practices.

The active contribution of private enterprises to reducing food waste optimises the use of natural resources and increases not only their own income, but also that of producers while making more food available on the market. Responsible advertisements and correct labelling provides the information necessary to consumers to allow them to make the right nutritional choices. Elsewhere in the world, zero-waste supermarkets and other innovations have taken off and there are plenty of buyers if companies are willing to be innovative. It’s time Sri Lanka took these crucial steps towards meaningful policymaking.