B. Taruvinga, P. Ndou, T. Ramusandiwa and C.P. Du Plooy Food loss and waste at farm level: Evidence from Enterprise Development project beneficiaries in South Africa B. Taruvinga, P. Ndou, T. Ramusandiwa and C.P. Du Plooy Autumn International Scientific Conference on Food Safety and Security 16 – 18 May 2016

Introduction Food security def: physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet dietary needs Improving food security requires an increase in production, an improvement in distribution, and ensuring that the food that is produced is used to the best effect Food wastage (food loss and waste): Food produced for human consumption but fails to be consumed 1/3 of total food production is lost or wasted (FAO, 2011) Extent of food wastage varies across nations, types of food and stages of the food value or supply chain Developed nations: consumption stage Developing nations: production, handling & storage Fruits and vegetables contribute the most wastage

Introduction Food wastage exposes households to challenges of hunger and food shortage Research Objective: To investigate factors influencing food loss and waste at farm level; quantify scale of loss

Enterprise Development Projects Research utilized Enterprise development project beneficiaries Government-funded projects, implemented by ARC in collaboration with DRDLR Sweet potatoes (SP), African Leafy vegetables (ALVs) & (Medicinal plants) Aimed at assisting rural farming households increase food production, shift from production for own consumption to production for the market, income generation Support offered; training & mentorship, improved cultivars, production inputs, infrastructure

Enterprise Development Projects Examples of Enterprises Okra Sweet potato Sweet potatoes during harvesting Chinese spinach

Loss by Enterprise Development Projects Loss during harvest Loss during storage Loss due to cosmetic imperfections Loss due to unharvested produce: produce left in the field because efforts required to prevent this loss would reduce farm profit

Materials and Methods Questionnaire: interviewer administered – beneficiaries KwaZulu-Natal (n = 59; SP = 45, ALVs = 14) Mpumalanga (n = 30; SP = 9, ALVs = 21) Focused on socio-economic factors (yield, crop loss, markets & market accessibility, transport & storage infrastructure) Analysis: descriptive statistics

Results and Discussion Food loss among beneficiaries Loss was between 10% and 85% of total production Loss after harvesting: excludes loss while in the field or loss from unharvested crops

Results and Discussion Harvested produce versus loss   Mpumalanga KwaZulu-Natal Harvested produce Total loss % loss Sweet Potato 32.33t 7.28t 22.5% 36.96t 9.0t 24.4% Pumpkin leaves 2.74t 0.97t 35.4% 1.82t 0.66t 36.3% Amaranth 7.12t 2.82t 39.6% 7.46t 2.95t 39.5% Mustard spinach 19.51t 4.23t 21.7% 16.41t 3.13t 19.1% Okra 2.83t 0.39t 13.8% 2.4t 0.28t 11.7%

Results and Discussion Causes of food loss at farm level: Poor production and harvesting methods: poor produce quality which is unacceptable in the markets Imperfection in markets and lack of exposure to markets: difficulties in accessing markets for good produce Lack of a production and marketing plan: farmers realize infeasibility of enterprise after production Poor temperature management: unavailability or substandard transport and storage infrastructure Total focus on selling fresh produce: unavailability of agro- processing technology

Results and Discussion Effects of food loss to the farmers: Wasted effort and resources from the farmer Foregone income Overall farmer wellbeing compromised High produce loss discourage farmers from producing the crops in the future: neglect of certain nutritious crops 5 ALV farmers in EC indicated that they were not willing to continue producing the crops Farmers are willing to adapt methods that reduce food loss as long as they do not reduce profitability

Conclusion A significant percentage of food (esp. vegetables) is lost at farm level Food loss has a negative impact on food security, producer & consumer welfare Addressing food loss and waste could make a significant contribution towards combating hunger & poverty, and encouraging income generation & economic growth Effort should be made to reduce food loss

Recommendations How the loss can be reduced Bridging knowledge gap: Understanding scale & location of loss; Capacity building among farmers; farm business management and planning Research and development & Investing in affordable post-harvest and processing technologies that can be handled by smallholder farmers Value chain linkage and improved marketing Improvement in storage methods Investment in storage and transportation infrastructure

Acknowledgement Department of Rural Development and Land Reform ARC staff Farmers

. Thank You