1. 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

2. 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

3. 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

4. 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

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

6. 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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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%

10. 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

11. 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

12. 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

13. 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

14. Acknowledgement Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
ARC staff
Farmers

15. .
Thank You