A cook at the CREN in Basse dishing out lunch

There is no room for food loss and waste in this time of crisis! 

08  October 2020, Banjul- The COVID-19 pandemic is a wake-up call to rethink the way in which we produce, handle, and consume our food! As the lead UN Agency working tirelessly to build a world free from hunger and malnutrition, FAO supports countries in implementing and monitoring the 2030 Agenda and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Achieving Zero Hunger, SDG2, is at the heart of our work. But it goes beyond that. The efforts to respond to climate emergency, protect natural resources and making agriculture more sustainable and productive while promoting nutritious and healthy foods, are linked to 7 SDGs. However, to achieve this, particularly in sub Saharan Africa including The Gambia, public and private actors urgently need to take action to prevent the enormous food losses and food waste that still occur daily. Now is the time if we want to improve food security, and combat hunger and rural poverty in the world’s poorest countries.

This year, on 29 September, we celebrated the first ever observance of the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. It also comes during the global COVID-19 pandemic that has brought about a global wake-up on the need to transform and rebalance the way our food is produced and consumed. The recent SDG tracking reports also highlighted the need to accelerate efforts towards attainment of SDG2 as data collected before the COVID-19 pandemic revealed that progress remains insufficient in the food and agriculture domain, suggesting that the world is not on track to meet the relevant targets by 2030. With the COVID-19 pandemic, achieving these targets have now become even more challenging, but not impossible. We can all take action.

At FAO Gambia, working with other UN Agencies and development partners, we have an important task ahead of us. We live in a world where the number of people affected by hunger and malnutrition has been slowly on the rise since 2014, and tons and tons of edible food are lost and/or wasted every day. Food loss and waste also puts unnecessary pressure on the environment and are depleting the natural resource base. Simply put, the water, land, energy, labour, and capital resources that were used to produce this food – go to waste. In addition, the disposal of food loss and waste in landfills, leads to greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to climate change.

It is important to take collective responsibility; we may have experienced that feeling of urgency of incorporating food items we forgot in the back of our fridge in the evening dinner or chopping them up and freeze them to avoid throwing them out. Globally, around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail, and at the consumption level. In The Gambia, the actual data is not available. Reducing food loss and waste requires the attention and actions of all, from food producers, to food supply chain stakeholders, to food industries, retailers, and consumers.

FAO has documented this important problem for years and sent experts to the field to better understand where and how we can intervene. One of our flagship projects “Agriculture For Economic Growth”, that is funded by the European Union, has concluded nine value chains (VCs) studies on priority commodities, such as groundnut, rice and mango, with the expertise of ISRAD Gambia. The results of the VCs analysis confirm considerable food losses in perishable agriculture commodities analysed in the Gambia, particularly in legumes, fruits and vegetables. This impacts the availability of locally produced food for the Gambian people and explains why the country may still import large quantities of produce to meet domestic demand.

Actions are required globally and locally to maximize the use of the food we produce. The introduction of technologies, innovative solutions, new ways of working and good practices to manage food quality and reduce food loss and waste are key to implementing this transformative change.In this sense, the 9 FAO Value Chains Reports will be vital to achieve just that. They not only identify the factors and challenges that cause food losses at various level of the key commodities value chains in the Gambia, they also shine a light on the solutions tailored for the country and the challenges faced.

At production level, pests and diseases are among the main causes for food losses. Certain fungi that grow on soil, agricultural crops and decaying vegetation in the Gambia produce poisonous carcinogens and mutagens, such as Aflatoxin. Globally, a quarter of the food produced is contaminated by aflatoxin. Humans and domestic animals exposed to food contaminated with the toxins can suffer from childhood stunting, liver disease, and even death. In addition to being a major threat to public health, Aflatoxin is one of the pervasive food safety challenges the Gambia faces today. It causes yield losses ranging from 10% and up to 70% thus reducing food availability significantly and hinders opportunities in food trade. Contamination occurs due to inadequate agricultural practices, poor water management, as well as lack of proper storage facilities and incorrect handling of the produce. Other, diseases and pests, such as the recent outbreak of the fall armyworm only exacerbate food losses.

At processing level, post-harvest handling and the lack or inadequate storage facilities including cold storages affect many commodities mainly fruits, vegetables and leguminous. For example, in the mango value chain analysis, the experts highlighted that most local mango varieties have shorter shelf life making them highly perishable. Therefore, processing them into juice and other products are good options to prevent or minimize post-harvest losses. In recent years, private investments in the mango value chain have started to increase, especially in commercial production of high value mango varieties with the aim to start exporting mangoes to international markets.

Proper storage facilities are crucial to prolong the shelf life of the food produced in the country. Since most of the food loss happens at harvest time, it is necessary to develop storage facilities for cereals, vegetables, and fruits at community level. The lack of proper facilities is forcing growers and farmers to sell the surplus produce immediately after harvest to avoid any losses. With appropriate storage facilities farmers will not only reduce their losses, they would be able to meet the national demand of their produce and in a better bargaining position allowing them to hold on to their produce till market prices are more favourable.

The lack of cold storage is leading to significant losses in the vegetables and meat value chains. Tomato producers and traders know this all too well; because the fruit is extremely perishable and cannot be preserved in fresh stages outside cold storage chain, massive post-harvest losses are inevitable. But with an emerging processing factory in The Gambia, there are huge potentials for value addition on tomatoes, which will reduce post-harvest losses and create jobs for many more producers, especially rural women, and youth.

Post-harvest handling has a noticeable impact on food security particularly in the paddy rice value chain.  During post-harvest, losses can amount to 30% of the harvest due to improper handling with open drying, and inadequate threshing and milling techniques. This affects food availability and causes major financial problems due to the high costs involved in the rice production in terms of land preparation, procuring quality inputs and paying wages to hired labour.  Food losses also happen during transport, due to lack of or inadequate packaging to protect the produce and inadequate vehicles. 

Public and private interventions can and should reduce food losses and food waste in The Gambia. At FAO, we are especially excited about our collaboration with UNEP to develop two indexes, Food Loss Index (FLI) and Food Waste Index (FWI), to better map out and quantify the extension of the problem.

Let us all be food savers: for the people, for the planet!