Launch of the Ethiopian post-harvest management strategy

As part of the Swiss-funded project titled "Reducing Food Losses through Improved Post-Harvest Management (PHM) in Ethiopia", FAO supported a post-harvest loss (PHL) assessment study. The study was conducted in four grain crops. Food losses in the country, altough different in terms of magnitude, are unacceptably high for all four commodities studied in the 14 districts of the country. Such losses were attributed to the poor post-harvest practices. The assessment findings were presented and discussed in a workshop with the relevant key actors. 

The findings of the study indicated that there is a need to address strategic areas of food loss. In 2016, the Ministry of Agriculture has requested the technical support of FAO to develop a grain post-harvest strategy. The strategy was developed by consulting relevant actors including region Bureaus of agriculture, universities, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research, Ethiopian commodity exchange, factories, traders and other relevant actors.  The grain PHM strategy was further validated with the active participation of relevant actors. The grain post-harvest strategy was endorsed by the Ministry of Agriculture in 2018, which didn’t exist before. 

As a follow up of the endorsement of the strategy, the Ethiopian government has given more attention to the implementation of the strategy. To this end, the Government has deployed post-harvest management specialists to federal, regional and district level of administration to stem out the technical challenges of food losses. In addition, the Government has taken post-harvest management as one of the country's priority areas in its ten-year agricultural development plan (2023-2032).  The Government has also incorporated post-harvest management into its existing Agricultural Technical and Vocational Education and Training curricula and to strengthen the post-harvest management component in order to impart the requisite and appropriate skills into students.

The Ministry of Agriculture recognized that the existing National Post-Harvest Management Strategy was for grains only. The strategy was then reviewed to expand its scope to include perishable agricultural commodities such as horticultural crops and animal products (meat, dairy, poultry, and fish). Accordingly, the Government has developed a comprehensive strategy on post-harvest management which covers grain, fruits, vegetable, livestock and fish. The new strategy was developed in 2023 and endorsed on 14 April 2024 in Addis Ababa. 

Read more: Post-Harvest Management Strategy_of_Ethiopia (PHMSE)