© Fazıl Düşünceli

FAO conducted a comprehensive training on measurement, monitoring and reporting of food losses for key national stakeholders in Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, aimed at supporting countries in developing effective food loss and waste reduction strategies and monitoring their progress towards achieving SDG target 12.3.

Curbing food loss and waste can only be truly effective if the related efforts are informed by a solid understanding of the problem. While significant work has been undertaken to measure food loss and waste, data remains scarce, scattered, and of unknown quality or limited representativeness.

To support Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in overcoming the challenges facing data collection and form effective solutions towards reducing food loss or waste, FAO organized a three-day training for relevant national stakeholders. The three sessions took place on 26 October, 9 Novemberand 7 December 2021. The training participants, consisting of government representatives and statisticians, learnt to identify data needs and priorities, explored available methods and tools for food loss data collection, and discussed complementarity among different instruments.

The training also introduced and discussed ways to integrate and compile the Food Loss Index. The latter was developed by FAO to measure progress towards achieving target 12.3.1.a of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is under the custodianship of the organization.

During the third session, Ms. Özdemir Çifçi, representative of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey, made a presentation on national food loss and waste measurement studies on fruit and vegetables in primary production and wholesale markets.

All participants in the FAO workshop series expressed an interest in applying the expertise gained to support data collection at the national level.

The collection and analysis of data on food loss is instrumental for setting policy priorities, selecting and implementing effective solutions, monitoring the effectiveness of selected measures, and quantifying the socio-economic impacts of food loss and waste reduction interventions. Better data also enable countries to allocate resources in a more optimal manner.

The training sessions were organized as part of the FAO Project “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey”, implemented within the framework of the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP II) funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey. The series of training workshops was led by the Statistics Division of FAO and organized by the FAO Regional Office for Europe and Central Asia under the above-mentioned FTPP project.

About the Food Loss Index

FAO developed a Food Loss Index to monitor food losses on a global level for a basket of key commodities covering crops, livestock and fisheries products from harvest up until retail. The Index focuses on the supply stages of food chains and measures changes in percentage losses over time measured by the Food Loss Percentage.

About the project

Funded by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry of the Republic of Turkey through the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture (FTPP II), the project “Reduction of Food Loss and Waste in Central Asia, Azerbaijan and Turkey” aims to assist Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan in developing and implementing national strategies to reduce food loss and waste, targeting all subsectors of the food system from farmers to consumers.

About FTPP II

Established in 2007, the FAO-Turkey Partnership Programme on Food and Agriculture was designed to provide support to countries in Central Asia to ensure food security, rural poverty reduction and sustainable forest management, as well as to combat desertification and preserve ecosystems. In 2014, Turkey and FAO commenced the second phase of the FTPP (FTPP II).