Friday, 30 August 2013 00:00
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Sri Lanka’s post-harvest losses are estimated to be as high as 40% and according to a global organisation, not such an aberration of a regional level. Around 35% of food is lost between harvest and distribution across the Asia-Pacific region, depriving millions of nutrition and posing fresh challenges to ending hunger.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation says poor production planning, a lack of storage, weak transport systems, crop disease and parasites cause some 30% of cereals and 42% of fruit and vegetables to be lost before reaching consumers.
They believe that more effort is needed to raise global awareness of the critical issue of food losses and particularly post-harvest losses, as well as food waste, which is increasing. AFP reported that last year the Asia-Pacific “was home to 536 million hungry people”.
The FAO defines “loss” as food which does not make it from harvest to the market, while “waste” is food thrown away by consumers, restaurants and supermarkets — a trend that increases with greater urbanisation.
The region, whose economies have boomed in recent years, wastes substantially less than more developed areas such as the United States and Europe. This can be attributed to large populations that still live in poverty and comparatively lower buying power of the middle class when compared to the disposable income enjoyed by their counterparts in the developed world.
But the issue remains a cornerstone of development discussions, according to M.S. Swaminathan, who helped shape India’s ‘Green Revolution,’ which boosted crop yields. He has insisted that post-harvest losses should be added on to and considered as part of land and water wastage.
Food loss is becoming an integral part of food security and sustainable development. The discussion at home, however, has petered out since the Government’s contentious efforts to introduce plastic crates for vegetable and food transportation. Even though the policy was partially implemented, the hundreds of kilos of produce that are being thrown out at economic centres spread around the country have gained no attention from policymakers.
There is also little attention paid to crop diversification, export promotion and equitable management of food stocks. For example, during the last few days, banner headlines in the Sinhala press announced that over 60,000 metric tons of rice were languishing in Government warehouses. These could not be released to the market as that would send prices plunging downwards, but could not be retained as that would leave no place for the fresh harvest bought with billions of public funds.
Self-sufficient policies of this nature commonly grapple with efficiency issues. Cabinet decided two weeks ago to sell these excess stocks of rice, but not only did this announcement unleash a storm of protest from political parties such as the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), a suitable buyer is yet to turn up.
Sri Lanka’s high production prices result in exports being uncompetitive, especially when giant India dominates the market and is the sane choice for any buyer. In previous instances, the Government has encouraged the World Food Program (WFP) to avail themselves of the excess stocks and it can only be hoped that a similar situation can help here. Larger problems of post-harvest losses and wastage will wait till a later date.
