Global Forum on Food Security and Nutrition (FSN Forum)

Dear FSN Moderator:

We address all guiding questions in guidance on strengthening science-policy interfaces (SPIs) for agrifood systems at the national level. Please find the attachment. 
 

Peetambar Dahal, PhD

Subject Matter Expert (Food Loss and Waste Cohort 5)

Seed Scientist (Retd.), University of California, Davis, USA

Former Coordinator of NRNA Americas to Agri Promotion Committee; Asta-Ja RDC-USA; Nepalese Agricultural Professional Association  (NAPA)

Contributors:

Peetambar Dahal, Kent Bradford, Pedro Bello, University of California, Davis, USA; Aditya R. Khanal, Tennessee State University, Nashville, Tennessee, USA; Johan van Asbrouck, Shakeel Imran, Rhino Research, Bangkok, Thailand; Irfan Afzal, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad-38040, Pakistan; Keshavulu Kunusoth, President, ISTA and Govt. of Telangana,  Hyderabad, Telangana State, India; Filippo Guzzon, Bioversity International, Rome, Italy and Centre for Pacific Crops and Trees, Suva, Fiji; Denise E. Costich, Institute for Genomic Diversity, Cornell University, New York, USA; Louis Barboza, Universidad de Costa Rica, Costa Rica; Muhammad Amir Bakhtavar, MNS University of Agriculture, Multan, Pakistan; Maraeva Gianella, Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, United Kingdom; Durga D. Poudel, Asta-Ja USA and University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Louisiana, USA; Sarah De Saeger, Centre of Excellence in Mycotoxicology and Public Health, Ghent University, Belgium; Krishna Belbase, United Nations Children’s Fund, New York, USA (Retd.); Ravi Kafle, Dept. of Public Health, Washington State, USA; Meghnath Dhimal, Ministry of Health, Kathmandu, Nepal; Sundar Tiwari, Agriculture and Forestry University, Chitwon, Nepal; Balkrishna Joshi, Krishna Timsina, Nepal Agricultural Research Council, Kathmandu, Nepal.

Agrifood policies at the national level should aim to improve quality. The dry agrifood systems should use science guided and quantifiable seed equilibrium moisture content (Me) trait. Me, (% dry weight) was calculated by Cromarty et al. (1982) using seed intrinsic traits, where R is Relative Humidity/100, Do is seed oil content (proportion of dry weight), T is temperature (°C).

For practical purposes, we have further elaborated R and Me measurement tools (Bradford et al., 2016). There are multiple effects of high Mon dry product quality such as decline in seed viability, susceptibility to insect and toxic mold infestation, and nutrient losses. Inability to manage the Me results into losses at farms. The multidisciplinary dry chain (Bradford et al., 2018) has been recognized to reduce farm food losses in the developing countries (https://agrilinks.org/post/cold-and-dry-chain-reduce-food-loss-and-waste). Furthermore, FAO FSN forum has also realized the utility of the dry chain to address calls including agrobiodiversity and nutrition (https://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/12332https://www.fao.org/fsnforum/comment/12377). 

During the pandemic, the Lancet Planetary Health appreciated food contaminant minimizing dry chain and Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to improve immunity and health (Dahal et al., 2020). USAID Food Safety Innovation Lab has been launched in 2022 aiming to minimize contaminants in both low and high moisture content products (https://ag.purdue.edu/food-safety-innovation-lab/). Thus, the Science-Policy Interface must consider food safety issues in both low and high MC food/feed groups. The dry chain is a recent scientific, climate smart and pesticide-free intervention for complementing safety and security of dry agrifood products.

Additional Resources:

Bradford, K., Dahal, P. and Bello, P. 2016. Using relative humidity indicator paper to measure seed and commodity moisture contents. Agri. Env. Eng. Lett.1;160018. https://doi.org/10.2134/ael2016.04.0018.

Bradford, K.J., Dahal, P., Van Asbrouck,J., Kunusoth, K., Bello, P. Thompson, J. and Wu, F. 2018.  The Dry Chain: Reducing postharvest losses and improving food safety in humid climates. Trend Food Sci Tech. 71: 84-93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tifs.2017.11.002.

Cromarty AS, Ellis RH, Roberts EH. 1982. The design of seed storage facilities for genetic conservation. IBPGR, Rome.

Dahal, P., Dhimal, M., Belbase K., Tiwari, S., Groopman, J., West, K., Pollock, B., Pyakurel, S., Acharya, G., Aryal, S., Ghimire, Y. N., Neupane, M., Poudel, R., Van Ashbrouck, J., Kunusoth, K., De Saeger, S., De Boevre, M., Gharti-Chhetri, G., Gurung, T. B. & Bradford, K.J. 2020. Improving nutrition and immunity with dry chain and integrated pest management food technologies in LMICs. Lancet Planetary Health, 4:e259-e260. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2542-5196(20)30143-1.