Help shape APHLIS: your open postharvest loss data resource for sub-Saharan Africa

As part of its five year rejuvenation project, the African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) is running a survey among the international postharvest loss community to source feedback and ideas on how to best improve its data services. Having started out as the first source of data on postharvest losses across sub-Saharan Africa, focussed on key cereal crops, it is now expanding its coverage to new crop groups, improving its algorithms and working on an improved website with which users can access and interact with its data. Read more about these developments here.

In order to ensure the services that are being developed are tailored to the needs of you, the postharvest loss community, APHLIS would like your opinions on how its services could best support your work. This survey is an opportunity for those familiar with APHLIS to provide feedback of past experiences, and for those who have just discovered APHLIS a chance to share ideas of how APHLIS could best impact their work. As postharvest loss practitioners your input and opinions are of great value and will help to shape and improve this valuable and unique open data resource for the future.

Please participate in the APHLIS survey using the link below:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/APHLIS-CoP

What is APHLIS?

In a nutshell, the African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) is a scientific model producing calculated estimates of postharvest losses of food crops across sub-Saharan Africa based on peer-reviewed academic literature and information on relevant seasonal factors from local experts. Currently the system provides evidence-based information on cereal grain weight losses in 38 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa(SSA).

With a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, APHLIS is being expanded over the coming four years to include losses of additional food crops such as key varieties of pulses and roots&tubers. This expansion will also develop algorithms which will estimate losses in terms of nutritional and economic metrics.

Estimates generated by APHLIS are published online as open data and support the decision making of policy-makers, practitioners, academics and NGOs related to improving production efficiency in Africa, there by contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals (SDGs) related to zero hunger (SDG 2) and climate action (SDG13).

If you'd like to find out more information about APHLIS, please visit its website at http://www.aphlis.net