High level Ministerial Dialogue to Support Post-Harvest Losses Reduction and Agro-Processing (PHAP)

The African Development Bank, in collaboration with FAO, is organizing a High Level Ministerial Dialogue on Post-Harvest Losses Reduction and Agro-Processing (PHAP), to be held in Abidjan on 21-22 November 2017.

To cope with increasing food demand, governments have traditionally emphasized increasing food production; however, reducing food product losses during and after harvest and improving downstream activities in agro-processing have not been adequately addressed, and therefore require more attention. Studies have shown that in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda about 277 million litres of milk, worth about US$ 56.4 million, are lost each year and artisanal fisheries losses in Africa are estimated at 20-25%.  The estimated monetary value of annual quantitative PHL of cereal grains, roots and tuber crops, fruits and vegetables, meat, milk and fish in Africa is estimated at US$ 48 billion.

Hence, investing in reducing post-harvest losses (PHL) has the potential to make available significant amounts of food at a fraction of what it costs to produce the same amount of food. It costs less to generate the same increase in food availability from improved post-harvest and downstream activities than from increased farm production. Such improvements could also allow production increases to be achieved more rapidly with no additional natural resources such as land and water.

To systematically address the challenge, the Bank’s is piloting a Flagship on Post-Harvest Losses Reduction and Agro-Processing (PHAP) for target commodity value chains identified in the Feed Africa Strategy as encapsulated in the Agriculture Transformation Agenda (ATA); to enable countries to achieve supply-chain efficiencies through targeted investments in rural infrastructure, logistical support, post-harvest and agro-processing technologies leading to reduced physical losses, improved food availability and enhanced product quality, in a sustainable manner. The Post-Harvest Losses Reduction and Agro-Processing (PHAP) Flagship is one of the vehicles/conduits to implement the Feed Africa Strategy.

The specific objectives of the Dialogue include :

• Establish responsive advocacy in the regional countries with the strategic directions of the Bank in policy formulation and institutional strengthening.
• Coordination among relevant public sector agencies and their linkages to the private sector and other partners from governments’, financial institutions, agribusiness companies, producers, commodity traders, etc.
• Develop pro-active strategy on optimizing value chains for post-harvest loss reduction including country agriculture policy assessments that prioritize post-harvest loss reduction leveraging on existing platforms and other partners, which would serve as a forum for dialogue, advocacy and policy formulation to tackle current and emerging post-harvest challenges in Africa.
• Take bold actions in discussing the key enablers of the establishment of agro-processing and storage facilities including capturing maximum value in the down-stream agro-processing to take Africa up in the global value chains.
• Engage directly with the key stakeholders that will be involved in scaling up innovative approaches and best practice, business models and financing mechanisms.