@article{Costa:257225,
      recid = {257225},
      author = {Costa, Simon},
      title = {Towards eradicating a major cause of food unavailability:  on-farm losses},
      address = {2016-08-29},
      number = {1867-2017-940},
      pages = {6},
      year = {2016},
      abstract = {We are part of a world where an estimated 925 million  people are undernourished as a result of ongoing hunger.  One in every three children suffers stunted growth, and  nearly one in every two deaths in children under five is  hunger-related. Such alarming statistics seem incongruous  with the fact our world actually produces sufficient food  to feed all 7 billion people. Our world’s agricultural  research funding is mainly dedicated to increasing food  production, yet we continually overlook the causal factors  of insufficient food supply, emanating from ineffective  post-harvest handling and preservation practices. If hunger  (responsible for more deaths every year than war or  disease, and the loss of more lives than AIDS, malaria and  tuberculosis combined) is not attributable solely to  inadequate production of food but rather to insufficient  availability of food, why is more not being done to reduce  the shameful levels of food loss occurring in developing  countries? This presentation highlights how these  significant food losses are a clear indication of a poorly  functioning and inefficient food system. The area of  highest concern (where the greatest percentage of crop  losses are recorded) is pre-farm gate, where poor  harvesting, drying, processing and storage of crops occurs.  Recent large-scale practical implementation work with  farmers has achieved very significant results in  sustainably reducing food losses in sub-Saharan Africa.  This has seen reductions in food losses of up to 98% for  over 50,000 farming families.},
      url = {http://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/257225},
      doi = {https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.257225},
}