Rockefeller Foundation Initiative to Help Halve Food Loss by 2030
Local and global stakeholders in the Nigerian tomato value chain met late last year for the first YieldWise partner planning session. They were part of a crucial Rockefeller Foundation initiative to help halve food loss worldwide by 2030, a key objective of the U.N.’s Sustainable Development Goals.
The loss in Nigeria is staggering. While the country is the largest producer of tomatoes in Sub-Saharan Africa and the second largest in all of Africa, more than 40 percent of the product is lost between harvest and market each year. The post-harvest loss harms both consumers and smallholder farmers. On a worldwide basis, one-third of the food produced is lost to spoilage or is just thrown away. That’s food that could nourish the nearly 800 million people who go to bed hungry or food insecure. For smallholder farmers, the post-harvest loss means loss of income and profits, leading to their own economic insecurity...