Previously I had written a written a report on Food Wastage and also uploaded the video on Youtube. Today I am writing the post harvest loss of food which has been a huge challenge for food security in the world.

Food loss and waste also amount to a major squandering of resources, including water, land, energy, labor and capital and needlessly produce greenhouse gas emissions, contributing to global warming and climate change.Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption loss every year i.e. approximately 1.3 billion ton gets lost or wasted. Food losses and waste amounts to roughly US$ 680 billion in developed countries and US$ 310 billion in developing countries. Industrialized and developing countries dissipate roughly the same quantities of food — respectively 670 and 630 million ton. Global quantitative food losses and waste per year are roughly 30% for cereals, 40-50% for root crops, fruits and vegetables, 20% for oil seeds, meat and dairy plus 30% for fish.

Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes). The amount of food lost or wasted every year is equivalent to more than half of the world's annual cereals crop (2.3 billion tonnes in 2009/2010). Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kg a year in Europe and North America, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-eastern Asia, each throw away only 6-11 kg a year. Total per capita food production for human consumption is about 900 kg a year in rich countries, almost twice the 460 kg a year produced in the poorest regions

In developing countries 40% of losses occur at post-harvest and processing levels while in industrialized countries more than 40% of losses happen at retail and consumer levels. At retail level, large quantities of food are wasted due to quality standards that over-emphasize appearance. The food currently lost or wasted in Latin America could feed 300 million people, in Europe could feed 200 million peopleand  in Africa could feed 300 million people

Even if just one-fourth of the food currently lost or wasted globally could be saved, it would be enough to feed 870 million hungry people in the world. Food losses during harvest and in storage translate into lost income for small farmers and into higher prices for poor consumers. In developing countries food waste and losses occur mainly at early stages of the food value chain and can be traced back to financial, managerial and technical constraints in harvesting techniques as well as storage and cooling facilities.

Strengthening the supply chain through the direct support of farmers and investments in infrastructure, transportation, as well as in an expansion of the food and packaging industry could help to reduce the amount of food loss and waste. In medium- and high-income countries food is wasted and lost mainly at later stages in the supply chain. Differing from the situation in developing countries, the behavior of consumers plays a huge part in industrialized countries. Each year, 30 percent of global food production is lost after harvest. This represents 750 billion USD in terms of producer or farm gate prices, going up to almost a trillion US dollars of trade value of food every year – half the GDP of Italy reducing food loss means we avoid using natural resources in the first place, leaving them available for next harvest or future generations

If we had to pay the bill to nature, what would food wastage cost us?

The full economic, environmental and social costs of food waste amount to approximately 2.6 trillion US dollars annually.