Research need
This small research activity will study and then map the capability of partners and institutions across the Asia-Pacific region in terms of post-harvest, food loss and value chain management in horticultural industries.
Post-harvest losses and waste of fresh horticultural produce reduce the profitability of stakeholders in the value chain. The waste of precious food before consumption also reduces nutritional stability and food security. Post-harvest losses and waste have indirect impacts including depletion of natural resources, losses in food energy and nutrition values, and wasted inputs of agrichemicals and workforce effort. Some of these processes make contributions to greenhouse gas emissions.
Effective reduction of post-harvest loss and wastage potentially contributes to several of the Sustainable Development Goals of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The United Nations urges people from all regions and backgrounds to reduce current food loss levels by half by 2030 to improve global food security and public health.
Based on the understanding gained by the project, a collaborative and inclusive regional post-harvest network for the Asia-Pacific region will be established. The network will facilitate knowledge exchange and generation, collaboration and, ultimately, capacity building for people in the area of post-harvest research. Members of the network will support each other to strengthen the identified capabilities and to enable collaboration in future projects to maximise outcomes and investment impacts.
