Big Grain Gains: Reducing Post-Harvest Losses

With our large, new agricultural machines, big scale commercial farming does get a few points over small scale agriculture. We have argued that small scale agriculture is far more sustainable than that of large scale, and we stand by that, however, that should not mean that we disregard everything to do with it. One thing we are good at, is reducing post-harvest losses.

Ok, so when we finally get the food to our fridges and cupboards we are extremely wasteful, but we don’t lose too much from the field to the store. This is not the case in developing countries. Up to one third of a harvest can be lost before it reaches a market place. That is extraordinarily high.

So why is that the case? Well, most of it stems from machinery and infrastructure. Our huge combine harvesters are very good at preventing losses. Of course, we do have some as the tractor drives slightly too far from the side of the harvester, but ultimately, the losses are very small. We then drive our trailer back to the farm or grain storage unit where we can hold on to it, dry it out and send it off to market.

In the developing world, the situation is different. Machinery, if there at all is old. Hand harvesting a cereal crop increases losses through handling. Trailers are old and can easily have holes. The roads are bumpy, marked with potholes, which can mean that spillages occur far more frequently than they do on the nice smooth tarmac we have in most of Europe and America.

Then, there is the storage facilities available. If a product cannot be stored, it is all but useless. Implications for prices are clear as farmers try to sell their products as soon as they are harvested.

There are multiple areas where losses occur in the developing world. This means there are multiple opportunities to improve the situation! Governments need to work on the large scale infrastructure while companies, social enterprise, charities and farmers need to find ways to resolve the on farm logistics and storage problems.

As we are currently losing a third of the harvest, big gains should be easy to achieve. The impact is local, regional and global. As we move into feeding the world, it is here where we need to start look.

Thanks for reading!

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Originally published at shrinkthesupplychain.com on January 20, 2015.