WFP has launched the Post-Harvest Loss (PHL) Venture to support the scale-up of post-harvest loss technologies by smallholder farmers in developing countries in cooperation with public and private-sector partners and local governments. The PHL Venture is implementing innovative business models to make PHL technologies and services affordable and accessible for farmers while ensuring commercial viability for value chain and supply chain actors.
Smallholder farmers' adoption rates of post-harvest storage and handling technologies are low in developing countries, despite the proven benefits of existing technologies and services, leading to post-harvest losses of up to 40 percent of the food produced along the value chain.
The PHL Venture is implementing innovative business models to increase the adoption of post-harvest loss technologies while ensuring commercial viability for value chain and supply chain actors.
For instance, one of the proven PHL technologies is the hermetic bag, which can help reduce household storage losses compared to currently used raffia bags. Demonstrations with targeted farmers have proven the cost-effectiveness, productivity, and simplicity of using hermetic bags. Likewise, farmers showed a high interest in adopting the technology.
However, to increase adoption rates and build demand for a sustainable market, innovative models must be developed in the value chain at specific entry points, including: i. lean and in-time distribution of equipment from manufacturers to the communities; ii. cost-effective digital and analogue extension services; iii. data gathering and management through digital technologies; and iv. micro-financing facilities for smallholder farmers to access agricultural inputs, including proper handling and storage equipment, among others.
Proven models will be scaled, and local knowledge networks will be created, building on partnerships with the private sector, governments, nongovernment organizations (NGOs) and United Nations agencies.
In Mozambique, WFP supported the supply chain of hermetic bags, resulting in 3,157,817 being sold country wide in 2023. In Zambia, 63 Ministry of Education staff were trained in storage and management for the Home-Grown School Meals programme, benefiting 1.9 million learners, providing meals in some schools and reducing dropouts. In South Sudan, PHL Venture enhanced post-harvest loss technologies for over 2,500 farmers, providing 1,612 hermetic storage solutions and constructing 15 improved granaries, aiding over 2,000 households with secure grain and seed storage.
