Estimating post-harvest loss at the farm level to enhance food security: A case of Nepal

Abstract

Food security is a major concern of the world in the context of increasing population, changing climate and declining scarce natural resources. Reducing food loss is equally important as increasing food production and productivity to feed the world, where 9.7 billion inhabitants were expected by 2050. Food loss can occur at severalpoints along the food chain, however, harvest loss at the farm level is often overlooked which is directly impactingon sustainability. The paper attempts to estimate harvest loss at the farm level. A household survey was executedin 300 households from ten sample districts across Nepal. The percentage of harvest loss at the farm level was calculated for each crop grown as per - the season, plot and priority. Likewise, the multiple regression was executedto determine the level of influence of the socio-economic factors on the post-harvest loss at the farm level for themajor crops. The mean harvest loss at the farm level found around 5 percent for the reported crops. The multipleregression model demonstrated that at the farm level, socio-economic factors might have a smaller influence onharvest loss as compared to physical and biological contributing factors. Nevertheless, reducing the post-harvestloss will increase food availability and thus the food security