Low-income, food-deficit countries havebecome especially concerned about the global and nationalfood situation over the past three years. While theproximate cause of this heightened concern was the surge infood prices that began in 2006 and peaked in mid-2008,concerns remain for other reasons, among them the highermarket-clearing price levels that now seem to prevail,continuing price volatility, and the risk of intermittentfood shortages occurring repeatedly far into the future. Forlower-income Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) countries, ongoingcontributing factors include persistently low productivity,difficulty adapting to climate change, financialdifficulties (inability to handle the burden of high food orfuel prices or a credit squeeze), and increased dependenceon food aid. Yet there is an additional, often-forgottenfactor that exacerbates food insecurity: postharvest losses(PHL). They can and do occur all along the chain from farmto fork, which reduces real income for all consumers. Thisespecially affects the poor; as such a high percentage oftheir disposable income is devoted to staple foods. Thisreport is based on the desk study undertaken by experts ofthe U.K. Natural Resources Institute (NRI). Data werecollected by direct contact (e-mail or telephone), withauthorities holding information on past and currentprojects; by searching the Internet for details aboutprojects; and by reviewing published and 'gray'literature. Data were also collected from the personalexperiences of the NRI review team who had worked onnumerous and diverse projects to reduce grain PHL in SSAover the last 30 years and from experts in the field. Theseexperts were identified and asked to complete aquestionnaire that would draw out their experiences toindicate the weakest links in the postharvest chain, theinterventions that deserve to be prioritized for futureaction, and those that should be avoided. Of about 40invited respondents, a total of 20 returned completed (orpartially completed) questionnaires.
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