A call to action against food loss, waste in Malawi
Kanyamuka: This raises food insecurity
Malawi continues to suffer a higher Food Loss and Waste (FLW) rate due to its vulnerable storage systems, production, and food supply chains.
Joseph Kanyamuka, Research Fellow at LUANAR’s Center for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD) said Malawi has a higher rate of food loss across the supply chain where farmers lose between 15 to 50 percent of their yields to pests and decay.
“This raises food insecurity and adversely impacts dietary diversity and puts a burden on the environment as there is food which never reaches the consumer but its production results in resource use emission,” said Kanyamuka.
Kanymuka further said there is a need to implement the National food loss and waste policies and enhance awareness of food management and the FLW impacts on the environment.
International Food Policy Research Institute – IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Suresh Babu said their research is to bring research-based studies to authorities for effective policy and decision-making.
Babu said Malawi’s agriculture production system is so vulnerable, giving an example of the 30 percent of food that was lost due to Elnino weather conditions which calls for serious interactions.
“Policies are just government intentions which need to be translated into programs that are well backed by investments and have localized or district-based research to effectively guide farmers to deal with food loss and waste and climate change’’ said Babu.
Globally about 1.3 billion tons of foods are lost and wasted representing 1 trillion US dollars of waste annually.
CARD and IFPRI are implementing an 18-month Food Loss and Management project that aims at stipulating efforts to deal with food loss and waste in Malawi.
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