The Postharvest Education Foundation (PEF) is a non-profit organization that aims to motivate and empower people to reduce food loss and waste. Its postharvest toolkit provides small and medium-scale farmers with technologies to achieve this goal.
PEF shares best practices for food handling, processing, storage, distribution and consumption. They train postharvest specialists who help small farmers, traders, processors and marketers reduce food loss and waste. Through its specialists, PEF is able to reach out to rural communities and overcome local language barriers. Currently, PEF has 175 graduates from 34 countries around the world.
PEF also offers the Post-Harvest Toolkit that contains materials to help reduce food loss and waste. Materials include a training course on CD, digital temperature probes, and pH test strips. PEF sells toolkits at a reduced cost to agricultural extension officers and small farmers in developing countries.
The Toolkit offers technologies that help farmers get the most value from their crops. For example, the toolkit’s refractometer measures the brix (sugar content) of fruit, helping farmers determine when fruit is ripe and ready to harvest. The toolkit’s fruit sizing rings help farmers identify larger, higher-value fruit and sell them for a better price.
“By providing these tools, partners can carry out projects related to postharvest losses,” Fanny Ipinge, Postharvest Toolkit co-founder and consultant, tells Food Tank.
Ipinge says that the Toolkit is developed to help address accessibility barriers. In low-income countries, many cannot afford these technologies and rely on government donations and assistance. By supplying tool kits at a reduced cost, small farmers can better access tools to reduce food loss and waste.
PEF is also part of Friends of Champions 12.3, a network of organizations and companies leading progress towards achieving the third target of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12. SDG 12.3 states: “By 2030, halve global per capita food waste.” retail and consumption levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.
PEF trains specialists to address both food loss and waste, which are separate problems that require different solutions. According to the PEF, postharvest food loss occurs during and immediately after the harvest phase. Postharvest food losses tend to be more prevalent in low-resource settings, where appropriate technologies to properly handle and store food may be lacking.
PEF identifies the key drivers of food loss, including transport delays without proper storage and poor quality packaging. According to the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), in sub-Saharan Africa, post-harvest food loss amounts to US$4 billion per year, enough to feed 48 million people.
Specialists can determine the prevalence of food loss and waste in communities and work with the local food system to address underlying factors. By offering mentorship and resources, PEF also connects rural partners with technologies and innovation.
“Innovation plays the biggest role in mitigating food loss and waste,” Ipinge tells Food Tank. PEF partners innovate in food packaging, cold storage, marketing, processing and storage and share best practices with the PEF network.
Some of these innovations include a low-cost, zero-energy cooling chamber built from clay bricks, as well as an insulated shipping container to extend the shelf life of produce and ensure shipments arrive fresh at local markets. And while innovations are important to reduce food loss and waste, Ipinge stresses that solutions to climate change are critical to preventing long-term effects on the food supply chain.
Looking to the future, PEF looks forward to expanding its network, continuing to support partner innovations, developing new food storage training courses, and managing future horticulture projects.
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Photo courtesy of Marek Studzinski, Unsplash
