Post Harvest Losses Drain Economy

Dr Oteng-Adjei interacting with some dignitaries at the celebration of the World Environment Day

Ghana loses an estimated amount of GH¢700,000 annually due to poor post-harvest management practices.

Dr Joe Oteng-Adjei, Minister for Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation, who made this known during the celebration of World Environment Day on Wednesday in Accra said, 'This is not acceptable if we are to achieve food security.'

Themed 'think, eat and save the environment,' Dr Oteng-Adjei said about 28 percent of the population  are said to live below the poverty line while statistics indicate that between 20 and 50 percent of vegetables, fruits, cereals, roots and tubers are lost due to post-harvest management practices.

Blaming the situation on inadequate storage facilities, poor road infrastructure and the lack of ready markets for most agricultural produces, the Minister remarked: 'The struggle to achieving food security and eradicating hunger is very much tied to the levels of poverty in our country.'

Also, he said a significant amount of food is lost in the later stages of the food chain from kitchen scraps to unconsumed prepared food.

'This inefficient consumption patterns contribute greatly to the national food loss,' he said.

The advantage however is that since this practice is behavioral, it could be reduced with minimum effort by individuals who engage in such practice.

Daniel Amlalo, Executive Director of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a welcome address, explained that when food is wasted, it ends up at landfill sites where it produces methane, a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent than the carbon dioxide from car exhaust.

'There are many instances in our society where foods that we produced are allowed to go without thinking about how it affects the resources that went into its production. Some of us have developed consumption lifestyles of cooking more than we can eat and throw the leftovers into dustbins.'

Mr Amlalo noted that it was time for individuals to make informed food choices such as buying what they need, choosing seasonal and local foods, eating organic and avoiding leftovers.

'We can reduce our food waste and ease the burden on our planet to produce food and reduce greenhouse gases unnecessarily entering our atmosphere.'

Dr Abdulai Baba Salifu, Director General of the Council for Scientific & Industrial Research (CSIR), who chaired the function, stressed the need to ponder over veritable production in urban centers, which uses highly polluted water for irrigation.

Globally, he stated that nearly 20 million hectares of irrigated crops employ highly polluted water posing threat to both farmers and consumers.

 By Emelia Ennin Abbey