1. Introduction

As we deliberate on what needs to happen next to reduce food loss and food waste, we can pick a lesson from the Bible. Genesis Chapter 41 presents a good example: King Pharaoh had two dreams. In the first dream he saw seven fat, beautiful cows. Then he saw seven very thin cows. And the thin ones ate up the fat cows. Joseph interpreted the dream. The seven fat cows meant seven years, and the seven thin cows meant seven more years.There would be seven years when a lot of food would grow in Egypt. Then there would be seven years when there would be no food in Egypt. So Joseph told Pharaoh,'Choose a wise man and put him in charge of collecting food during the seven good years.Then the people will not starve during the following seven bad years when very little food will grow.' Pharaoh chooses Joseph to collect the food, and to safely store it up. I believe that this was the first national grain reserve in Egypt. King Pharaoh did something about the problem – he acted and implemented food reserve strategies.

2. Role of governments in reducing post-harvest losses

Africa is not short of strategies. For example, through The Rockefeller Foundation’s YieldWise initiative, we supporting the development of a continent-wide Post-Harvest Loss Management Strategy at the African Union and more specific strategies for Ethiopia, Kenya,Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. While some progress has been made at the country level, in the last biannual review process only 5 countries reported having collected data on post-harvest loss in Africa.

Some of the interventions by governments include: improvement of road infrastructure; training of extension workers on post-harvest management; removal of a tax (for example to make post-harvest solutions more affordable to farmers).

There are also opportunities for development partners to scale ‘successful pilots’ with governments. For example,The Rockefeller Foundation is partnering with the Government of the Republic of Kenya and Makueni County, in partnership with RTI and over 20 other organizations, to develop a pest free zone that incorporates an integrated pest management. Data from this zone should assist the Kenyan government in removing the self-export ban on mangoes to Europe within the next two years.

3. Role of the private sector

The private sector continues to be a strong driver of agricultural transformation in Africa. AGRA has most recently underlined the role of the private sector in the publication The Hidden Middle.

– A key finding from the implementation of theYieldWise initiative was that local Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) marketed and handled 90% of the aggregate produce from smallholder farmers.

– In our new work on Protective Foods in East Africa we will seek the private sector to improve supply chain efficiencies to deliver safe and nutritious foods to consumers.

4. Knowledge and technology

In the YieldWise initiative we tested a diverse set of technologies for post-harvest loss reduction ranging from low-cost hermetic bags, fly traps, plastic crates, solar cooling units, agro processing equipment, and solar driers among many others. A key observation was that low-cost technologies were easily adopted.

Shortly before passing away in September 2009, Norman Borlaug, the father of the Green Revolution, famously implored the world to "take it to the farmer." What an incredible call to action. Today, Borlaug’s vision statement is strong as it was 10 years ago.

5. Collaboration

Israel is a world producer of many commodities. For example, tomato yield is 300 tonnes per hectare, compared to an average of 50 tonnes per hectare worldwide.The country also leads in post-harvest handling: it records 0.5 per cent of grain storage loss, compared to 20 per cent world- wide. How did they achieve 0.5% grain loss? Key tenets were government commitment, effective government, innovation, farmer organization and market-led approach.

We all have an opportunity to make a difference: for King Pharaoh it was a 7-year window!

For all of us, we have more than 7 years – together, we can make a difference and meet the target of halving post-harvest loss in the next 10 years.