Africa's food import bill may increase further

26 October 2016. Nairobi. Experts speaking on at a meeting convened to assess gains of the YieldWise initiative by Rockefeller, said that Africa's food import bill may increase further if the continent does not solve the problem of post-harvest losses. The continent's food import bill could go up to $110 billion (Sh11.15 trillion) by 2025, the forum was told.

They said the bill which stands at $35 billion (Sh3.5 trillion) has been aggravated by food losses in the continent, adding sub-saharan Africa loses 20 per cent of the food harvested in post-harvest practices.

YieldWise empowers smallholder farmers with skills on reducing post harvest losses and aims at cutting global food loss by half through behaviour change campaigns.

“Most of the crops are lost at farm level due to poor handling, lack of storage and lack of market access. Progress has been recorded in specific food value chains in Kenya and Tanzania, as smallholder farmers are taught new technologies on handling harvest. Kenyan farmers in Makueni have increased their volumes to the market to 200 metric tonnes from 100 metric tonnes after applying technologies in pesticide use, crop care, hygienic harvesting techniques and refrigeration of mangoes,” Rockefeller Foundation managing director Africa Mamadou Biteye