Reducing food loss and waste to address climate change in Africa, Latin America, and South Asia

The problem of food loss and waste (FLW) undermines global food and nutrition security and makes a significant contribution to climate change, primarily through greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Reducing or minimizing FLW requires coordinated action to align stakeholders, promote responsible investments, and incentivize sustainable agricultural practices.

This was the theme of an October 22, 2024, World Food Prize Borlaug Dialogue virtual side event organized by IFPRI, titled “Reducing the Impact of GHGs Through Managing Food Loss and Waste (FLW) Insights from Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, and Nepal.” Panelists explored the state of progress and existing challenges in FLW management to help reduce GHG emissions and promote environmental co-benefits for biodiversity. Given the urgent need for action globally, panelists agreed that now is the time to integrate FLW management commitments under countries’ ongoing Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) updates under the Paris Climate Agreement.

Creating a supportive policy framework

To address climate change effectively, panelists agreed that countries must align their currently fragmented food security, waste management, and climate adaptation policies.

Luciana Delgado, Technical Adviser, UN Food an Agriculture Organization (FAO), said that policies and goals to reduce food loss must acknowledge the links between the social, environmental, and economic aspects of the problem across food systems. This requires adopting a holistic view of food systems to balance multiple objectives, she said—such “policy coherence” is critical for considering both the potential and actual impacts of food loss reduction. Micro-level data can also play an important role in informing policy development, she said. Applications such as the FAO Food Loss App (FLAPP) can help in this regard, providing accessible information on food losses across value chains in diverse locations.

While Bangladesh has FLW policies, Md Sadat Anowar, Research Analyst, IFPRI, noted, enforcement is often weak due to lack of resources and clear accountability mechanisms, as well as governance challenges.

In Malawi, Innocent Pangapanga, Director, Center for Agricultural Research and Development (CARD), Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR), stressed, there is also an urgent need for data and tools to obtain detailed, continuous feedback from across the agrifood system on FLW management challenges. Policies such as farmer-friendly financing and tax measures on acquisition of agro-processing equipment can help reduce food loss and waste.

Yogendra Karki, Chairman, Nepal Farmers Advisory Council (NFAC), said that effective stakeholder coordination and investment opportunities can help to translate FLW management policies and strategies to results on the ground in Nepal.

Need for technological innovations and infrastructure support across the value chain

Anowar noted that in Bangladesh, FLW occurs at different levels: On farms due to poor harvesting and post-harvest techniques; in storage facilities due to humidity or inadequate temperature control; and in processing plants due to improper sorting, grading, and packaging. At the same time, he said, markets are fragmented, and poor handling and packaging often result in FLW at various nodes of the supply chain. Most of the food waste ends up in landfills or is left in open spaces.

Karki noted the range of innovative FLW technologies—including CoolBot and other cold storage technologies, anaerobic digesters to produce biogas from discarded food, vermicomposting for waste management, artificial intelligence (AI) applications for optimizing food distribution and consumption, and eco-friendly packaging. Nevertheless, he said, storage facilities remain mostly inadequate, and natural disasters such as drought, earthquakes, floods, and landslides can further hamper FLW management. Private sector involvement in FLW management has also been limited in Nepal, he said.

Focusing on Mozambique, Guatemala, and Rwanda, Delgado shared results from a recent commodity-level study showing that food losses in all three countries occur at the producer, aggregator, and processor levels—most at the first. In many developing economies, she said, reducing upstream food losses is a key priority, while measures focused further down value chains—on access to potable water and infrastructure such as storage facilities—remain weak.

In Malawi, Pangapanga said, similar problems highlight the importance of effective FLW management at each stage of value addition and promoting technologies on preservation, storage, and processing of food to reduce waste. Panelists noted that strengthening supply chain logistics requires working closely with the public and private sectors to minimize losses during transport and storage. Access and timing are other crucial elements; farmers should be able to sell their products quickly for final consumption or further processing.

Capacity building and sensitization

In Nepal, Karki noted that awareness of FLW issues and climate change linkages is low across the value chain. At the same time, institutional capacity to support FLW research and management remains weak in academia, the national research system, and extension agencies. Such problems make it important to develop training initiatives for farmers and agricultural workers on best practices for minimizing FLW, Pangapanga said, while a “refocus” on vocational and technical training on technology development for value addition and food preservation is also required. Another important approach to raising awareness in countries such as Malawi, he noted, is community-based social and behavior change communication interventions aimed at changing mindsets about food waste in cultural and traditional events.

Anowar argued that with Bangladesh’s unique geography and low-lying delta topography, food loss and waste pose distinct challenges—especially in the context of climate change. Training farmers, retailers, and consumers on sustainable food handling and waste reduction practices can help minimize waste and contribute to climate change mitigation.

FLW and climate change action: The CACCI approach

Suresh Babu, Senior Research Fellow and Head of Capacity Strengthening IFPRI, said that policy dialogues and discussions provide an important platform to share insights and evidence on existing constraints and opportunities to reduce food loss and waste. One such approach is the Comprehensive Action for Climate Change Initiative (CACCI), supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Abt Global, which focuses on translating the NDC goals to sector-specific action. CACCI has conducted stakeholder consultations in Bangladesh, Malawi, and Nepal aimed at promoting dialogue and awareness on FLW management and its linkage to climate change. Babu said that key takeaways from these consultations will also help guide the ongoing NDC update process at the country level.

Nandita Srivastava is a Research Analyst with IFPRI’s Development Strategies and Governance Unit.