2014-2024

ZERO CROP LOSSES FOR ZERO HUNGER

2014-2024

World Food Programme

The World Food Programme (WFP) is the world’s largest humanitarian organisation, saving lives in emergencies and using food assistance to build a pathway to peace and prosperity. In 2022, WFP reached 160 million people in over 120 countries and territories. We funded WFP’s School Meals Programme across Africa and the Middle East from 2014 until 2021. We’ve also supported WFP in Mozambique since 2014, initially focusing on setting up a nationally owned school meals programme for all pre-primary and primary schools across the country. Since 2017, we’ve been funding WFP’s work to provide post-harvest-loss solutions for smallholder farmers. In 2022, we funded the organisation’s food and nutrition assistance operations in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Today, we’re helping WFP reach vulnerable communities affected by hunger, conflict, and climate shocks across the Horn of Africa.

www.wfp.org

CHALLENGE

Post-harvest loss can be a debilitating problem for smallholder farmers. In Mozambique, over 30% of crops are regularly lost in the weeks following harvest due to inadequate storage and crop handling. For rural families, this means lost food, income and water, and a potential risk to their health.

ACTION

WFP has piloted simple, affordable solutions to tackle crop losses in Tete province, such as hermetic bags. Hermetic bags help reduce post-harvest losses for smallholder farmers growing crops like maize, beans and fresh vegetables for school meals.

To increase the adoption of hermetic bags, WFP set up demonstrations and organised training for over 30,000 smallholder farmers on how to use this new technology properly. By enabling farmers to store their agricultural products for sale in the lean season, when prices rise due to reduced availability, hermetic bags can improve farmers’ food security and income.

WFP played a pivotal role in facilitating direct interactions between the farmers, their customers and schools, strengthening the procurement of locally grown food by schools. Smallholder farmers’ sales increased by 141% as a result, and schools are now a reliable market for them.

WFP is working to foster sustainability, ensuring 200,000 hermetic bags will be adopted by 2024, increasing farmers’ incomes by 15% and their food availability by 50%.