Hermetic bag for the storage of maize: Economic perspective in different Sub-Saharan African countries, food security and greenhouse gas emissions

During storage, cereals and legumes are vulnerable to insects, rodents and fungi which can cause toxins formation, discoloration, damage and/or weight loss of the product. Hermetic bags prevent excessive insect infestation. The effects of hermetic bags for the storage of maize on food loss reduction and its effect on net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are assessed from field trials. The economic effects are analysed in different Sub-Saharan Africa countries. In data used from field trial typically, beyond 100 days significant losses occur with standard storage whereas with hermetic bags product losses are kept to a minimum. From an economic point of view the situation is more complex; interventions effectiveness depends mainly on the seasonal price fluctuation of the commodity. For own consumption, when the quality is less important, the use of hermetic bags is only more economical compared to other ways of storage after 100 days. As the quality of maize is well preserved by the hermetic bag, the return on the investment is faster when the maize is sold at the market. However, for countries with a low seasonal price gap the investment cannot be earned back

A systemic approach for trade-off analysis of food loss reduction and greenhouse gas emissions

This paper introduces the Agro-Chain Greenhouse Gas Emissions (ACGE) calculator, a calculator for estimating GHG emissions for food supply chains that addresses emissions due to agricultural production and post-harvest activities. The calculator combines direct emissions of GHGs by the activities in the chain and effects due to losses, differentiated for 5 stages along the chain. One of the major challenges of analyzing a chain is data collection. In many practical situations only a limited set of (primary) data is available. In order to facilitate the use, the calculator is supplemented with a complete set of secondary data: crop GHG emission factors aggregated at product category level and FLW estimates per chain stage, aggregated at product category level; all data differentiated for 7 global regions. The tool is highly suitable for assessing net GHG emission effects of food loss and waste (FLW) reducing interventions: comparing different chain configurations, each with adequate FLW estimates. Through two intervention analysis examples it is shown that not only agricultural production but also post-harvest chain adds significant emissions to the food supply. The FLW-reducing intervention considered adds substantial extra emissions. In one example the FLW-reduction has larger GHG emission reduction effects, but in another example the extra emissions are higher than the prevented emission from lower food losses. Consequently the intervention is not an effective GHG emission reduction intervention. We recommend to use this approach for climate-smart FLW reduction intervention prioritization

Evaluation of Scenarios for Improving the Collection System for a Milk Factory in Ethiopia

The milk for a factory in Sululta (Ethiopia) is currently collected at ambient temperature. To increase milk production, the sourcing must be extended. This requires the collection of not only the morning milk but also the evening milk from smallholder farms. To accomplish this, the collection of milk from small farmers has to be improved, whereby the milk quality has to be assured with reasonable cost and environmental impact. A model predicting milk rejection was developed based on initial contamination and time and temperature profiles. With this model, different cooling scenarios we reevaluated regarding the expected effectiveness of reducing the rejection rate during collection. Second, cost estimations were made to implement the scenarios to collect morning and evening milk from smallholder farms. A third criterion was greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions per litre of collected milk. Finally, the feasibility of the scenarios was assessed in terms of technical, practical, and economic aspects. Including both quality and economics, the best scenario can be expected from a cooling centre where farmers bring their milk twice a day, except there are signals that the farmers would not be willing to deliver the evening milk to the centre at night. In that case, an additional collecting system would be needed to increase the milk supply. This would result in higher collection costs and an increased risk of milk rejection at the factory gate. Furthermore, this would reduce the value of the chilling centre, as in that case it would be better to deliver the milk directly to the factory. Both scenarios would increase GHG emissions compared with the current situation. Only the use of an off-grid solar power-driven cooling system at the farms would reduce the GHG emissions. However, this solution is less feasible economically. The applied combination of a simple model, economic analysis and the effect on GHG emissions gives valuable information on the effectiveness and limitations of different cooling scenarios for the milk factory. It can help to successfully apply a scenario for increasing the milk supply

Effects of milk cooling: A case study on milk supply chain for a factory in Ethiopia

Milk has important nutritious values and is therefore can contribute to nutrition security in Africa. The product category is a hotspot for food loss & waste and the associated greenhouse gas emissions in African countries. Therefore, adequate design of milk collection chains and choice of technology options is essential to make the food product available with minimum climate impact. In this study the effects of different scenarios for introducing a cold milk chain are evaluated based on rejection rates and costs to increase the milk supply of a milk factory near Solulta (Ethiopia). The effect of the scenarios on the milk is calculated with a model that combines temperature, growing rate, lactic-acid production to estimate the quality: chance of rejection on arrival at the factory. Introduction of chilling centres or on-farm cooling system can both make the evening milk delivery possible for the factory. For the first option, the implementation of a collection system will be critical, whereas for on-farm chilling the willingness to extend the power grid and the type of milk containers are essential. On-farm off-grid cooling systems seem not economically feasible in the studied area