Ethiopia Loses $840M Due to Post Harvest Losses - Jimma University

February 10, 2018 - A research conducted by Jimma University revealed that Ethiopia loses over 840 million US dollar from the post harvest loss of four crops. The study shows that there is a high loss of products /yields/ in Ethiopia in quantity and in quality so that it will affect the country’s economy.

Post harvest professor at Jimma University and leader of the study team Ali Mehamed said that the study focusing on reasons of post harvest loss and the solutions was conducted on wheat, maize, Sorghum and Haricot beans.

The study has covered 14 woredas of Tigray, Amhara, Oromia and Southern regional states and engaged farmers, harvesters, merchants, consumers and researchers. The professor also pointed out that the impact of this loss is not only economical it will have a problem related to health caused by the low quality of food crops that are not properly managed.

“Our loss is not only economical; we are also facing human health problems due to low quality of these food crops, we will forced to cut trees to regain the wasted amount of crop and this leads to expand deforestation,” he stressed.

The study shows that sorghum has the highest post harvest loss which is about 30 percent and the average result of the four crops is 25 percent.

Lack of awareness, strategy, and shortage of trained man power, technology and financial problem are among the main causes of the problem indentified by the study.The professor said the study recommended establishing an independent office under the ministry of agriculture and natural resources which will responsible for coordinating and following the issue attentively.

Ethiopia is working to reduce the level of post harvest loss from 20 percent to 5 percent by 2020.

Source: Ethiopian News Agency