No abstract

We review existing studies on rice harvest loss from the aspects of estimation methods, magnitudes, causes, effects, and interventions. The harvest losses examined occurred from the field reaping to storage processes, including threshing, winnowing, and field transportation. We find that existing studies on rice harvest losses have focused on quantitative losses in Asia and Africa. Lack of knowledge, inadequate harvesting techniques, poor infrastructure, and inefficient harvest management practices are considered critical contributors to the losses. The magnitudes and causes of rice harvest losses are now better understood than interventions, which have simply been presented but lack an assessment of the effects and a cost–benefit analysis. Interestingly, reduction in harvest losses may threaten some farmers’ profits, such as rural women who make their living from post-production manual operations. Considering the current status of the literature, future researchers should examine how to balance social and individual welfare since farmers are key stakeholders in intervention implementation. A good understanding of the existing researches can help clarify future efforts for loss reduction, thereby reducing the burden of increasing agricultural production and promoting sustainable development of resources and the environment.

One-third of the world's food is lost and wasted each year, making reducing food loss and waste one of the promising ways to ensure global food security. This study conducts a comparative analysis of the differences among the factors affecting rice harvest loss of specialized and part-time farmers. Data collected from 1 106 farmers in China were analysed using Tobit regression. The results indicated the following: i) The average rice harvest loss rate of part-time farmers is higher than that of specialized farmers. ii) Among the variables considered, most factors not only increase the loss of part-time and non-rice specialized farmers but also reduce the loss of rice specialized farmers. iii) The use of combine harvesters and the purchase of outsourcing services increases the loss of part-time and non-rice specialized farmers but can reduce the loss of rice specialized farmers. iv) In addition to weather and pests, planting area, terrain conditions, operating attitude, and labour shortage also affect the loss. These findings are valuable to understand how the loss occurs and the differences between specialized and part-time farmers, which will help develop targeted interventions to reduce the loss.

We analyze the contributing factors (i.e., attribute factors and behavioral factors) that lead to household food waste in Japan by region (i.e., large cities, small cities, and villages) using a nationwide sample and an ordered probit model. As a result of the analysis, it was found that “gender”, “age”, “children in the household”, “occupation”, “safety awareness”, and “time” were related to the occurrence of food waste in terms of consumer attributes, which were common throughout Japan. In terms of consumer behavior, “action”, “checking labels”, and “food management” are related. Among these, only “checking labels” had a positive relationship with the occurrence of food waste. By region, “children in the household”, “time”, “safety awareness”, and “food management” were particularly affected in large cities, while they were less affected in small cities and towns. For those who had “agricultural experience”, the occurrence of food waste was significantly lower in towns and villages.

The purchase of agricultural machinery outsourcing services creates a principal–agent relationship between farmers and service providers, where farmers are principals, and service providers are agents. Inconsistent goals and information asymmetry between two parties may induce moral hazard on the part of the agent. Based on survey data from 1106 rice farmers in China, this study uses Logit models to estimate the effect of agricultural machinery outsourcing services on harvesting operators’ work attitudes. The results are as follows. In general, work attitudes of outsourcing service operators are not as serious as those of farmers. After controlling for other factors, we find that purchasing harvest outsourcing services negatively affects the operators’ work attitudes. The results of the grouping estimation indicate that for large-scale farms, using combine harvesters increases the probability of agents displaying serious work attitudes. Propensity score matching analysis also proves the robustness of service providers’ less serious work attitudes. This study provides empirical evidence that moral hazard exists in agricultural machinery outsourcing services. Policies such as standardization of the outsourcing service market, scale management, and use of combine harvesters should be adopted to mitigate moral hazard.