Approach for Designing Context-Specific, Locally Owned Interventions to Reduce Postharvest Losses: Case Study on Tomato Value Chains in Nigeria

Abstract

Development projects on interventions to reduce postharvest losses (PHL) are often implemented largely independently of the specific context and without sufficient adaptation to the needs of people who are supposed to use them. An approach is needed for the design and implementation of specific, locally owned interventions in development projects. Our approach is based on Participatory Development and includes Living Lab and World Cafés. We applied the approach in a case study on reducing PHL in tomato value chains in Nigeria. The approach consists of nine steps. After scoping the sector, selected value chain stakeholders (case: farmers, transporters, traders, retailers) were gathered in Living Lab workshops. In the workshop, participants analyzed the product, information, and monetary flows in their own value chain, identified causes for PHL, and selected potential interventions to reduce these (case: plastic crates instead of raffia baskets to transport tomatoes). Selected interventions were implemented, tested, and monitored in pilot projects with the workshop participants. This was followed by an evaluation workshop. At the end of the case study, 89% of participants bought crates to keep using them in their value chain. Our approach resulted in context-specific, locally owned interventions to reduce PHL in the case study on tomato value chains in Nigeria. Its application in other countries, commodities, or interventions is needed to determine the effectiveness of the approach in a broader scope.

A Systems Approach to Food Loss and Solutions: Understanding Practices, Causes, and Indicators

“…Does the framework proposed in Section 2 help explain practices and causes seen in tomato supply chain in Nigeria? Data on tomato supply chain in Nigeria is gathered from two sources: a) responses of supply chain participants [95], and b) a non-exhaustive literature search on tomato losses in Nigeria. The subsections list the practices and causes of losses identified by literature and by field workshops for each stage.…”

“…Supply chain participants (farmers, transporters, traders, and retailers) in the tomato supply chain in Nigeria were gathered in workshops with the aim to identify practices and causes for postharvest losses in their supply chain [95]. This section summarizes the results of these workshops.…”

How do trust, social norms and risk attitudes influence sustained adoption of interventions to reduce post-harvest losses?: application of an Agent-Based Model to the tomato value chain in Nigeria

“…Replacing the traditional raffia baskets by plastic crates could reduce both the quantity and the quality losses. In December 2017 and July 2018 in five informal tomato value chains from the southwest regions to the urban centres of Lagos and Ibadan in Nigeria, plastic crates were introduced in a pilot project (Plaisier et al, 2019). The value chains consisted of farmers, transporters, dealers and retailers.…”

“…Het vervangen van de traditionele raffiamanden door plastic kratten zou zowel de kwantiteit als de kwaliteitsverliezen kunnen verminderen. In december 2017 en mei 2018 zijn in vijf informele tomatenketens in het zuidwesten van Nigeria plastic kratten geïntroduceerd in een proefproject (Plaisier et al, 2019). De ketens bestonden uit boeren, transporteurs, groothandelaren en retailers.…”

“…Value Chain Analyse (VCA) om informatie te verzamelen over de tomatenketen in Nigeria, zoals productiegebieden en -volumes, naoogstverliezen in kwantiteit en kwaliteit, transportroutes enmodaliteiten, ketenactoren en economisch kengetallen, via een literatuurstudie, veldwerk, een survey onder ketenactoren, en in workshops met een selectie van deze ketenactoren; To reduce these post-harvest losses, an intervention was applied in several informal tomato value chains from the north to the urban centres of Lagos and Ibadan in Nigeria and from the south-west to the same urban centres. In this intervention, tomato value chain participants replaced the traditional raffia baskets for transporting the fresh tomatoes by reusable plastic crates (Plaisier et al, 2019). The value chains consisted of farmers, transporters, dealers and retailers.…”