Assessment of Post-Harvest Losses of Selected Fruits in Benue State, Nigeria
Conference
64th ISI World Statistics Congress - Ottawa, Canada
Format: IPS Abstract
Keywords: agriculture, post-harvest
Wednesday 19 July 10 a.m. - noon (Canada/Eastern)
Abstract
Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3 has the target “By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses” An Assessment of Post-harvest losses of selected fruits in Benue State Nigeria was carried out by the Federal University of Agriculture Makurdi Laboratory for Interdisciplinary Statistical Analysis (FUAM-LISA) in collaboration with Benue State Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources (BSMANR) and Centre for Food Technology and Research (CEFTER), Benue State University, Nigeria using student trainees from FUAM-LISA and CEFTER. The project which emphasized the strength of statistical collaboration towards achieving SDG designed and implemented a field survey that produced key post-harvest indicators. The following results were achieved during the project: (1) Students from FUAM-LISA and CEFTER were trained to be collaborative statisticians who could move from theory to practice; interfacing with local actors to proffer solutions to developmental problems. (2) the project provided estimates of quantitative, relative and economic losses of orange, watermelon and mango during major post-harvest operations which addressed information gap in the Benue State Policy on Agriculture (3) It provided a policy brief to the local actor; BSMANR.