This piece is a part of the weekly sequence “Rising Ahead: Insights to construct higher meals and agricultural techniques”, offered by the International Meals Institute of the George Washington College and the non -profit group Meals Tank. Every supply highlights future imaginative and prescient methods to handle meals -related challenges and present agriculture with modern options. To see extra items within the sequence, click on right here.
Regardless of the worldwide efforts to create extra sustainable and resistant meals techniques, the lack of meals after harvest, particularly in low -income areas, will increase an essential impediment. In sub -Saharan Africa, this loss isn’t just a poor storage or transport; It’s a symptom of deeper structural challenges linked to world commerce, poverty and inequality.
Moses Kansanga, a human-environment geographer, an assistant professor on the George Washington College and a member of the college affiliated on the International Meals Institute, has spent years learning how these dynamics develop in rural agricultural communities. Their analysis intertwines the issues of agricultural growth, environmental sustainability and native data, providing a imaginative and prescient on the stage of meals loss and the hope of options.
On this dialog, Kansanga explains why we have to rethink how we tackle put up -harvest losses, the position of gender fairness and what he has realized from farmers within the middle of this story.
What led him to pay attention his analysis on meals techniques and the lack of later harvest, and what are the important thing questions he tries to reply in his work?
What I do at present displays my lived expertise that grows in northern Ghana, the place meals insecurity and local weather change are deep issues.
I skilled a famine once I was solely three years previous. I do not forget that my mom went to the southern a part of Ghana, who has higher agroecological circumstances, to work for meals and ship her again to us. I started to surprise why sure areas have been higher than others, even throughout the identical nation. That curiosity led me to review Geography, a self-discipline that gave me the instruments to discover inequality not solely spatially, but additionally economically and politically.
The final query within the coronary heart of my work at present is: Why do sure geographies proceed to battle starvation? And the way can we do agriculture to ensure larger environmental efficiency and integrity?
You’ve described meals loss in sub -Saharan Africa as greater than a technical downside, however slightly, one linked to deeper structural challenges. Are you able to information us via what which means and why does it matter how we attempt to tackle it?
The options that we comply with at present are like placing a bandage with out antiseptic properties in a wound. It will possibly present protection nicely, and perhaps it’s externally engaging, however won’t suppress microorganisms that trigger ailments to ensure cicatrization. In relation to the lack of meals after the harvest, we’ve targeted extra on upcoming options similar to infrastructure and the supply of know-how with out addressing the dynamics of the underlying political economic system that the important thing to stopping it has.
Prevention requires addressing coverage behind meals techniques. An essential downside is meals dumping. Even with a greater infrastructure and know-how, farmers in Africa shall be overcome by cheaper imports in Europe and North America. For instance, Ghana, an excellent tomato producer in Africa, implies numerous tomatoes from the Netherlands. Native farmers can not compete with sponsored merchandise, so many have deserted agriculture utterly. Paradoxically, some now work on tomato plantations in Europe!
So, sure, street networks and chilly storage are well timed, but when worldwide industrial phrases are usually not equitable, native farmers will nonetheless endure losses. That’s the reason I keep that meals loss just isn’t solely technical, it’s deeply political.
In your opinion, what varieties of modifications, both in politics, financing or infrastructure, are wanted extra urgently to cut back meals loss in order that they actually adhere?
As a result of the issue is each technical and political, any efficient answer should tackle each points concurrently.
We want technical infrastructure: roads, storage amenities, processing instruments. However we additionally have to rethink commerce agreements to handle meals discharge, significantly perishable merchandise. African nations want autonomy to say: we produce sufficient tomatoes, so we don’t want imports at the moment.
If some governments can not management the entry of the perishable surplus merchandise of the richest nations, even when the native provide can meet the demand, then we’re trapped. That is the place worldwide organizations similar to WTO should take part; If we wish to finish meals loss, we should tackle industrial insurance policies.
If I had a magical wand, I’d appropriate the imbalances of energy in commerce between the south of the north and the worldwide south. If we create a stage sport subject, the modern capability of Africa will evolve to handle these challenges.
What’s the position of gender inequality with regards to put up -harvest loss?
I see gender mirrored in two ranges. First is on a regular basis materials: girls usually wouldn’t have entry to productive assets similar to Earth. They dominate the levels of manufacturing, processing, preservation and advertising of the worth chain, however don’t management assets. Ladies have little entry to environment friendly know-how, in order that they lose greater than their harvest.
The second is political exclusion. Ladies are largely absent from resolution -making areas, from the native authorities to group management. That signifies that their challenges are sometimes invisible within the coverage formulation subsystem. Due to this fact, meals loss is a gender downside, which has deep implications for house, schooling and nicely -being earnings.
What sort of options can these gender dynamics tackle?
In Ghana, we’re specializing in utilizing a “gender reworking method” that features the creation of shared areas to debate issues of subsequent loss to the group stage. We’re coaching girls in loss practices after harvesting and serving to them decide to conventional leaders to barter and problem norms, similar to the idea that ladies mustn’t possess land.
We’re beginning to see turns. Some conventional leaders acknowledge these gender gaps and provides girls entry to productive assets. As girls’s voices are strengthened, I believe the load of gender meals loss shall be addressed. This type of change directed by the group is pushed by individuals, not imposed from exterior.
One factor that stands out about his work is that he has spent a whole lot of time speaking to farmers and focusing their experiences. What have farmers taught you in regards to the pressures they face and what they actually need to domesticate in a sustainable and profitable method?
Earlier than beginning to contain farmers within the fields, he had some preconceived concepts as a younger scholar. I believed that small farmers have been remoted or much less educated in regards to the world stage meals coverage that essential lecturers communicate.
Over time, I used to be stunned how deeply educated about these issues. If we had farmers on nationwide tv worldwide, you’d be stunned by all of the issues they know! Sadly, they lack such a platform to share their data and experiences. So, in my work, I wish to be sure that I’m there with them, to be bodily linked to what they do and perceive how that’s associated to broader challenges.
Regardless of the challenges that his work explores, what offers hope to the place issues are directed within the communities with which he works?
The resistance of farmers. I’ve seen many communities which were careless for thus lengthy, however they haven’t surrendered. They’re nonetheless working, feeding their households with how little they produce and urgent for change.
After I see girls innovating with out assist, or younger individuals who say: “We wish to domesticate”, regardless of the possibilities, that retains me underway. It offers me hope. If we clear up the coverage and provides farmers the instruments they want, we are able to clear up this.
Interview by Priya Fielding-Singh