The YieldWise Approach to Post-Harvest Loss Reduction: Creating Market-Driven Supply Chains to Support Sustained Technology Adoption

Steven Sonka (), Hyeonsuh Lee and Sonali Shah
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Steven Sonka: Ed Snider Center for Enterprise and Markets, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Hyeonsuh Lee: John Chambers College of Business and Economics, West Virginia University, 83 Beechrust Avenue, Morgantown, WV 26505, USA
Sonali Shah: Gies College of Business & Carle Illinois College of Medicine, University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign, 1206 South Sixth Street, Champaign, IL 61820, USA

Agriculture, 2023, vol. 13, issue 4, 1-20

Abstract: Excessively high levels of post-harvest loss often are a feature of agricultural systems dominated by small-holder farmers. However, this situation is something of a paradox, as technologies exist that have been shown in field demonstrations to substantially reduce post-harvest loss. What explains this paradox? Building on insights derived from the Rockefeller Foundation’s YieldWise Initiative, this article proposes that while reducing post-harvest loss generally does require technology adoption by small-holder farmers, market-driven supply chains are essential to the sustained use of those technologies. We illustrate this approach using in-depth interview data collected from the YieldWise participants belonging to the Iringa Hope Cooperative in Tanzania. Data on the benefits and challenges of such an approach are provided from the perspective of the small-holder farmer. In addition, we model the economic benefits associated with this approach.

Keywords: post-harvest loss reduction; the YieldWise initiative; economic comparisons; small-holder farmer perspectives (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
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