Postharvest Losses and their Determinants: A Challenge to Creating a Sustainable Cooking Banana Value Chain in Uganda

Enoch Mutebi Kikulwe, Stanslus Okurut, Susan Ajambo, Kephas Nowakunda, Dietmar Stoian and Diego Naziri
Additional contact information
Enoch Mutebi Kikulwe: Bioversity International, Susan Ajambo Bioversity, P. O. Box 24384 Kampala, Uganda
Stanslus Okurut: School of Agricultural Sciences, Makerere University, P. O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda
Susan Ajambo: Bioversity International, Susan Ajambo Bioversity, P. O. Box 24384 Kampala, Uganda
Kephas Nowakunda: National Agricultural Research Laboratories of the National Agricultural Research Organization (NARO), P. O. Box 7065 Kampala, Uganda
Dietmar Stoian: Bioversity International, Parc Scientifique Agropolis II, 34397 Montpellier, France
Diego Naziri: International Potato Center (CIP), 100000 Hanoi, Vietnam

Sustainability, 2018, vol. 10, issue 7, 1-19

Abstract: Postharvest losses (PHL) result in direct food and income losses to farmers and consumers globally. PHL reduction strategies offer unique opportunities to contribute to sustainable food systems for increased food security and farm incomes for more than 200 million food insecure people in sub-Saharan Africa. Lack of empirical information remains a major challenge to operationalization of PHL reduction strategies in many countries of the region. This paper utilizes cross-sectional data to determine the extent and factors that are influencing postharvest losses in the cooking-banana value chain in Uganda. We find that 14.9% of all the cooking bananas that are produced in Uganda suffer postharvest deterioration along the value chain (7.2% of the bananas deteriorate completely and have no residual value, while 7.7% deteriorate partially and are sold at discounted prices), mostly affecting retailers. At farm level, female headed households experience more losses than those headed by males. Household headship, household size, proportion of land allocated to banana production, and monthly banana production are the principal determinants of PHL at farm level. At retail level, such losses are mainly determined by sex of the vendor and group membership. The findings call for comprehensive and gender-responsive PHL reduction strategies.

Keywords: cooking banana; physical postharvest losses; economic postharvest losses; food security; value chain (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (13)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:10:y:2018:i:7:p:2381-:d:156956

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