Post-harvest grain losses in Sub-Saharan Africa

• This is a useful resource for the year 9 geography unit of study, Biomes and food security. It is directly relevant for the content description about the capacity of the world's environments to sustainably feed the projected future population to achieve food security for the world, and indirectly relevant for the content description about the environmental, economic and technological factors that influence crop yields. Improvements in grain crop yields in the Sub-Saharan biomes are negated by losses after harvest. Reduction of such losses could go a long way toward addressing food security issues in Africa.
• The video was produced to promote the 2011 report 'Missing food: the case of postharvest grain losses in Sub-Saharan Africa', prepared by the World Bank, the Food and Agriculture Organization and the UK's Natural Resources Institute. The report focuses on grains, the basis for food security for most people in the region, especially for smallholder farming households who consume most of what they grow. Sale of grain also accounts for 37 per cent of their typical annual income; recorded grain production in the region amounted to 112 million tons per year at the time of the report.

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