Experts on Wednesday stressed on developing modern technologies to reduce significant annual food loss in Bangladesh as the country’s annual estimated food loss and waste is around 19.4 percent from production to consumption level.
They said Bangladesh has made significant strides in food production over the years, but over 2.11 crore tonnes of food like crops, vegetables and fruits are being wasted in different stages from production to post harvest period.
The experts--agriculturists, researchers, academics and policy makers--made the observations at a seminar at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Council (BARC) in the morning.
Ministry of Agriculture and Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) jointly organized the seminar on ‘Reducing Food Loss and Waste for Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security’ marking the World Food Day-2024.
The experts expressed concern over the annul food loss issue, which usually taking place in the country frequently.
Agriculture Adviser Lt. Gen. (retd) M Jahangir Alam Chowdhury spoke at the function as the chief guest while noted Scientist and Chief Scientific Officer (Crops) of BARC Dr Md Harunur Rashid presented key-note paper at the seminar.
Citing statistics of the annual food loss, Harunur Rashid said the annual food loss and waste is over 2,11 crore tonnes at supply stage while it is around 62.78 lakh tonnes at production stage, 68.81 lakh tonnes at postharvest stage, 32.30 lakh tonnes at processing stage, 31.62 lakh tonnes at distribution and 16.35 lakh tonnes at consumption stages.
At the household level food waste in South Asian countries, Dr Rashid also the Director of SAARC Agriculture Centre (SAC) said the per capita annual food waste in Bangladesh is 82 kg while it is 55 kg in India, 76 kg in Sri Lanka, 130 kg in Pakistan and 19 kg in Bhutan.
In Bangladesh, estimated annual cereals loss or waste is 12.9 percent, roots and tubers 36.9 percent, oil seeds and pulses 10.3 percent, fruits and vegetables 40.2 percent, meat products 14.9 percent, fish and sea food 30.2 percent, dairy products 17.5 percent and other food 24.9 percent, according to the statistics.
The experts identified the issues like--lack of knowledge on maturity indices, inadequacy in sorting and grading, no washing or improper washing with polluted waters, inappropriate packaging, transportation problem, rough handling during loading and unloading, lack of pack house and cold storage facilities and lack of improved PH technologies--as the major drawback for food loss in the country.
