by Kennedy Bomfeh

1. Good PostharvestManagement Plenteous safe, nutritious food Food Industries (Raw material supply) Food Retailers Institutional feeding, food aid, nutritional interventions Income to farmers Food Availability Good nutrition (Direct) Consumption Good health SAFEGUARDING NUTRITION AND HEALTH THROUGH POSTHARVEST MANAGEMENT Kennedy Bomfeh1, George A. Annor2 1 Dept. of Nutrition & Food Science, University of Ghana, 2Dept. of Food Science, Univ. of Guelph E-mail: kbomfeh@gmail.com. BACKGROUND The ultimate objective of finding strategic overlaps in the priorities of agriculture, nutrition and health is to, in a most effective way, harmonize the activities of these sectors to improve the overall wellbeing of man. This, in essence, is an integrated, inter-sectorialeffort to ensure food security for all. It is imperative that agricultural produce satisfy the quantity and quality expectations that make foods available and beneficial to man, either for direct consumption, or for processing into more shelf-stable products. This requires that due attention be given to postharvest management. Postharvest losses are high in developing countries. In Africa alone, the figure stands at an estimated 40%. Generally, the quality of whole produce after harvest can only be maintained and not improved. Losses in quantity and quality begin soon after harvest. This is particularly true in terms of the pre-harvest nutritional composition of whole foods. The adoption of appropriate postharvest management strategies is therefore required to enhance the availability of safe, nutritious foods, and thereby contribute towards the preservation and improvement of health. Fig. 2: Some stakeholders in the postharvest management of agricultural produce Lack of good postharvest managementbreaks cycle Fig. 3: Simplified model for linkages among postharvest management, good nutrition and good health Fig. 1: Simplified model for food production, nutrition and health CONCLUSION Ensuring access to food to improve nutrition and thus safeguard the health of consumers requires sound postharvest management. Due consideration should thus be given to postharvest management, particularly in developing countries, in efforts to leverage agriculture to improve nutrition and health. DISCUSSION Good postharvest management ensures that agriculture delivers its best in terms of the quantity and quality (safety and nutritional) of produce to ensure good nutrition for good health (Figs. 1&3). Its implementation requires various stakeholders (Fig. 2) to commit to playing their expected roles to the highest capacity. REFERENCES: 1. Schmidhuber, J. and Tubiello, F.N. (2007). Global food security under climate change. National Academy of Sciences, USA. 104, 50:1970319708 (www.pnas.org_cgi_doi_10.1073_pnas.0701976104). 2. FAO (2009). The State of Food Insecurity in theWorld 2009 (Food and Agriculture Organization, Rome).