http://www.fao.org/economic/ess/ess-events/afcas/afcas25/en/ Implementing a methodology for estimating post-harvest losses in Malawi

1. AFRICAN COMMISSION ON AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
Twenty-Fifth Session
Entebbe, Uganda, 13 – 17 November 2017
Dominic Nkhoma, PhD
Chief Economist
Department of Planning
Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Water Development
Malawi
IMPLEMENTING A METHODOLOGY FOR ESTIMATING
POST-HARVEST LOSSES IN MALAWI
TECHNICAL SESSION 1

2. CONTENTS
 Introduction
 Objectives of the TA
 Activities under the Project
 Nature of Technical Assistance
 Financing of the Project
 Progress todate
 Next activities
 Impact
 Sustainability
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3.  Project being implemented through the Accelerated
Technical Assistance Plan for Africa
 Project under the Global Strategy to Improve
Agricultural and Rural Statistics programme
 Global Strategy Specific objectives:aims to improve the
capacity of African countries in compiling and
disseminating agricultural and rural statistics
 In Malawi, project being implemented based on a Letter
of Agreement, a contract between FAO and MoAIWD
 The Project runs for one year from May 2017 to May 2018
 At Country level, being coordinated by the Department of
Planning
Introduction

4. Project Description
 The Objective of the Project is to
“contribute to improve the coverage and
quality of statistics on Post-Harvest Losses
in Malawi”
 The project has two outputs:
1. Revised questionnaires and survey strategy to
compile Post-Harvest Losses (PHL) statistics
2. Production of a set of Post-Harvest Losses
indicators
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5. Project Description
 Under the project, the following activities will be
undertaken
1. Revise and validate proposed questionnaires for the
complementary, declarative and detailed modules on PHL
2. Validate the sample strategy for PHL and draw the sample
3. Organize and undertake a field test of a survey with the
declarative module of PHL and the complementary modules
4. Undertake a full test of a data compilation tool developed by
FAO and make recommendations for its improvement
5. Produce a dataset with PHL indicators based on the data
collected for the field test
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6. Financing of the
Activities
 Total maximum budget of USD 24,660 to finance
Data collection activities (field-tests)
Data analysis and processing
Reporting
Organization of workshops and meetings
 Government contribution in terms of salaries for staff
 FAO with funding from the Nowegian Embassy will fund
PHL assessment activities beyond 2018

7. Nature of Technical
Assistance
 FAO providing Technical Support through Global Strategy
fro Improving Rural and Agriculture Research
 Technical Assistance in form of two international
consultants
 At national a taskforce comprising stakeholders in Post-
Harvest Losses are trained in the methodology are
responsible for day to day management of project
activities at country level
 Stakeholders include: Planning Department, Department
of Agriculture Research Services, Department of Crops,
FAO-Malawi, NSO, and LUANAR
 So far two missions 1) a needs assessment, and 2)
Training and validation of data collection tools 7

8. Progress to-date
A Post-Harvest Loss Technical Team has
been constituted
Letter of Agreement has been signed
between Global Strategy and MoAIWD
First tranche of resources (US$7,000) to
cover for preparatory activities already
transferred to MoAIWD
Conducted training on data collection tools
Have finalized sampling
Currently developing an Enumerators
Manual
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9. Next Activities
 Output 1: Revised Questionnaire and Survey Strategy
◦ Training of Supervisors and Enumerators in January 2018
◦ Data Collection from February 2018 to April 2018
◦ Dataset with farm level information by March 2018
 Output 2: Production of a set of PHL indicators
◦ Activity: Full test of the data completion tool
 Training of stakeholders in January 2018
 Testing of the tool in February 2018
 Report for Improvements by April 2018
◦ Activity
 Compilation of indicators between March and April 2018
 Dataset with indicators by 30th April 2018
 Report on the Indicators by 30th April 2018
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10. Impact of the Project
 Increased capacity of MoAIWD, NSO,
Other stakeholders in conducting PHL
assessments
 Increased precision of the estimated Food
Balance Sheets as method takes into
account losses from harvesting to storage
 Improved coverage of crops: methodology
also extended to rice. With the new M&E
system, methodology will cover pulses
and other crops
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11. Sustainability
 Capacity of staff in Government and key
stakeholders being developed
 A process for establishing an electronic
data collection system underway and
critical financial resources secured – This
will ensure the PHL surveys are sustained
without special financial support
 Collaboration with the Centre for
Agriculture Research and Development
will strengthen data analysis and
dissemination
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12. THANK YOU
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