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By Mwape Moses Kachasa MSc. CCAFS – NUIG – Student
Introduction
The Secretary-General of United Nations (UN) will this year in September, 2021 convene a Food Systems Summit to launch bold new actions to transform the way the world produces and consumes food. The launch will put in place a collective and sustainable plan for transforming our food systems in order to be able to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 agenda (Webb et al., 2020). The current food systems have failed the world by not providing nutritious and safe foods for everyone in a sustainable way (Haddad et al., 2016). The mammoth task of transforming our food systems requires the involvement of everyone either as individuals, business firms, institutions, organizations or as governments (Lutz, Smetschka and Grima, 2017). A total of Five Actions Tracks (AT) have been developed to serve as focus areas that would help the summit to achieve a feasible road map for the transformation of the current food systems.
This blog is therefore, intended to highlight an innovation that would assist in making a major contribution to achieving the goals of Action track 1 for the Food Systems Summit 2021. Action track 1 is aimed at Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all. The AT 1 has three strands namely; reducing hunger and inequality, increase access to nutritious foods and achieving food safety.
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Under strand 1 of Reducing hunger and Inequality, the main goal is to transform our current food system in order to have zero hunger by 2030 from the current 690 million people that go to bed hungry every day. Strand 2 is concerned with increasing access to nutritious food and it targets to end stunting and overweight in children including anaemia in women and obesity in adults. There are about 3 billion people who cannot afford healthy diets and this number needs to be reduced drastically by 2030. Finally, strand 3 is about providing Safe food for the entire global population in order to prevent foodborne diseases which caused 600 million illnesses and 420,000 premature deaths in 2010 (Havelaar et al., 2015). The problem has since increased, causing more than 1 million illnesses and 56,000 deaths respectively (Gibb et al., 2019).
The innovation being proposed to address the failures highlighted in the current food systems is nutrition-sensitive Climate financing of the fruit and vegetables value chains so that there is a transformed production, distribution and consumption of a wide a range of nutritious and safe fruits and vegetables by all people. People gain a lot of nutritional and healthy benefits when they eat different fruits and vegetables of various colours (a ‘rainbow’).
Fruits and vegetables of various colours (a ‘rainbow’)
Photo credit: gouldingnaturopathic.ca
Climate Financing of the Fruit and Vegetable Value Chains- Innovation
The main thrust of this innovation is to provide finances to develop viable fruit and vegetable value chains worldwide. Other supporting-actions that will depend on finances are the provision of extension services, investment in climate smart irrigation technologies, provision of grants and subsidies for inputs, strengthening the safety measures during production and marketing of fruits and vegetables and conducting of campaigns for consumers’ dietary change from animal food products to plant based diets.
This innovation will directly contribute to strand 2 and 3 of the AT 1 of the food system summit but It is also expected to indirectly contribute to strand 1(reducing hunger and inequality) as the actors can buy other food stuffs using income from fruit-vegetable value chains. Financing the entire fruit and vegetable value chains is necessary so that there is no gap left in the quest to provide nutritious and safe foods.
Inclusive financing will be used by ensuring that marginalised community members like the women and youths are given an opportunity to play active roles within the value chains.
Why this innovation?
This innovation has been proposed because the traditional financial support under the agricultural sector is biased towards the production of staple foods like maize, rice and wheat. These staples are mainly rich in carbohydrates and may not contain adequate amounts of other nutrients like proteins, vitamins, fats and essential minerals. On the other fruits and vegetables are very rich in proteins, vitamins and minerals (Vincente et al., 2014). Therefore, the innovation seeks to influence public policy priorities through provision of funding to support production, distribution and consumption of fruits and vegetables. Once enough fruits and vegetables are produced it can lead to achieving access to nutritious and safe foods for all. This can help in alleviating the problem of malnutrition in both adults and children (Slavin and Lloyd, 2012).
Table1: Compositional features of fruits and vegetables per g/100 g edible matter
| Nutrients | Fruits | Leafy vegetables |
| Water | 61.0–89.1 | 84.3–94.7 |
| Protein | 0.5–1.1 | 0.2–3.9 |
| Fat | Trace–4.4 | 0.2–1.4 |
| Sugar | 4.4–34.8 | 1.5–4.9 |
| Starch | Trace–3.0 | 0.1–0.8 |
| Dietary fibre | 2.0–14.8 | 1.2–4.0 |
| Energy, kcal | 90–646 | 65–177 |
| Micronutrient | Vitamin C, K, Mg, carotenoids | Vitamin C, folate, carotenoids, Ca, Fe |
Source: USDA Agricultural Research Service.
The actors for fruit and vegetable value chains
Every person will be required to play a role in one way or another. The actors will include individuals, households, co-operatives, private companies, the donor community, governments, regional economic/political bodies (EU and AU) and the United Nations. Actors are expected to play specific roles for example, financing, production, safety control, agri-business and influencing dietary changes.
Mechanisms for implementation of the fruit and vegetable value chains
The value chains would be transformed by working through multilateral and bilateral co-operations and by employing the public private partnerships;
a). Multilateral and Bilateral Co-operation on Fruit and Vegetable value chains
Multilateral and Bilateral Co-operation is needed for the countries to share and exchange knowledge and technologies on how to transform the fruit and vegetable value chains. It is important that the wealthy nations render their support to poor nations through provision of financial and technical support towards the development of the viable and efficient fruit and vegetable value chains. This can be achieved through co-operation at regional level for example the European Union with the African Union or it can even be direct between individual countries for instance, Ireland co-operating with Zambia.
b). Public Private Partnerships on Fruit and Vegetable value chains
Nations should make a road map to work with the private sector to develop the fruit and vegetable value chains in their respective countries. The partnerships should provide financial resources for production, processing, distribution and safe consumption of the fruits and vegetables. For example, the private sector can fund the procurement of fruit and vegetable production inputs whilst government can support the provision of extension services and public health inspections of fruits and vegetables that are being sold on the market.
Other institutions to partner with are the academia, research, trade organisations, banking and the transport sectors.
C). Women and Youths participation
Deliberate efforts will be made under this innovation to promote the participation of women and the youths across the entire fruit and vegetable value chains. Policies that favour their participation will be required at international, regional, national, organizational and local levels.
Activities and technologies for Fruit and vegetable value chains
i). Provision of grants and subsidies to producers
The private sector, donors and governments should provide funding through provision of affordable loans, grants and subsidies to individuals, co-operatives and commercial farmers who have viable business plans. The producers should be linked to chain stores so that fresh and safe vegetables are always available in town supermarkets.
ii). Provision of extension services to farmers
In order to increase productivity of fruits and vegetables it is necessary that some financial resources are spent on building capacity in farmers through the provision of extension services. The smallholder and medium scale farmers should be targeted by conducting fruit and vegetable production trainings. The selection of trainees should be gender inclusive by ensuring that marginalised women and the youth are brought on board.
iii). Production of fruits and vegetables using climate smart technologies
The role of the farmers would be to produce quality nutritious and safe fruits and vegetables for all people. Individuals, Co-operatives and large scale farmers should embark on the large production of the fruits and vegetables. Where possible the general public should be encouraged to set up their own backyard gardens and orchards so that they are able to get very fresh fruits and vegetables for home consumption. Investment in solar powered water pumps will be encouraged to allow farmers to produce fruits and vegetables throughout the year. Drip irrigation will be also necessary to improve on the water use efficiency. The producers must use only safe pesticides and strictly follow the withdraw periods.
Backyard vegetable garden
Photo credit: pinterest.com
Solar powered borehole for irrigating fruits and vegetable production
Picture credit: Timbuktu-zambia.com
iv) Marketing of fruits and vegetables in villages and supermarkets
Marketers and supermarkets would play a role of selling fruits and vegetables at an affordable price for both high income and low income earners. The people selling the fruits and vegetables must comply with the health guideline of keeping their business premises clean and sell only good quality products.
Fruit and vegetables being sold in a supermarket. Photo credit: Sq.feed.com
A fruit and vegetables market in Africa. Photo credit: alamy
Selling of fruits and vegetables from the same place or shelf helps consumers to buy both products during a single shopping spree. The trading in fruits and vegetables is a very common enterprise for many rural women. The income raised is used on buying food staples, school fees and health bills.
v). Conducting Public Health Inspections
The public health department is supposed to be supported with resources to carry out thorough inspections of the trading areas like the markets and the supermarkets. They should be given legal powers to demand removal of unhealthy fruits and vegetables from selling points.
A Public Health Worker inspecting fruits and vegetables: Photo credit: alamy
v). Good food preparations and reduction of food loss and waste by Consumers
Consumers education or campaigns should be conducted so that they are sensitised on how best they can be utilising the fruits and vegetables. This can be achieved by conducting the food preparation trainings and demonstrations. Emphasis should be placed also on how they can avoid the food loss and waste by employing refrigeration or drying of fruits and vegetables.
Women and children attending cooking demonstrations.
Photo credit: healthy child Uganda.
Opportunities for the Innovation:
i. Availability of fruits and vegetable planting materials in all the regions.
ii. Presence of Extension services in all the countries.
iii. Inclusion of Agriculture in the Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) triggering public funding for the sector.
iv. Multi-lateral and bilateral engagements
v. Private sector financing
vi. Inclusion and Diversity: equal opportunities and fair treatment for both men and women under the innovation.
Required Stakeholders for the innovation
A number of stakeholders will be needed for the innovation to operate well. These are indicated in the table below;
Table 2 : Stakeholders under the Climate Financing of fruit and vegetables innovations:
Conclusion
Transformation of the fruit and vegetable value chains is needed in order for the current food systems to be able to provide nutritious and safe foods for everyone. All the actions required to transform the food systems should be guided by research-driven scientific evidence and implemented in a collaborative manner. They should be bold, new but financially, politically and technically feasible enough to be able to effectively transform the failed current food systems (Kennedy et al., 2021).
References
Gibb, H. J., Barchowsky, A., Bellinger, D., Bolger, P. M., Carrington, C., Havelaar, A. H., Oberoi, S., Zang, Y., O’Leary, K. and Devleesschauwer, B. (2019) ‘Estimates of the 2015 global and regional disease burden from four foodborne metals–arsenic, cadmium, lead and methylmercury’, Environmental research, 174, pp. 188-194.
Haddad, L., Hawkes, C., Waage, J., Webb, P., Godfray, C. and Toulmin, C. (2016) ‘Food systems and diets: Facing the challenges of the 21st century’.
Havelaar, A. H., Kirk, M. D., Torgerson, P. R., Gibb, H. J., Hald, T., Lake, R. J., Praet, N., Bellinger, D. C., De Silva, N. R. and Gargouri, N. (2015) ‘World Health Organization global estimates and regional comparisons of the burden of foodborne disease in 2010’, PLoS medicine, 12(12), pp. e1001923.
Kennedy, E., Webb, P., Block, S., Griffin, T., Mozaffarian, D. and Kyte, R. (2021) ‘Transforming Food Systems: The Missing Pieces Needed to Make Them Work’, Current Developments in Nutrition, 5(1), pp. nzaa177.
Lutz, J., Smetschka, B. and Grima, N. (2017) ‘Farmer cooperation as a means for creating local food systems—potentials and challenges’, Sustainability, 9(6), pp. 925.
Slavin, J. L. and Lloyd, B. (2012) ‘Health benefits of fruits and vegetables’, Advances in nutrition, 3(4), pp. 506-516.
Vincente, A. R., Manganaris, G. A., Ortiz, C. M., Sozzi, G. O. and Crisosto, C. H. (2014) ‘Nutritional quality of fruits and vegetables’, Postharvest handling: Elsevier, pp. 69-122.
Webb, P., Benton, T. G., Beddington, J., Flynn, D., Kelly, N. M. and Thomas, S. M. (2020) ‘The urgency of food system transformation is now irrefutable’, Nature Food, 1(10), pp. 584-585.