by Steve Sonka, Research Professor, ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss Between January 2014 and September 2015, the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss (ADMI) has been conducting a Global Learning Assessment focused on postharvest loss reduction. The analysis was conducted with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation Waste and Spoilage […]
PHL Learning Journey with the Rockefeller Foundation: Key Elements to Success
Postharvest Loss: A Hidden Tax on Smallholders
by Steve Sonka, Research Professor, ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss Much of what I know about farming was learned growing up on a small Iowa farm. My parents devoted considerable attention to producing our crops and livestock. However, considerable attention also was focused on the decisions of how much to sell and […]
A Tale of Two Markets: Insights about the Different Ways Products Reach Consumers in India
By: Sarina Zhou and Jamie Dalton, senior and sophomore in Supply Chain Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The following post was written by students on an ADM Institute-sponsored observation study tour through India – March 23, 2015. During the second and third days of our trip, we visited two types of markets where the atmospheres […]
Hearing from Locals on Farming in South India: Day 1
By: Joe Goley and Korawat (Kay) Tanwisuth, Sophomores in Supply Chain Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The following post was written by students on an ADM Institute-sponsored observation study tour through India – March 21, 2015. We started the first of our nine-day journey with a blessing from Hindu priests in a local temple in […]
Things Are Heating Up in India: Day 2
By: Shannon Dolehide and Ashley McInerney, Juniors in Supply Chain Management, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign The following post was written by students on an ADM Institute-sponsored observation study tour through India – March 22, 2015. When we signed up for the 2015 Agricultural Supply Chains in India study tour, we knew it would be […]
Mitigating Postharvest Loss: Addressing Causes Rather than Symptoms
by Steve Sonka, Research Professor, ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Recognition that reducing postharvest loss is an important opportunity to enhance global food security is not a new phenomenon. Indeed, on September 1, 1975, then US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger made the following impassioned […]
Combating Postharvest Loss for Smallholders: How to Achieve Sustainable Adoption?
By Steve Sonka and Grace Kenney The ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss is currently working on a learning assessment of global food loss as part of a grant funded with financial support from the Rockefeller Foundation for the Waste and Spoilage in the Food Chain Development Initiative. This effort has led to […]
New Practice-Based Tool for Making Decisions on Investment in PHL Reduction
by Casey Cheng and Kari A. Wozniak If you were going to invest resources into reducing postharvest losses within a supply chain, where exactly would you invest them? Would you begin with building better storage, or perhaps buying a mechanical drier? These types of questions face farmers, managers, and practitioners around the world, and yet […]
How Technology Alone Won’t Curb Postharvest Losses
by Dr. Prasanta Kalita, Director of the ADM Institute for the Prevention of Postharvest Loss Estimates suggest that 1/3 of all food is lost or wasted after it is grown in supply chains and at the consumer level. In many developing countries, this happens at especially high rates during storage phases. Yet a drive down […]
Are Farmers with Postharvest Loss Acting Rationally?
by Steve Sonka, Ag Economist Events vs. Structure External observers of postharvest loss in developing countries typically have little difficulty identifying loss and waste. Indeed each winter the ADM Institute contributes to the travel funding for University of Illinois business and agricultural engineering students to study in rural India. The resulting student blogs (see one […]