New APHLIS project

Improving qualitative and quantitative postharvest losses estimates in Sub-Saharan Africa

 
APHLIS (African Postharvest Losses Information System) is a network of local experts in East and Southern Africa, backed up by a database and postharvest loss calculator, that together facilitate the estimation of annual postharvest losses for the cereal grains of the countries of East and Southern Africa, by province. To reflect the current high profile of postharvest loss reduction as a means of improving food availability in developing countries, the European Commission is investing in further development of APHLIS. The project was initiated and financed by the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre (MARS Unit). This will be the third project in support of APHLIS and so for convenience it will be referred to as ‘APHLIS 3’. Its official start date was 9th January 2012.

The project is led by the Natural Resources Institute (NRI) and will be delivered in association with ISICAD, of the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food (BLE). At regional level it has received the endorsement of FARA (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa) whose eRAILS agricultural information system offers exciting potential synergies with APHLIS, both through its webpage facility and its shared database.

On completion of the new project, APHLIS will have greatly increased capability and performance, it will -
 
  • be a source of information (not just loss figures) that can help drive postharvest loss reduction. This will be achieved by having a section devoted to qualitative losses rather than just quantitative losses, within a new ‘information hub’ on APHLIS that will be designed to serve the needs of a new ‘Community of Practice’ for postharvest loss reduction.

  • address the losses of cereals in West and Central Africa. This will be achieved by creating a new network and updated postharvest loss profiles suitable for these countries and by presenting the user with a bilingual interface (English & French).

  • enable local experts to measure postharvest losses so that they can submit data to APHLIS that will improve the estimates for their countries . This will be achieved by developing a handbook of standardized loss assessment methodologies. Local experts will thus be able to contribute loss data and help refine the loss profiles that are used in the loss calculator.

  • have a much improved capacity for interactive mapping by switching the map client component from MapBender to GeoExt WebGIS client.

  • have greater sustainability. This will be achieved by changes in the composition of the APHLIS network, to engage network partners with a stronger commitment to update country data regularly and the facilitation of data management by an improved system architecture.

  • provide up-to-date the PHL estimates at regional, national and provicial level for all cereal starting from 2007 and going beyond the end of the project in 2014.

  • have value added to the loss figures that APHLIS generates. This will be achieved by enabling local experts to write a narrative on their loss data through the creation of web pages on FARA’s eRAILS, linked to APHLIS. In at least four countries, the project partners will work with the local experts to create ‘case’ studies to verify their country losses which will be a contribution to such narratives.