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Mohammad Shamim Matubbar is a farmer of Saltha upazila in Faridpur district who mainly grows onion which is his main earning source. 

The 34-year-old youth in the immediate past season grew around 700 mounds of onion, but lost nearly 200 maunds or 28 per cent of the produce due to two major factors—around 25 per cent was damaged in the absence of proper preservation facilities, and around 3 per cent was damaged during the harvesting with conventional tools, Shamim told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on September 25. 

The overall wastage incurred him a loss of over Tk 6 lakh based on the current wholesale market price of per kilogram onion at Tk 80, he said.

Shamim is among thousands of onion growers facing the during- and post- harvest losses estimated at approximately 30 per cent of 35 lakh tonnes per year leading to a shortfall of 6,00,000–7,00,000 tonnes of onion.

Huge wastage is experienced not in onion farming only, but also in many other farm crops and livestock produce, including rice, potato, vegetables, spices, mango, banana and other fruits, eggs, and poultry meat, all due to a lack of proper storage, processing and distribution facilities.

A study titled ‘Estimation of overall food losses and waste at all levels of the food chain’ by the food ministry in 2021 estimated the total annual paddy loss, including the pre-harvest loss, at 23–28 per cent.

Of the loss, 14.02 per cent occurred at farmers’ level, including transportation loss at 1.4 per cent, threshing loss at 1.7 per cent, winnowing loss at 1.5 per cent, drying loss at 2.6 per cent, and storage loss at 6.8 per cent.

The paddy losses occur at the middlemen level at 1.62 per cent and at the millers’ level at 2.12 per cent.

The report identified the lack of proper storage facilities as the main reason for postharvest loss at the producers’ level, while the damage done by rodents was identified as the main cause of pre-harvest losses.

The overall loss in rice production shown in this report, however, excludes the loss incurred by the over-polishing of grains which has been calculated more recently at around 16 lakh tonnes, as immediate past food minister Ramesh Chandra Sen highlighted at a meeting in the current year. 

Regarding wheat production, the study estimated the average postharvest loss at 17.59 per cent.

The estimated postharvest losses in selected horticultural crops, according to the study report, range from 17 per cent to 32 per cent—mango at 31.7 per cent; banana at 19.9 per cent; potato at 21.8 per cent; carrot 26.1 per cent; and tomato 27.9 per cent.

A substantial loss of nearly 10 per cent was found right at the field for tomato towards the end of its season as growers, mainly due to a steep fall in prices, stop harvesting the produce.

Across the selected horticultural value chains, wholesale and retail levels were identified as critical loss points due mainly to the early ripening with chemical agents and senescence of the perishables, particularly in the absence of proper storage and food processing facilities.

The study also showed the losses during preservation at cold storages for potatoes at 5.7 per cent and carrots at 11.0 per cent. It also revealed that 2–5 per cent loss occurred for selected horticultural crops at super shops in the capital.

Regarding animal products, losses incurred in cow and buffalo milk were estimated at 8.07 per cent and 15.67 per cent respectively. The postharvest losses in eggs, poultry meat and red meat were 12.9 per cent, 16.9 per cent and 21.4 per cent respectively.

‘The wastage is very concerning in terms of the country’s food security,’ said Mustafa K Mujeri, executive director, Institute for Inclusive Finance and Development.

The overall economic management faces pressure to make up the losses with imports, said the economist, who was a former director general of the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies and a former chief economist of Bangladesh Bank.

In 2022–23, for food import Bangladesh spent $8.25 billion—$2.59 billion for rice and wheat, and $5.65 billion for milk, spices, edible oil, pulse and sugar—amid a shortage of dollars forcing the government to borrow from the International Monetary Fund under a $4.7 billion loan programme.

To meet the annual demand, businesses imported onions from India to the tune of around $180 million in 2022.

But the imports are often disrupted due to export bans and extra duty slapped by the country’s next door neighbour leading  to price hikes of the item close to Tk 200 per kilogram in December 2023. 

To improve the onion storage facility, the Department of Agricultural Extension has set at least 230 stores in the country’s six districts under a pilot scheme.

Besides, a local private enterprise Giant Agro Processing Company Limited jointly with some Dutch private sector companies, supported by the Dutch government, has set up the country’s first onion processing and storage centre with a capacity of 400 tonnes on a pilot basis.

Giant Group chairman Feroz M Hassan told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ· on Saturday that they would make the final assessment of the losses in onion production and viability of the investment in November.

So far, the outcome was good, he said.

Agricultural economists, however, see these initiatives of the government and private groups to improve the storage facilities of perishable agricultural items as fragmented.

‘The country needs a national strategy paper to curb the losses and wastage,’ said Md Kamrul Hassan, a professor of horticulture at Bangladesh Agricultural University in Mymensingh.

Kamrul Hassan, who is the main author of the study report on food losses and wastage, said that the country imported around 1.2 crore tonnes of food items while produced 9.3 crore tonnes of food in 2021.

Food wastage at the household level is also significant as observed by agricultural economists.    

Bangladesh wastes 82kg food per household on average annually, much higher than Bhutan at 19kg, while the wastage in India is 55kg, Sri Lanka 76kg. But the wastage in Bangladesh is much lower than Maldives at 207kg, and Pakistan at 130kg. In Nepal the figure is 93kg, according to the Food Waste Index Report 2024 by the United Nations Environment Programme.

Food wastage is a market failure resulting in the throwing away of more than US$1 trillion worth of food every year globally, said the UN body. 

The UN body also said it was also an environmental failure as the food waste generates an estimated 8–10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions and it took up the equivalent of nearly 30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land.

Sustainable Development Goal 12 stipulates a commitment to halve per capita global food wastage at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food loss across supply chains by 2030.

Massive awareness programme can help check food wastage, said MK Mujeri.

Economists observe that agro processing plants can play an important role to absorb the high supply of agricultural products in the peak season.

But, they have found that the country’s agro-processing industry does not cater to the need of the growing consumer market largely dominated by imported products.

As only a few big agro-processing companies are present in the market at the moment, observes Centre for Policy Dialogue distinguished fellow Mustafizur Rahman.

To expand the country’s agro-processing capacity and the market as well small and medium scale entrepreneurs can play a significant role, says Mustafizur.

He blamed the lack of access to bank loans for the small entrepreneurs as one of the major reasons for the country’s limited capacity in the agro-processing industry.

He further said that ensuring food safety and cool chain were other problems in this regard.