Double efforts to reduce food loss, waste (China Daily)

China Daily published an op-ed by former division director Shenggen Fan and Andrew Steer that stated President Xi Jinping has reiterated China’s commitment to drastically reduce food waste. Investing in better infrastructure to improve storage, processing and transportation is critical. Such investment could have high economic returns. IFPRI studies show that investment in projects to reduce food loss and waste could have a 6-15 percent rate of return. This is two times higher than other types of investments. But only 5 percent of agricultural research funding is currently spent on research on how to reduce post-harvest losses. Such funding needs to be increased significantly.