On April 16, The Chicago Council launched a new report, Healthy Food for a Healthy World: Leveraging Agriculture and Food to Improve Global Nutrition, at the Global Food Security Symposium 2015. Each week, we will highlight one of the report’s recommendations in a new post on the Global Food for Thought blog. This blog series explores how the strengths and ingenuity of the agriculture and food sector can reduce the reality and risks of malnutrition globally. Watch for a new post each Wednesday, and join the discussion using #GlobalAg.
Partnerships between the US government and the private sector can play an important role in advancing the goals of nutrition-sensitive food systems. In particular, such partnerships could support US investments made as part of a long-term global food and nutrition security strategy. For example, one of the ways the US government supports private-sector engagement and investment in Africa is through three regional trade hubs.
The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has trade hubs in west Africa, east and central Africa, and southern Africa that work to increase each region’s competitiveness in world markets, provide technical assistance, and promote regional trade. In addition to promoting direct business linkages between US and African firms, these trade hubs provide technical assistance to help African countries expand their exports.
Capacity building to meet market requirements and international standards for exports is an essential component of this. In particular, USAID should increase technical assistance to these trade hubs to address critical food safety issues, including contamination from mycotoxins, a poisonous fungus that damages as much as one-fourth of all agricultural harvests worldwide.
In addition to “good agriculture practices” before and during harvest, preventing exposure to mycotoxin contamination after harvest through proper storage techniques is critical. Investments in postharvest storage facilities, new detection and diagnostic tools for monitoring, and training farmers on proper management practices for handling and storing crops can serve as a first line of defense in strengthening food safety and preventing food waste early in the postharvest value chain.