‘From lab to land’: Real research should impact end users

Several years ago, when Professor of Horticulture Jane Ambuko landed her first research project from the National Commission for Science, Technology and Innovation (NACOSTI), she went to Makueni County, Kenya’s largest producer of mangoes, to collect samples for laboratory evaluation on the effectiveness of a technology that delays mango ripening, thereby extending their shelf life and marketing period.

However, while working with the smallholder mango farmers in Makueni, she realised there was a much bigger problem, the problem of food loss and waste of fruit and vegetables. Mangoes produced in surplus were overripened and, hence, wasted, a major gap that she identified and developed a zeal to research and find solutions for.

“Food loss (FL) refers to food that gets spilled, spoilt, or otherwise lost, or incurs a reduction of quality and value before the retail stage of the supply chain. Thus, FL results from decisions and actions by food suppliers in the chain, excluding retailers, food service providers and consumers. Food waste (FW) refers to quality food fit for consumption that doesn’t get consumed, but is deliberately discarded,” she said.

In her recent professorial inaugural lecture titled, ‘From the Lab to the Land: Solutions for food loss and waste reduction for the people and the planet’, Ambuko emphasised the need to take innovative solutions from the research phase to the end users.

She spoke to University World News about her contribution to addressing food loss and waste (FLW) in fruits and vegetables.

UWN: Your work focuses on solutions transitioning from the lab to the land. Can you explain what this means in practice?

JA: The phrase ‘from the lab to the land’ is used to imply that whatever innovative solutions come from research in our labs at the university must benefit the end users. Through adaptive research, we researchers have developed and optimised innovative solutions to reduce FLW. They include low-cost cold storage technologies, complementary technologies for extending the shelf life of fruits and vegetables, innovative products from small-scale processing of fruits, and valorisation of processing waste.

While these innovative solutions have led to theses and peer-reviewed journal articles by our research team, we have also endeavoured to raise awareness about them and promote them for adoption by end users. Subsequently, some of the innovative solutions have been adopted to benefit the end users including farmers, processors, and other value-chain practitioners.

UWN: Can you share any personal experience or observation that has shaped your perspective on food security and food waste?

JA: My late mother was a particularly good farmer. She invested so much in maize farming on her small parcel of land. It always pained me to see her lose her maize to storage pests due to a lack of proper storage. Sometimes, when she opted to sell the maize immediately after the harvest to avoid storage losses, she would be exploited by middlemen who paid so little during the peak season. This situation is not unique to my late mother, but it is the plight of many smallholder farmers across various value chains.

The situation is worse in the highly perishable horticultural produce (fruits, vegetables, herbs). Once the produce matures in the field, it must be harvested. In instances where the farmers do not have a ready market or cold storage to store the produce to slow down deterioration, then the losses are enormous.

UWN: Why is addressing FLW crucial?

JA: Addressing FLW is crucial for achieving sustainable food systems and meeting the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12 (SDG 12), which aims to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce postharvest losses by 2030 (SDG target 12.3). As so much food goes to waste globally, more than 800 million people worldwide suffer from hunger and 3 billion people cannot afford a healthy diet.

The wasted food represents, not just a loss of edible food, but also the squandered resources used in its production, including water, land, energy, labour, and capital. In recognition of the importance of FLW reduction, the United Nations General Assembly designated 29 September as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (IDAFLW). The IDAFLW aims to raise awareness about the problem of FLW and its negative impacts – social, economic, and environmental.

UWN: What are some of the most effective technologies or methods you have developed or promoted for reducing food loss?

JA: I lead a multidisciplinary team, dubbed the University of Nairobi Postharvest Research Team. The team is composed of horticulturists, agronomists, food scientists, animal scientists, nutritionists, and agricultural economists drawn from the different departments at the faculty of agriculture. Our faculty-wide team is complemented by colleagues from the faculty of engineering, specifically from the department of environmental and biosystems engineering. The team members include academic staff, technical staff and graduate students (MSc and PhD).

There are several innovations that we have developed or customised through adaptive research. They include cold storage technologies (the Coolbot cold room, evaporative charcoal cooler, zero-energy brick cooler), drying technologies (tunnel solar dryer and the Dehytray), and innovative processed products from fruits and vegetables.

Through funding support from various development partners such as the Rockefeller Foundation, the World Food Programme, or WFP, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), and others, we have endeavoured to scale up these innovations to benefit farmers and traders in various counties in Kenya.

UWN What are the biggest challenges you have faced in implementing food loss reduction strategies in Kenya or elsewhere?

JA: Onboarding all the actors in the agri-food sector for collective and complementary action towards the common goal of reducing food loss and waste. Interventions at the farm level are not enough when other actors continue with practices that contribute to FLW. The complexity of the FLW problem requires a multidisciplinary approach where natural and social scientists complement their knowledge and skills for better outcomes. Another big challenge is the lack of updated evidence-based data at the local level. It is not easy to influence decisions by sector actors without reliable data.

UWN: What role do education and training play in reducing food loss and improving postharvest practices?

JA: Intentional research at universities plays the role of co-creating solutions through knowledge generation. The innovations developed from research and academic institutions are used to train farmers and build the capacity of sector actors on storage, and best practices to preserve the quality of food – training on harvest practices, postharvest handling practices, and applicable technologies for food preservation. Consumer education is also key to promoting simple practices or actions such as the reuse of food leftovers, understanding labelling on food items, and best storage practices at the household level which can significantly reduce food waste in our homes.

UWN: Looking ahead, what are your main goals for the future regarding FLW reduction in the education sector?

JA: We cannot produce food using limited production resources and then see it go to waste while millions go hungry. Therefore, raising awareness about the problem of FLW, embracing innovative solutions to address the problem, and working with partners, including the private sector, to scale up our innovative solutions from research and build or strengthen the capacity of food supply chain actors are goals for a sustainable food system. There is a need to generate more evidence about FLW – the extent of FLW, the causes or drivers of FLW, and the impact of FLW (social, economic, and environmental). This is key to informing policy and targeted action toward FLW reduction.

UWN: How do you assess the impact of your research on local farming communities? Can you provide any success stories?

JA: With support from the Rockefeller Foundation, we established the first smallholder aggregation centres for the Karurumo Smallholder Horticulture Self-help Group. The centre was equipped with cold storage facilities to help the farmers to aggregate produce for the fresh market. The small-scale processing facilities and training on processing helped them to add value to mango fruits to reduce postharvest losses. We also established another aggregation centre for the Masii Cooperative Society. We have installed cooling technologies for other farmers’ groups in Kisumu (FAO-supported), traders in Turkana, Marsabit, and Wajir (WFP-supported).

UWN: How does addressing FL relate to broader issues like climate change and food security?

JA: FLW reduction is a key strategy in the efforts to mitigate climate change.

The negative footprint of FLW on the environment can be categorised into three – carbon, land, and water footprints. The carbon footprint is the contribution of FLW to greenhouse gas emissions and is estimated to be 4.4Gt of carbon dioxide (CO₂) equivalent or 8% to 10% of the greenhouse gases. The land footprint is attributed to the pressure on limited land resources with 1.4 billion hectares (30%) of arable land used to produce food that is wasted.

The water footprint refers to the pressure on water resources with 250km³ of blue water used to produce food that goes to waste. In Kenya, the land footprint is estimated to be 15% (or 82,890km²) used to produce food that goes to waste. Kenya’s FLW carbon footprint is estimated to be 21% of total greenhouse gases attributed to FLW [according to the World Resources Institute’s 2024 report].

A sustainable food system ensures food security and nutrition for all in such a way that the economic, social, and environmental bases to generate food security and nutrition of future generations are not compromised. Reducing postharvest losses is a critical component of sustainable food systems and there is an enormous economic value attached to FLW that is often overlooked.

UWN: What message would you like to convey to the next generation of researchers and students in the field of food systems?

JA: I work with a whole lot of students engaged in various research activities geared towards addressing food systems challenges. My advice to them is don’t do research for the sake of research but identify a real problem and address it to have some impact on end users – let your research not just earn you a thesis or peer-reviewed journal paper.

When our graduate students present their research ideas, there is always a problem statement and justification for the research. We ask them to explain why the research is necessary and what would happen if their research was not done. This is meant to let them think critically about the real problem that requires research, such that, once the research is done, a solution to a real problem is also identified for end users – besides the thesis and journal papers.