Hunger is a serious problem affecting people all over the world today. While climate change and the Ukraine-Russia war have been identified as contributing factors, post-harvest losses are often overlooked.

Farmers in Ghana have complained about losing crops due to the high costs of pesticides, fertilizers, and lack of irrigation systems, resulting in higher prices for food products. However, little attention is paid to the amount of food lost along the supply chain.

A recent documentary called "Empty Plates" by JoyNews has brought to light the inhumane treatment of students in some public Senior High schools (SHS) in Ghana in terms of the food they are given. The students have taken to the media to express their dissatisfaction with the malnourished meals served in schools. This is concerning as hunger and malnourished meals are not conducive to academic excellence.

A nuanced perspective on the insufficient food supply from the buffer stock company to schools suggests that the issue may stem from the significant amount of food waste in Ghana and worldwide.

It would, therefore, be unfair to place the entire burden of inadequate food access in schools, on our tables, and for export solely on the buffer stock company, market women, and other farm produce distributors.

According to a recent report by the United Nations Environmental Program, households worldwide waste a staggering one billion tonnes of food daily. The report also underscores that food waste is predominantly an urban problem, owing to the rapid expansion of urban settlements.

This underscores the urgency for local governments to address the issue and enforce stringent measures to curb food wastage. Furthermore, food waste is closely intertwined with hunger, making it a pressing concern that requires immediate attention.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) report for 2022 highlights South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara as the regions with the most severe levels of hunger, both scoring 27.0 on the index. These regions have consistently held this position for the past 20 years, and Ghana is situated within this area.

The recently released Ghana Income and Expenditure Survey for 2022 indicates that approximately 15.1 million individuals (nearly half of the entire Ghanaian population) are food insecure while 13.6 (44.1%) million individuals experienced simultaneous food insecurity and multidimensional poverty in the first quarter, increasing marginally to 14.4 million (46.7%) in the second quarter of the same year.

According to the African Regional Overview of Food Security and Nutrition provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization, it is concerning that Africa is currently not making significant progress towards fulfilling the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2 targets.

These goals involve eradicating hunger, ensuring year-round availability of safe, nutritious, and sufficient food for all, and eliminating all forms of malnutrition.

According to recent statistics, over one-fifth of the African population, totalling 281.6 million people suffered from hunger in 2020. This marks a significant increase of 46.3 million from the previous year, and the trend has been negative since 2014, following a period of improving food security.

Alongside hunger, millions of Africans are also grappling with a lack of critical micronutrients, while overweight and obesity present significant public health concerns in several nations. Unfortunately, progress toward meeting the global nutrition targets by 2030 has been alarmingly slow.

According to the recently released Food Waste Index Report 2021, Ghana is the only country in the African region where the household waste estimate has achieved a high level of confidence.

The report details a five-week study, which categorised waste from over 1,000 households across ten districts in Ghana, revealing that the country experiences a significant incidence of food wastage compared to other Sub-Saharan African nations. The report further reveals that the estimated annual food waste per person in Ghana is approximately 84kg.

Despite the notable progress that Ghana has made in its Global Hunger Index ranking, there remains a pressing need to achieve a zero index.

Nevertheless, it is heartening to see that Ghana stands as the second-highest ranked country in West Africa, with a hunger index of 13.7, just behind Cabo Verde at 12.4, according to the Global Hunger Index report of 2023. The trend of Global Hunger Index reports for Ghana between the years 2000 to 2023 is illustrated in the graph below.

Within a mere six years, nations across the globe are anticipated to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals, with particular emphasis on SDG2 and SDG13: Zero Hunger and Ensure Sustainable Production and Consumption, respectively. While the overarching intention of the SDG Goals is to eradicate hunger worldwide, it begs the question: what measures are countries taking to attain this objective?

According to the Food Waste Index, the world wasted a staggering 1.05 billion tonnes of food in 2022. Shockingly, this amounts to nearly 20% of all food available to consumers being wasted at the retail, food service, and household levels.

On top of that, an additional 13% of the world's food is lost in the supply chain, from post-harvest up to but not including retail. Sadly, the majority of food waste globally comes from households, accounting for a whopping 60% of all food wasted in 2022. Meanwhile, the food service and retail sectors make up the remaining share.

The report further highlights food waste as a market failure as follows:

• Food waste is a market failure that results in the throwing away of more than US$1 trillion worth of food every year. It is also an environmental failure: food waste generates an estimated 8–10 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions (including from both loss and waste), and it takes up the equivalent of nearly 30 per cent of the world’s agricultural land.

• The conversion of natural ecosystems for agriculture has been the leading cause of habitat loss. Just as urgently, food waste is failing people: even as food is being thrown away at scale, up to 783 million people are affected by hunger each year, and 150 million children under the age of five suffer stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets.

• Sustainable Development Goal 12, target 12.3 (herein, SDG 12.3) captures a commitment to halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and to reduce food loss across supply chains by 2030.

Although significant progress has been made towards reducing the Hunger Index from 2000 to 2023, it remains crucial to redirect wasted food towards other purposes by both households and firms, with particular emphasis on the agricultural sector.

As a result, Ghanaian governments have implemented initiatives aimed at reducing hunger rates and guaranteeing sufficient food production for everyone.

Several significant initiatives have been undertaken to promote the growth of the agricultural sector.

These include Planting for Food and Jobs programme, the establishment of the Buffer Stock company, the Agricultural Development Bank, one district one factory, and agricultural subsidy programs that provide government-subsidized fertilizers to local farmers.

Although these programs have made a positive impact on the sector's development, there is still room for improvement as we strive for perfection.

However, it is essential to prioritize the maintenance of our factories and fix any worn-out areas that result in significant food loss during the processing stage of the supply chain.

Additionally, the government and other organizations should increase public education on the utilisation of inedible food parts for other productive purposes, such as creating manure.

According to the Food Waste Index Report released by UNEP in 2024, discarded food accounts for approximately 30% of the earth's total surface, which is a cause for concern.

Therefore, we must work together to ensure that we contribute towards creating a better world for all to live in.