Texas State launches effort to reduce produce lost after harvest in Bangladesh

RESEARCH & INNOVATION

Jayme Blaschke | November 6, 2023

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has awarded Texas State University a grant to develop cost-effective supply chain and business model innovations to enable Bangladesh to reduce the loss of nutrition in a wide range of produce following harvest.

The three-year, $700,000 grant will support the project, “Upgrading value chains of nutrient-dense perishable agricultural commodities in Bangladesh: Technological interventions and IT-based business model development to reduce postharvest and nutrient loss.” Principal investigator Madan Dey, Ph.D., chair of the Department of Agricultural Sciences at Texas State, will oversee the project. Md. Akhtaruzzaman Khan, Ph.D., head of the Department of Agricultural Finance and Banking at Bangladesh Agricultural University and currently a Fulbright Scholar in Residence at Texas State, will serve as the host country PI in Bangladesh.

The project builds on the networks and collaborations that Dey has developed with funding support from other ongoing and completed projects in Bangladesh and the region. Over the last several years, Dey has had five other projects in Bangladesh funded by USDA and various USAID sources with an approximate total of $1.7 million.

As a developing country, Bangladesh experiences high rates of postharvest loss for fruits and vegetables (17-32%) and fish (25%). This food loss threatens Bangladesh’s goal of achieving of nutritional security and puts vulnerable populations at increased risk of malnutrition. Through grants to universities such as Texas State, USAID assists the Bangladesh government in addressing this issue by investing in postharvest infrastructure development and digital agriculture, among other strategies, to reduce food loss.

Texas State will work to co-create a cost-effective storage, packaging and cooling innovation bundle, as well as introduce a lean business model to help reduce postharvest loss in Bangladesh. The project will evaluate existing technologies, market structures, and policies to identify areas along these value chains that need improvement in terms of cost-effectiveness. The development of a lean business model is expected to increase access to the market through a mobile app for small and medium entrepreneurs (SMEs), farmers and other value chain actors.

The project will also implement extensive training programs to improve human and institutional capacity. The training component will be based on the findings stemming from the development of co-created innovation bundles as well as the lean business model. This is expected to improve the capacity of Bangladesh universities and government agencies to offer the most relevant training to farmers, processors, distributors, and SMEs in the domestic market. Improved collaboration among Bangladesh educational institutions, public organizations and private organizations will also help to enhance the nation’s domestic capabilities and self-reliance.

Although the project is designed to meet Bangladesh-specific research priorities, the integrated, multidisciplinary and cost-effective value chain approach of the project can also be adapted for other developing countries with similar perishable product value chains in the future.