Publication Type
Journal Article
Journal Name
World Development
Publication Date
7-6-2025
Abstract
Reducing food losses is a significant and often overlooked opportunity to bolster global food security and enhancing the resilience and sustainability of global food systems. Food losses are highest in low-income countries where millions of smallholder farming households remain particularly vulnerable. As yet, smallholders’ adoption of loss-minimizing storage technologies, such as hermetic storage bags, remains low. Here, we study the effects of two types of policy options on the adoption of improved on-farm storage in the case of Ethiopia. Using a randomized controlled trial, we show that a small partial subsidy, which mirrors the current fiscal burden on these technologies, can lead to a sixfold increase in the adoption of hermetic storage bags (from 11% to 67% adoption). While providing a free trial bag did not increase purchase rates later-on, it did rapidly improve household food security. These findings underscore the need for policymakers in low-income countries to consider reducing fiscal barriers on post-harvest technologies, as is common for other agricultural technologies, to contribute to enhanced food security and more resilient food systems.
Keywords
Food Security, Hermetic storage, Post-harvest losses, RCT, Technology Adoption
Disciplines
Agricultural Science
Recommended Citation
Brander, M., Abro, Z., Kassie, M., Mittmann, W., Stiefel, L., & Huss, M. (2025). Small policy changes can accelerate the adoption of improved on-farm storage among smallholder farmers. World Development, 195 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2025.107118