Targeted Investments in Agricultural Education for Developing Countries

Charles L. Wilson, Ph.D., Founder, World Food Preservation Center® LLC

worldfoodpreservationcenter@frontier.com

The World is proceeding toward a global food shortage crisis and we are not on a sustainable path to address this problem.

The world’s population is expected to reach 9.6 billion people by 2050. By remaining on the present path toward reducing world hunger we are going to fall far short of the food required to feed the world’s exploding population.

http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0066428

To increase the world’s food supply we have two fundamental choices – produce more food and/or save more of the food that we already produce. A second “Green Revolution” to meet this crisis is not going to be sufficient. Because of soil erosion, contamination, lack of fertility, along with global warming, our environment is not going to allow us to sufficiently address this current food shortage crisis by just producing more food as we did during the “Green Revolution."

One-third of the food that we already produce is being lost globally between the time that it is harvested and consumed. In developing countries these postharvest food losses often exceed 50% of the harvested crop. The food that we already produce could feed two billion additional hunger people if saved. Therefore, we MUST substantially reduce these postharvest food losses if we are to avoid disastrous food shortages and escalating world hunger.

Presently we are investing 95% of our agricultural resources into mounting another “Green Revolution” while only investing 5% of our agricultural resources into the postharvest preservation of food. To correct this imbalance, the World Food Preservation Center® LLC has mounted a “Food Preservation Revolution™” directed toward saving more of the food that we already produce. This is seen as an sustainable and long term approach toward reducing postharvest food losses in developing countries and diminishing world hunger.

Advanced Postharvest Food Education for Developing Countries

A major mission of the World Food Preservation Center® LLC is the postharvest education of young people in developing countries. The World Food Preservation Center® LLC is promoting the advanced (M.S. and Ph.D.) postharvest education of young student/scientists in developing countries in the latest technologies for the postharvest preservation of food. Graduates from this program return to their native countries and establish independent postharvest research, education, and extension programs that will continue generationally. http://www.worldfoodpreservationcenter.com/first-graduate.html

Secondary Postharvest Food Education for Developing Countries

According to Irina Bokova, Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) “There can be no escape from poverty without a vast expansion of secondary education. This is a minimum entitlement for equipping youth with the knowledge and skills they need to secure decent livelihoods in today's globalized world.” Yet, two thirds of African children are effectively locked out of secondary school, according to a new UN report which cites secondary education as one of the next great development challenges facing many of the world's poorest countries.

The World Food Preservation Center® LLC (WFPC) recognizes that not only is it important to dramatically increase support for secondary education in developing countries we must also target and make relevant the curricula that students attending these schools receive. The World Food Preservation Center® LLC through its network of twenty-eight major research universities and three major research institutes on six continents is developing food loss/safety/nutrition curricula for secondary schools in Africa, Latin American, and Asia.

The food curricula being developed to educate young people in developing countries in the latest technologies for preserving food and keeping food safe and nutritious will serve multiple purposes. It will introduce young students to the ideas that: (1) agriculture involves not only the production of food but also the preservation of food; (2) agriculture is not just hard labor but a science and profession; (3) there are job opportunities in agriculture after food is harvested; (4) food contamination is a threat to the safety of their family and animals; and (5) if food is not properly handled it can rapidly lose its nutritional value.  

Agriculture as a Profession for Young People in Developing Countries

Observing the back-breaking work endured by their parents and relatives in agriculture, young secondary school students in developing countries are not attracted to farming. Also, agricultural curricula in developing countries is lacking. The result being that secondary education students do not see a future for themselves in agriculture as a profession. The postharvest food education curricula being developed by the World Food Preservation Center® LLC will expose young people in developing countries to the science of agriculture and the multiple opportunities for employment and entrepreneurship in food preservation, safety, processing, storage, transport, and marketing.

When You Educate a Young Person in a Developing Country You Educate their Family and Community

Many young students in developing countries come from families that are illiterate or that have limited knowledge of how to store and preserve food in order to keep it from spoiling, becoming contaminated, or losing its nutritional value. Students equipped with knowledge on these subjects can impart it to their families and their communities at large.

CONCLUSION

We have limited dollars to invest in food security for developing countries. We can expect a large return on investments in secondary school curricula directed toward reducing food loss and enhancing food safety and nutrition in developing countries. The World Food Preservation Center® LLC with its major agricultural research universities and institutes on six continents is uniquely positioned to develop secondary education agricultural curricula for developing countries targeted toward specific regions in Africa, Asia, and Latin America.

If you would like to join in this effort, please let us know. Financial donations can be made to the non-profit 501 (c) (3) public charity the World Food Preservation Education Foundation HERE.