Inside INdiana Business is reporting that the U.S. Agency for International Development has awarded $3 million to Purdue University’s faculty-led Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Processing and Post-Harvest Handling program. The funding will extend the program for another three years.
The program aims to reduce food losses and enhance the value of foods in Africa.
The university says the project’s main goal is to create “sustainable, market-driven value chains that reduce food losses, improve food and nutrition security, and contribute to economic growth for smallholder farmers and food processing entrepreneurs in Kenya and Senegal.”
“Our Feed the Future Innovation Lab focuses on reducing food losses along the value chain, producing nutritious and acceptable foods, and improving livelihoods,” said Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, associate professor in the Department of Agricultural Economics at Purdue and the project director, in a news release. “In the first phase of the project, we developed and identified a number of innovative practices and technologies to help African farmers, traders, and food processors. In the second phase, we will emphasize commercializing and scaling-up these innovations to maximize our impact.”