Reducing food loss in developing country value chains through food system innovation

Reducing food loss in developing country value chains through food system innovation seeks to address food loss and waste and improve understanding of its drivers. Up to four projects with the potential for transformative impact on food security may be funded.

Food loss and food waste are symptoms of larger inefficiencies in food systems. Food loss can lower incomes for smallholder farmers, increase the negative impacts of climate change, and lower the resilience of food systems to climate related and other shocks. Research is required to both understand the problem within varying contexts and develop interventions to reduce food loss.

This call seeks ideas from teams to develop projects in two focal countries from the Pacific, Southeast Asia, South Asia, or East and Southern Africa. Proposed projects should examine the drivers of food loss and waste in a broader food system perspective, with an aim to testing interventions capable of addressing the core problems.

Consult the project guidelines for a full list of all eligibility requirements and funding details.

Please refer to the FAQ for additional details or contact ACIAR directly.

There will be a two-stage selection process.

Stage 1 requires concept ideas to be submitted by August 31, 2020. A team will assess the submissions against the eligibility criteria and rank against the selection criteria outlined in the call.

Stage 2 will focus on the teams with successful submissions, who will have time to develop a full project proposal for the program managers at ACIAR. Ideally, projects will commence work late in the 2020–2021 or early 2021–2022 financial year.

Call details and the application form are available in ENGLISH only. Please refer to the ACIAR funding page for full details and reference documents to the call.