APHLIS is a unique resource providing estimates of postharvest cereal weight losses in Sub-Saharan Africa. An important feature of the system is that it is supported by a network of African agriculturalists who submit and ‘own’the country-specific data.
The first version of APHLIS focused on only East and Southern Africa and went live in 2009. The initial objectives and construction of APHLIS were described in 2011 in a report published by the European Commission . In the foreword of that report the main emphasis was placed on the contribution of APHLIS to cereal supply calculations that lead to important decisions about national food security. Since then the focus of APHLIS has been broadened so that it is now aims to serve the needs of not only cereal supply calcualtions but also for the planning and execution of loss reduction activities.
During two further APHLIS projects, ending in 2014, the focus moved from cereal supply calculation to loss reduction and the system was expanded to cover nearly all countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Furthermore, there was a significant upgrading of the APHLIS website and the features it offers to provide better information on cereal losses. These changes have included much improved interative mapping of losses and the addition of maps giving absolute losses (MT/km2) that complement the relative loss maps (% weight losses). For several countries there are now webpages dedicated to country-specific narratives that explain and explore the loss values given within APHLIS and provide information on the local postharvest situation and losses projects. New information materials have been added to enable a better understanding of the signifcance of loss of quality and a series of tips for reducing the losses of smallholder farmers. A key feature of the system, the downloadable PHL Calculator that allows the practitioner to estimate losses at any given geographical scale using their own data, was upgraded with several new features to increase funcationality.
Besides the new technical features, the engagment of APHLIS with the development community over the last three years has shown that it can be developed further as a communication hub that informs, motivates and co-ordinates efforts to reduce postharvest losses. This report has been prepared to focus this interest and to meet the needs of users for an up to date reference that both explains how the system can be used, how it was developed, and what opportunties there are for further development. Some outputs of APHLIS over the last two years, particularly a ‘Loss Assessment Manual’ and a ‘Quality Losses report’ have been integrated into this text although both of these can be downloaded individually from the APHLIS website.
The manual is presented in four parts. Part 1 deals with the nature of cereal grain postharvest losses and places APHLIS in the context of agricultural development. Part 2 provides details of all the features of APHLIS. Part 3 explains how to generate new data using rapid methods of loss assessment, and Part 4 looks to a future where APHLIS could be expanded to APHLISplus, the basis to a Community of Practice dedicated to loss reduction through improved postharvest management.
HODGES Rick;
BERNARD Marc;
REMBOLD Felix;
2015-01-27
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC92152
978-92-79-43853-0,
978-92-79-43852-3,
1018-5593,
1831-9424 (online),
EUR 26897,
OP LB-NA-26897-EN-C,
OP LB-NA-26897-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC92152,
10.2788/19582,
10.2788/19466 (online),
