food handling with a view to maintaining or 

 enhancing their economic security. 

 Assisting governments to design and implement 

 multidisciplinary programs for reducing and 

 preventing major losses identified by assessment 

 surveys. This could include developing and 

 studying economic and social indicators relating to 

 postharvest food losses. These studies will help 

 evaluate the role of loss prevention schemes in 

 agricultural production programs and overall 

 development strategies. 



Strengthening information systems that can be used 

 by researchers, policymakers, and project planners 

 in developing countries, including support for 

 collecting and cataloguing relevant documents, 

 books, and periodicals, and producing up-to-date 

 postharvest bibliographies. 



Identifying and/or developing low-cost equipment to 

 reduce food losses such as solar grain driers, low- 

 cost refrigeration, or simple cooling methods; 

 supporting research and development as needed to 

 integrate these into food handling and marketing 

 systems. 



Monitoring postharvest activities of donor groups 

 and research institutes and encouraging them to 

 participate in cooperative projects likely to 

 improve results or reduce costs. 



Developing ways to involve the private sectors in 

 both developing countries and the United States in 

 programs to reduce food losses. Incentives need 

 particular attention. Direct foreign investment, 

 where it is compatible with long-term national 

 objectives and capabilities, will continue to be a 

 very effective way to improve agricultural output 

 and to provide for long-term development of 

 agroindustry. The U.S. private sector could be 

 brought into these programs under proposals 

 outlined by the U.N. Industrial Development 

 Organization (UNIDO) in its Industry Cooperative 

 Program for countries where conventional methods of 

 involvement are not permitted or practical. The 

 private sector in developing countries, either 

 local or transnational, must be brought into 

 programs early to increase the likelihood that the 

 programs will be continued after the completion of 

 the initial phase. Many good projects fail because 

 governments, no matter how well intentioned, are 

 poor business operators and lose interest when more 

 pressing problems become apparent. 



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