5 July 2011: The African Union (AU) and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) defining areas of cooperation in support of regional capacity building to reduce post-harvest losses in agriculture. The MoU was signed on 5 July 2011, at AU Headquarters is Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The objective of the cooperation is to fill existing gaps in African systems for post-harvest loss reduction to reduce food and nutrition insecurity, and improve value addition in African agriculture. The focus will be on training of regional institutions, national government officials and development agencies in designing policies, strategies and investment programmes targeting post-harvest loss reduction.

The project also will support the establishment of a virtual network and formulation of proposals for investment projects targeting reduction of post-harvest loss in Africa. [AU Press Release]