The GRATITUDE project that counts with EU funding, seeks new ways of reducing waste during the production of food crops vital to families in parts of Africa and Asia. The main objective of this project is helping the world's poorest people in some of the most deprived regions.

The GRATITUDE ('Gains from losses of root and tuber crops') project brings together 16 project partners from Ghana, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Thailand, the United Kingdom and Vietnam, and received close to €3 million of funding from the EU's Seventh Framework Programme (FP7). This 3-year project aims to find new ways of reducing waste during the production of food crops vital to families in parts of Africa and Asia.

According to the partners project, by reducing such losses, the role of crops such as the cassava and yam, play in food and income security can be enhanced. Cassava and yam are important food security crops for approximately 700 million people worldwide, and their post-harvest losses are significant. These losses can be physical or economic, through discounting or processing into low-value products, or can result from bio-wastes.

Currently, growers can lose up to 60% of yam and 30% of cassava during the processing of the crops after harvesting through rotting, poor storage, transport and price discounts. The researchers hope to reduce these losses by implementing better storage and processing techniques to reduce waste and turn it into something of value.