Ghana wastes between 40% and 50% of its fruits and vegetables annually, social entrepreneur, innovator and changemaker Mathias Charles Yabe has said.

He said the losses occur across the food value chain, from farms and marketplaces to homes, restaurants and food joints.

Speaking on the 13th edition of the Loud and Green X-Space on JoyNews, Mr Yabe said the scale of food waste remained a major challenge requiring practical interventions.

“Just in Ghana, we see at least about 40% of our food is being wasted in terms of fruits and vegetables being wasted every year. About 40 to 50%. So that is a current situation in Ghana,” he said.

Mr Yabe said his interest in addressing post-harvest losses was influenced by experiences in farming communities, including a case where a farmer’s tomatoes were left to rot because buyers failed to arrive on time and there was no facility to store the produce.

He said the challenge was particularly acute in farming communities without reliable access to electricity, where conventional refrigeration systems can be difficult to deploy.

His company, Akofresh, has consequently developed solar-powered refrigeration systems designed for farms and communities.

“Basically, we are building fridges on farms and in communities. Essentially, these fridges are supposed to help preserve food and extend its shelf life, especially fruits and vegetables, from five days to up to 21 days,” he said.

Mr Yabe said the refrigerators are powered by solar energy and are intended to serve communities that are off the national electricity grid.

Akofresh has also introduced solar-powered refrigerated tricycles to help reduce losses during the transportation of fresh produce.

“We recently introduced solar-powered refrigerator tricycles. These tricycles are a complementary solution to the stationary and then the mobile refrigerated units,” he said.

According to Mr Yabe, the intervention gives farmers another option for preserving their produce while it is being transported to markets.

He said reducing post-harvest losses could simultaneously improve farmers’ incomes, strengthen food supply and reduce the environmental impact of food waste.

The discussion formed part of the 13th edition of the Loud and Green X-Space, which examined opportunities emerging from Ghana’s climate challenges.