Tomato food value chain: Managing postharvest losses in Cameroon

Abstract

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum L.) production contributes to food and nutrition security, and a lucrative business for many stakeholders. Major stakeholders in the tomato food value chain (TFVC) include farmers, middlemen, wholesalers, retailers, and consumers. Farmers contribute the highest in value addition of tomato but earn the lowest profit (8.8%) compared to retailers (53.0%) with the highest, while middlemen and wholesalers earn 19.2% and 19.9%, respectively. This review is aimed at improving TFVC in Fako Division, South West Region of Cameroon, by evaluating the causes of tomato postharvest losses (PHL) and proposing suitable innovative solutions and policies adapted from existing strategies across the globe. Smallholder farmers incur a lot of PHL of tomato due to mechanical injury from the use of raffia made baskets, overfilled basket, poor transportation and logistics facilities, and harvest maturity index. Perforated plastic crates could be used to reduce losses. The government of Cameroon needs to provide a legal framework on tomato marketing to help regulate the actions of the various actors in order to redistribute profit as per the value added by each actor. Management of PHL is a collective effort of all stakeholders working together to provide high quality and quantity of tomato fruits.