APHLIS+African postharvest losses information system

Introducing APHLIS+

The African Postharvest Losses Information System (APHLIS) is a scientific model producing calculated estimates of postharvest losses of food crops across sub-Saharan Africa. Currently the system provides evidence-based information on cereal grain weight losses in 38 countries of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) contributed in part by a network of local cereal grain experts.

APHLIS is currently being updated and expanded under the APHLIS+ project to:

  • Increase the crop varieties it covers
  • Improve the accuracy of its estimation models
  • Add estimates of value and nutritional losses
  • Provide interactive tools to access the data and underlying models

In doing so, APHLIS will provide up-to-date, comprehensive and expert-validated loss data for policy-makers, practitioners, academics and NGOs. APHLIS+ will run from 2015 - 2020.

A network of experts

APHLIS+ brings together postharvest experts to provide the best possible estimation of postharvest losses of food crops in sub-Saharan Africa. Accurate estimates of postharvest losses require in-depth knowledge of crops, value chain activities and their interaction with local conditions. The APHLIS+ core team collaborates with experts in these fields to provide industry-leading PHL estimates.

APHLIS+ core team(left to right)

Bruno TranNatural Resources institute

Tanya StathersNatural Resources institute

Ben BennettNatural Resources institute

Jan PriebeNatural Resources institute

Marc BernardAfrica Rice

Felix RemboldEuropean Commission - Joint Research Center

Brighton MvumiUniversity of Zimbabwe

Frank SonntagAKM-Services

Rudolf BöckAKM-Services

If you are a postharvest expert working on any of the mentioned crop groups and interested in contributing to this project please contact us and join the Community of Practice on Food Loss Reduction.

New crops

APHLIS+ will expand coverage of crops to include pulses (common bean, groundnut, and cowpea), roots & tubers (cassava, yam and sweetpotato) and plantain & bananas alongside the currently available cereals estimates. Due to the complexity of developing methodologies for each of these crops, loss estimations for new crops will come online in a staged manner.

Improved modelling

To improve the accuracy of APHLIS estimates, external data sources will be integrated providing relevant information such as automatically downloading weather data. This automation will enable local APHLIS network members to focus on data checking and ground-truthing, further improving APHLIS accuracy.

APHLIS models will be further refined using statistical modelling techniques to integrate observational and validation data and as well as relevant grey literature and reports. We are comitted to maintaining the current openness of both loss estimates and the models used to create them.

Financial and nutritional value

Current APHLIS estimates provide loss data as absolute cumulative weight losses (tonnes) or as a percentage weight loss of production. APHLIS+ will include the economic value and nutritional profile of crops lost, reflecting the increasing importance of these two measures in decision-making.

Expanded services

Loss estimates

  • Losses tables
  • Losses visualisations
  • Country narratives
  • Alerts

Modelling

  • Decision support systems
  • Scenario planning
  • Monitoring & evaluation
  • Training tools

Open access

  • Open access to loss estimates
  • Access to algorithms via modelling tool
  • Data API

APHLIS+ will reach out to current and potential users to ensure it delivers services that fulfil users’ expectations. This will range from developing improved interfaces to the loss data and underlying algorithms, as well as providing alerts, trainings and decision-making tools.

APHLIS data and underlying algorithms will remain publicly accessible at no cost and an open access API will be provided to allow for the integration of APHLIS data in third party applications.

Sign up

In order to improve our services to our user community we are committed to learning from your experiences using APHLIS data and value your contributions to the development of APHLIS products and services. In submitting your email address you may be invited to participate in panel discussions and online surveys, as well as receiving occasional updates regarding product releases throughout the duration of the APHLIS+ project.

  • Share your experiences of using APHLIS
  • Contribute to the development of new products and services
  • Stay up to date with milestones and product releases
Sign Up

APHLIS+ is made possible by

APHLIS+ is made possible by the Bill and Melinda Gates through a generous grant to expand APHLIS services until 2020.