English
French
Collecting new data
To make loss estimations APHLIS needs three types of data, these are -
1) Cereal production by province, by season and where possible by smallholder or larger-scale producer - these can usually be obtained on request from Ministries of Agriculture
2) Losses that occur at each link in the postharvest chain - obtain by costly and time consuming field survey work (this is why APHLIS has to rely mostly on loss data from the scientific literature), and
3) Factors that affect the severity of losses, between seasons and between years - obtained by field survey interviews or interviews with experienced extension workers.
To help facilitate the collection of new loss data, APHLIS has prepared a loss assessment manual that gives details of rapid survey methods for loss assessment, in particular the combined use of visual scales and questionnaire surveys. There is also a form that can be used for face to face or telephone interviews to gather seasonal data from experienced extension workers.