Food Loss and Waste, specifically on these tools FLAPP and Optiwaste

Good morning, good afternoon, distinguished speakers, esteemed colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, on behalf of Putin Agriculture Organization of United Nations and the Ascend University Network for agriculture and food security, AUN AFS. Uh it's a great pleasure to welcome you to today's to today's last session for the technical series uh FAO technical series 2026. We are delighted to have participant joining us from different universities, reseeping announcements. Um the webinar is being recorded. So the recording will be made available after the session. uh you can access um the the I will send you all the links and and information as I did it before but also you can access in the link that I will I will share in the in the chat box. Uh please throughout the lecture keep your microphone mute. Uh if you wish to have a to ask a question in the Q&A session please let me know so I can allow you to speak in the to I can allow you to open your microphone. Finally, if you have any difficulties, please contact me so that I can help you for today's session. Today's session that the webinar is titled is food loss and waste flap and opt tools. Uh food loss and waste remain among the greatest challenge facing global food systems. Every year millions of tons of food are lost in waste across the value chain affecting food economic uh food security, economic and development and environmental sustainability. Reducing food loss and waste is therefore essential for achieving uh the sustainable development goals and being a more efficient agri food systems. This is why today's lecture is very important because our colleague my colleague Luciano Legado will introduce you to e digital tools flap and optways which support evidence-based decisions uh evidence-based and decision making to practical interventions and to reduce food loss and waste. It's my pleasure to introduce you to Dr. Luciano Degado, technical advisor at Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. Luciano Degado has been working on food loss and waste assessment and has contributed significantly on the development of innovative tools as I mentioned before flat and and not waste to assist governments research institution and to measure analyze and reduce food loss and waste across agra food systems. Her work combines scientific research with practical policy applications helping countries to move towards more sustainable food systems. Ladies and gentlemen, it's a great pleasure and an honor to introduce our colleague, my colleague Dr. Lucado. Please, thanks for coming through and join us. The session is yours now. >> Thank you, Marilyn. Thank you, colleagues. I'm Luca Delgado. I'm a technical advisor at the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. I'm Peruvian and I graduate as an engineer in aronomy from the national university agolina in Peru. And after an incredible field experience in 2013, I joined the international food policy research institute and international think tank in Washington DC to learn more about the economics behind value chains and the role of policies at the local, regional and global levels. Most of my career has been associated with global value chains, agro industry and food losses and food waste. Um I have also worked with private sector in the agro industry sector and I have developed experience in strengthen agricultural research and development uh programs. So working on upgrading value chains measuring and interventions to reduce foot loss and waste across the value chain and assessing market opportunities um for linking small holders to dynamic markets. I have also um the opportunity to work with multi-disiplinary teams uh in Latin America, Africa and and Asia. So um I also have a a PhD in and in from Aanhen University in the Netherlands and I joined FA in 2024. Um as Neline mentioned I have been working in this topic for at least for the last 10 years. So let me move now uh to my presentation. So can I share my screen now? Okay. >> Yes. Okay. Yes, we can. Let's see. >> Can you see my Okay. >> Yeah. >> So again, good afternoon everyone and thank you very much for joining today's lecture. It is a pleasure to be here with you as part of the FA technical lecture series. I'm Lucian Elgado, technical advisor at the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations. And today we will discuss uh one of the major challenges facing uh in the agri food system which is food loss and food waste. So as mentioned every year enormous amounts of food are lost or wasted with significant economic environmental and social consequences. So reducing these losses is essential not only for improving food security but also for making our agri food systems more efficient and sustainable. One of the biggest h challenges is that we cannot manage what we don't measure. So reliable data and essential to understand where foot loss and and foot waste occur why they occur and how we can effectively reduce them is part of uh what we are going to check today. So in today's s in today's session I will introduce two f digital tools developed to support this effort. Uh the first one is flap which focus on measuring and reduce food losses and the second one is opti waste uh which helps organizations h measure and reduce uh food waste. Um so before we begin let me briefly uh walk you through today's agenda. Uh we will start with an overview of food loss and food waste. Then I will introduce the flap followed by the optic waste and then we will finish as as meine mentioned with a discussion and questions if there is something to to to ask. Um so there has been a lot of effort to try to bring awareness about foot loss and waste. The original estimate from FA in 2011 that roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted remains broadly valid uh as an overall communications figure. However, today we have a much better measurements. Current official estimates is distinguish between food loss and food waste. So around 13.3% of food is lost between harvest and before retail. Uh this come from the F foot loss index. um and an additional 19% is wasted at retail, food service and household level which is measured by uh UNEP. So these estimates are based on different methodologies and therefore shouldn't uh simply be added together. So nevertheless they confirm that enormous quantities of food never fulfill their intended purpose and uh the picture today is therefore more precise greater than fundamentally uh different measurements. Um so reducing food loss and waste h does not automatically lead to improvement in food security, nutrition or environmental sustainability. However, it has uh the potential to generate three major benefits. The first one is improve food security and nutrition. The second one is to reduce the use of natural resources and lower greenhouse gas emissions. And the third one is to enhance productivity and economic growth. So at the same time it is important to recognize that some interventions may create trade-offs. A measure that contributes positively to one objective may have negatively effects on another. So for example h improving food quality through chilling or freezing can uh reduce losses but also can increase energy use and and greenhouse gas emissions. So therefore a food foot loss and waste um food loss and waste policies should acknowledge these trade-offs and adopt a holistic agri food system approach to balance multiple objectives. So achieving policy coherence is essential to ensure that food loss and waste reduction strategies maximize synergies while uh minimizing unattended h negative impacts. So why food loss and waste matters? So each uh so this the numbers means 1.3 billion tons of food loss and waste per year. It also means 8 to 10% of the greenhouse gas emissions. So if loss and waste were a country it should be the third highest emitter and in it also means 250 cubic kilometers of water footprint lost or wasted 1.4 billion hectares of land and a lot of ecosystem destruction and biiversity loss. So in a world where um 673 million undernourished people tomorrow we are going to have the launch of the Sophie. So the new number is coming. This number this this this food that we lost our ways could feed two billion people. Um so different so this this this graph comes from the sofa which is another publication from FA from 2019. So different objective will pursue different uh different economy sorry will pursue a different objective and the strategy should be designed accordingly. So for example uh if we want to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions uh we should focus on the downstream h at the consumer level but if our objective is to preserve land or increase the the income of the farmer we should intervene at the upstream level at the farm level. So this slide highlights the key innovations needed to reduce food loss and waste worldwide. So first better data collection and analysis will help governments and organizations to create more more effective policies and strategies. Second h innovations across the food uh the food chain. So including new products, services, business models and technologies. This play an important role in reducing food loss and waste. And finally uh strengthening the capacities of countries especially developing nations to adopt sustainable technologies and innovative approaches is essential for achieving a long-term progress. So to effective to effectively reduce food loss and food waste we first need to identify where when and why losses and waste occur. So without reliable data it's difficult to to design targeted interventions. So how how has developed two free digital tools to support this effort and I'm going to be more more in in detail in the next slide but the first one is the flap as mentioned the f foot loss app helps farmers cooperative and producers organizations to measure food losses at the producer level and identify where and why these losses occur. The second one is opti waste that helps organizations, schools, h restaurants, hotels and other institutions to measure and monitor food waste generating data to support targeted waste reduction actions. H and these are just two examples of the digital innovations that can support food loss and food waste uh reduction. So FA also promotes technologies such as blockchain QR codes and are fit for traceability, mobile technologies to improve farmers access to finance to financial services, online platforms that connect producers and consumers and ICT tools uh for training and capacity building across agri food systems. So once we know the magnitude and where and why they occur, we need to reduce it. So in this slide I'm showing how policy support and guidance are important actions for reducing food loss and waste. In addition to the technological and digital innovations, FO emphasize evidence-based policies, quality measurement, guidance tools and voluntary codes of conduct that countries can implement can implement to improve uh to improve practices and strengthen food systems across the value chain. H in this slide I'm showing a clear example of policies that incentivize the reduction of food waste for example like the data labeling which was developed by the codex elementario. This include the the labels of best before day h best quality before date or use by date or expiration date. So this um this change or this this um new policy h help a lot to reduce a lot of food waste. Um this is an example of of of how policies are also related to the topic. So now let me move to to the to the to the main uh to one of the main iss for this presentation. So I'm going to introduce the flap which is the power foot loss application. So the flap has been developed based on research that has already been published and peer review. So we have three research papers and numerous technical reports underpin the development of this application. So we delve into four different methodologies to determine the most effective way to collect information on foot losses. So the flap uses use one h of the methodologies that we what we call the attribute based method that betters approximates the real measurement of losses across the value chain. This allow us to collect precise information in a short period of time. So in our research we encounter a varying definition of food loss and food waste leading to confusion and often these terms are used interchangeably interchangeably. To clarify uh we have adapted the definition outlining the 2019 state of food and agriculture uh the sofa report and link with the sustainable development goals across different stages. According to this definition, the food loss index developed by FO encompasses losses from onfarm post-h harvest stages extending to processing and packaging including the wholesaler which is this part. H while the food waste index and oh and the food loss index is the SDG 12.3.1A and the food waste index which is developed by UNEP on the other hand occurs from retail to the final consumption and demand stage and this is the SDG 12.3.1b. However, it's crucial to broaden our perspective to include losses at harvest and pre-h harvest stages and that's where the flap framework comes into play. FLAP covers losses at the producer level including pre-h harvest what's left in the field and post-h harvest losses. So to clarify h so what's the difference between the foot loss index and the flap that and both are developed by by f no so the indicators indicator 12.3.1A or food loss index is a metric developed by fa to measure food losses across different stages of the supply chain from posth harvest up to but not including the retail so it it doesn't include the consumption site so the food loss index aims to monitor the reduction or grow of losses to achieve the SDG2 12.3 uh which seeks to have per capita food loss and and waste at the retail and consumer levels as well as well as reduce losses in production and the supply chain. H and flap flap is a a f tool for measuring analyzing and reducing food losses in the value chain at the producer level and the objectives the objective for of flap are measure losses at the producer level identify the causes of these losses and promote sustainable solution to the identified problems. So what do we do and as you know if we take into account the value chain concept which is the innovation that we have in the methodology using the flap it's crucial to understand that foot loss occurs at the different stages of the value chain. So it goes from production to the transportation to the processing and to the distribution of the different commodities. So second what we are measuring includes two elements the physical quantity losses but also the quality and the value of these losses. And finally for the flap we opted for the attribute method which evaluate crops based on the inferior visual tackle and alfatory products characteristics. So the attributes are predefined through a collaboration with commodity specialists, local experts and value chain actors and and vary according to the specificities of the commodity and the countries. So for example h in Peru working with the international potato center with potatoes we identify nine quality attributes for this crop while in Mosambique we utilize the official classification from the institute of cereals of Mosambi and in Tanzania we rely on the East African community. These are some examples uh where we implement the the methodology when we were piloting the the the the four methodologies. So we work in in in the different continents in Africa and Asia and Latin America to today we already test the methodology in around 20 countries and and and then we move to to the app. So what we have done is attempt to measure and apply microlevel measurement strategy to identify where losses occur along the value chain determine the reasons and causes behind these losses and find the best way to capture these figures. So with this purpose in mind, we calculate and compare the traditional method of collecting losses data which mainly relies on subjective self-reporting of aggregated losses with a more detailed uh method uh that we call the attribute based method along with two other approaches. So what we found is that most of the losses occur at the producer level which is the the green bar while losses at the intermediary or middleman and wholesale levels are lower are lower. So this is particularly important because it help us to understand how to better target interventions to reduce losses. And of course if we look um at this methodology which we have already piloted as mentioned in several countries. It also help us h identify the underlying reasons of these losses. For example, uh if we consider the reasons we identify at pre-h harvest, we found that the main causes for these examples and for most of the crops are linked to pest and diseases which is the most color bar and lack of rainfall the green bar. If we and of course if we look um so when we look at the reasons for leaving and harvested or good quality crops in the field we identify that the main issue uh represented by the orange bar is that most of the countries h is the poor poor harvesting techniques that prevent crop from being fully collected and the second key factor is the lack of labor or high high labor cost which is the dark green bar. So leading producers to leave a good product in the field. So let me give you an example. So for example in the potato market if prices drop uh producers may decide to leave high quality potatoes in the field because it's because the cost of harvesting and transporting them to the market is higher than the price they would receive. Sorry. And finally h so when we look at the reasons h for leaving h the product for for post-h harvest losses erh that most if you see most of them are related to damage causes by workers at the different stages which can be addressed through capacity building. It is also important to note that the pink bar represent losses h during storage. So for potatoes for example in Ecuador and Peru as you know these are countries that are neighbors geographically similar. The main reportedly reasons for losses are caused by inequiry caused by by workers during harvest and in Peru also the transportation is also a significant issue which is the gray bar. Um so now let me go straight forward to what is the flap. The flap is a free easy to use and datadriven tool designed and launched by fall in 2023 to help farmers, companies, producer associations and cooperative to make informed decisions to reduce food losses. It's a growing global data set and public good that depends deep depends our understanding on where, how, and why food losses occur enabling targeted actions. It's a collaborative pl platform with practical solutions to reduce food losses, improve food security and and environmental sustainability and cut greenhouse gas emissions. And it was also internationally recognized as a champion in the agriculture category highlighting its alignment with the world summit on the information society the wises awards and the sustainable development goals. So the flap is available in four languages uh English, Spanish, French and Arabic. H it current is currently available in 46 countries and support 20 G crops and is and keep growing. H it's a country and crop specific tool. It works online and offline. It allows the user to download and export their data for internal reporting and it also have a video guidance and an app help. So the flap interface is designed to comprehensively capture through the attribute based method both the quantity and quality of the losses their associated value of these losses as well as the reasons reported by farmers and additionally it provides solutions to mitigate the self-reported reasons of the losses. On the screen you can see the various interfaces a screen that users interact to input information into the app. Once registered and the commodity and country are selected the app automatically adjusts parameters such as locations, varieties, quality attributes, weight and area units as well as activities and reasons for losses at each stage. H as mentioned users can input reasons uh the reason for losses. The app also displays in the top general information survey and the percentage of completion of questions facilitating a comprehensive understanding of the data. Um the app is working for different languages and we are working on including others. So once all the information required is imputed by the farmers or the user the flap offer comprehensive solutions. So the app calculates both the quantity and value of losses in cure. It also provides insights into emissions, nutrients and natural resources use implications aiding in sustainable farming practices and it also identifies major issues um and solutions uh to the farmers. No. So the the app offers solutions through collaborative videos with Suabo which is um developed by Purdue University which is renown for scientific animation videos and cost effective solutions. So these solutions empower farmers with actionable insights and practical knowledge to effectively address the identify problems. So this is the if if if you start to use the app when you register we have two type of users. So we have one that is called for producers which this user input their own data and receive automated uh results on their losses along with suggested solutions. And the second type is what we call the institutional user. And this is this which is designed for companies, universities, survey companies that have for example a contract farmer arrangements with farmers or cooperatives and will allow them to collect the data for the farmers with contract arrangements or members of this cooperative. But it can also as mentioned used by researchers and survey taker companies. So the app allow the the app allows the user to create many projects and allow the the the users to join a project created by another person or create your own organization and project and scheme that I'm going to show to sh to show in the next slides. So to your to register we just request for some basic uh information like names and an email age etc. and and and that's what we request the app. So some preliminary considerations are that the final goal of of of the flap is to capturing a picture of the specific cultivation season in a specific country for a specific crop and we measure the losses in terms of quantity, quality and value and we differentiate between the product completely lost and the product affected. So they are basically the questions have six modules. So the the first one is where we identify the producer. Then we ask for some production characteristics when we ask about the pre-H harvest stage, the left in the field, post-h harvest and finally we h as for the product destinations and use. Um so this is the homepage of the app, the dashboard. So the user can see how many organizations they have, how many the projects, how many how much complete survey they have. um the app didn't impose any limitations on the number of organizations or projects or surveys that a user can can have. So this is an example where the organization if if you work in an in a university then and also at th and also in a research institute you can have different um you can have like an organagram of how or where your projects are located and in each organization you can have your projects. So as you can see each uh the project have different are assigned to different organizations. So this allow the user to manage who have access and to uh have their data set uh separated by by the by the project and organization. So this is the dashboard per project. So you can the user easily can download the project data uh can share the code to for people to join can monitor how many complete surveys uh they have an incomplete surveys and also uh it's allowed to see to add or or or remove the enumerators that are supported in the in the data collection. So also uh the the user can change languages and can see the advance of their surveys. So the user can see how much complete is each of the surveys. As you can see the surveys that are not 100 complete can can continue to finalize while the surveys that are uh completed they can only view stats or discard the survey but they cannot change the the the the information. So finally once the data is collected the project admins only the project admins have the option to download the collected data for further analysis evaluations and visualizations and the data set encompasses all variables uh collected within the app for comp comprehensive analysis. As mentioned h the app the flap h imposes no limitations on the number of producers in a project or in the number of a project or the number of organizations and the data is anonymized uh to ensure privacy and confidentiality. So these are some um some resources. Here you can find the the link to the app, the link to the web. Also the app it's available in Google Play and and App Store. So now I'm I'm going to move to the second app which is the optist. Um so as mentioned before at the global scale awareness about the significance of foot loss and waste has grown. H recent reports however highlight that success stories of decreasing foot waste are not many and figures on foot waste remain highly inconsistent. As mentioned F in 2020 the last estimation of F of the F food loss index represent 13.3% of global production of is is loss and the highest losses occur mostly in the high value commodities like fruits and vegetables. H UNEP in 2024 estimated that the food waste from household retail and the food service industry amounted to 19%. This is equivalent to 1,52 million tons of food produced in 2022 where 60% occur at the household level, 28% in the food services and 12% in at the retail level. So food waste in the hospitality sector including restaurants, staff cantens and cafeterias at schools and hospitals is becoming a key concern in developing in developed and developing countries. So its contribution to the total food waste has been recently estimated to be nearly 12%. And the key causes identified for the waste of the are the nature of the food menu, the use of the prepare versus whole food products, the production procedure, the portion size as well as the skills of the employees. Um so this graph illustrates the framework of the methodology we use for the opti waste. Um as you see here on the top this is the same graph I show for in the previous uh presentation with with flap. So this part it's the foot loss index. This part is the food waste index. And the f and first what we did is we distinguish when the waste occurs. So if this occurs um before consumption during the storage h or food preparation in the kitchen or after consumption. So this is the what we call the plate waste. We also classify the waste by food groups such as cereals and pulses, fruits and vegetables, roots and tubers and and h meat and other animal products. And at each stage we wait the food waste by food group. So this classification by the groups is important because it allow us to apply the f technical coefficients for each food group. And as a result, we can estimate not only the amount of food wasted in kilograms or pounds, but also the associated calories, greenhouse gas emissions, metan emissions, nutrients, and natural resources embodied in the wasted food. Another important feature of the methodology is that we also record the food stock, no, which is the food that enters into the into the premises. So this allow us to calculate not only the quantity of food waste but also the food waste percentage providing a more meaningful indicator of performance. So basically what we measure is like we have the stock which is over 100%. H we have the food wasted at storage that we add with the food wasted at production during the production process and uh we add all of this with the food wasted by consumers. This is the plate waste. All of this by by groups. So if we add these three and we divide by the total by the stock we are going to have the total uh wasted food. And so again what the app offers it's a free easy to use and datadriven tool developed and launched by F in 2025. is to helps organizations, food services and institutions to analyze food waste across different services erh and make informed decisions to reduce food waste. Erh it helps users uh to understand and and monitor where when and why food waste occurs and use the insights uh to plan targeted strategies for reduction. No. Uh so the idea is by transforming food waste data into actionable insights the optaz can empower organizations to make measurable changes and reduce food waste effectively. It's currently available in three languages English, Spanish and French and it helps uh with reporting because it provides realtime data processing. Uh it has also an integrated dashboard and Excel export uh for internal reporting. Um so this is how how the app looks. after you sign uh you should create your organization. This is an example and inside each of organization you can have many facilities and each of these facilities can have different etheries. No. So if we put the example this is an example from a from a ministry. So the ministry can have many schools and each of these schools can have different iteries. Uh this can be applied also to a university. H and for each iterate we are going to assign the staff no the staff that it's allowed to enter information or to download the information depending on the type of access we provide to them. So this is the the menu it's a very very easy easy menu to to uh to use. So if we want to enter and so we have the first part is to manage the organizations to add or remove people. We can check we can add our food stock. We can check the the history of this. Erh, we entry the food waste. We can have we have a dashboard that I'm going to show in the coming slides. And we can calculate the waste and we can also download uh the data for sure. We we can be part of many organizations as admins, as users, as staff or as clients. And we can change the the language also. So basically to enter the food you just click here in food waste entry h you select the date that you want to entry the information you select from which eery you are you are um you want to enter the information if this waste come from the kitchen or the plates if this is during lunch and and the type of menu if it's menu or buffet and then basically you enter how many people is how many portions were cooked how many portions were served any other information that may be relevant in this case was the was the menu that or the or the things that were served or prepared and then basically the person or the user enter the kilo by each of these groups. After that the the the the app show you like a summary of the information you just enter to be confirmed and uh this is an example of uh when you want to see from from from the different dates in this example we just enter consumer waste by the different groups I mentioned in in the previous slides. uh we also provide with the other with the footprints uh from a period of time you you select the source the eery the period of time and we provide the calculation of the different h if it's like the the CO2 the water the the water juice the land use the kilo calories the proteins etc that were wasted in each of these or by each of these groups in this period of time the app also provide automatically this dashboard for for showing what's happening in our in our organization and also the the the user is allowed to download their data to to do any other um analysis that they want to do. So just to before I finalize h the app has been used to facilitate the recording and analysis of food waste in a pilot with mate nealdips. It's also using flow cantens and uh we are working with schools meal programs to to improve the meal planning and enhance nutritional quality. So the idea of this app was to provide another tool to measure food waste and we know that there are like many other uh tools that are developed for by different companies but the different uh from us is like this one is for free and you don't need any special equipment. So here in this picture what I'm showing is like this is an example in a public school where we just need to have buckets and an scale and that's all the equipment that we need. No and a computer or a cell phone that allowed us to upload the the the information. So these other examples are in Falcon team. So here is a semi-automatic way of of of uh implementation. So all of this depends on the on the funds you have to implement your project. And so this one is a semi-automatic because it has like four different scales that the person need to enter uh the weights each time. But we have another type of way to show the information. And the last one is a what we call an automatic or fancy way to to to use it where all is automatized and is connected with tablets. So the person just need to throw the food h in each of the by groups. So the idea and the point here is like to not have an excuse to don't measure. No, because measure is costly and what we are trying to provide to to do is to close this gap of the of the providing a tool that doesn't need to use an specific equipment or to to to do this to need a lot of funding h or specific equipment that many times is not available in the countries. Um so these are some of the resources we can share like we have like the the app the link for the app the link for the website uh as for flap the app it's available in Google play and app store um yeah for anyone that can use as mentioned is is free and yeah that's it thank you very much and if you have any question I'm uh very happy to to answer and and keep discussing thank Thank you. >> Thank you so much, Luciana. Um, the students, you have any question, please write in the chat or just raise your hand so we can allow you to to uh to speak. Okay, Luciana, while we are waiting for the students to think and elaborate, you are the right example on how you know science or research can really inform these type of tools as you already present. You did this these two tools were developed as part of the research that you prepare before, right? Can you please give us a bit of advice um for young researchers who aspire to contribute more to the agri food systems transformation? Um what do you think they they need to to think or what do you think they need to start before you know preparing the research proposals? Thank you. >> And thank thank you for the question. For me the first um thing the the the most important thing is to be all the time technically sound in in what you propose. No, because um it's very easy to propose something that then is very complicated to implement that in a paper can and sound very nice and can have all the keywords that are going to make this proposal interesting and and and super cool. But then you need to think in the whole steps that coming after the proposal. No, it's not just writing that I want to travel to to Mars and then you need to know how to do it or you need to have a plan or if this is something that at the end you can do it. No. So the most important part is to be um for sure technically sound and have a plan for the whole process and not just for the paper that you that you submit. But yeah, that that should be my >> Thank you. Hey, today you are all shy. Can you please raise your hand or ask a question on the in the chat box unless you you have any question how to use the tool the two tools that were presented. Okay, we don't see so many questions today. Um, but Luc, I know that you were implementing this um these tools in different countries. um how the countries are using this information or how they are they collecting this information for them also to get to know that you know this information is very important to inform their policies and can you please give us a bit of um you know examples maybe in Asia that you think it's it's relevant for them to to know >> and yeah so so for flap for example the the app has being used by another division here at FA to me to to do first a baseline to identify where these problems are or if there is a problem and then when they were doing this they realized that there were not the problem they were expected or there were not enough producers of the census can say or the information can say and then with this baseline baseline they are now implementing some solutions no because the the that's their main um experience that they have like implementing things and solutions at the field. So now they're in the second step of um measuring the impact. So they are doing like a kind of RCT. So now they I I'm assuming they have like a control and a treatment group and then they are going to measure the difference in difference of what happened between these two groups. So the app allow them to to do this measurement in a very easy way and they don't need to to to pass by the process of doing a program a survey etc. And the benefit is like you are measuring the in the two times with the same methodology so you can compare the results. So it's not like what we found in many places is you measure the baseline with one in a way and then the end line with another way. So you have different variables and then people try to to connect them in weird ways sometimes. Um and then um in the case of of of um food waste uh well we we piloted this in in the Maldips into results in the Maldives uh you know Maldips it's are thousands of islands h so all the food that they have it's imported so it's very a high costly tourist where all the food is imported so each kilo you waste it has a high cost because they they produce they transport they prepare etc to be wasted for whatever reason. So in this case we measuring two different um resorts and while it's the same place the the problems are many totally different because of the behavior of the people is is very very different. Waste is a behavior. So it's on us um to reduce this problem while losses is more related to to climate to pest to disease to market access to um I don't know market requirements fertilizers access etc. So are two different topics uh or two different issues that need to be resolved in different ways. So there is no uh silver bullet uh solution for the for for this uh thing but in in the two experiences um the apps works very well and and and what we like is like we learn all the time what what can be done no as mentioned there is no one solution across the world. Yep. >> Thank you so much. There is a question on the chat box. Um, does the FFL have any tools or technologies to reduce water wastage in agricultural irrigation? >> Um, I will assume yes, but this is a different type of waste. Uh, I I'm assuming our colleagues from NSP could have a better answer from that. >> Yeah. >> Yeah. I don't know either. Um, yeah. I just have another question in relation to the information that you are collecting. Is it's it's information throughout the value change or it's focused on one specific uh part because you know often when we think about this uh food loss and waste many people focus on the other part of the transportation the other part of the value change rather than then the production. Um how do you what is your approach? >> No thank you. And so when we were piloting the four different methodologies we measure so first we need to distinguish what is losses and what is waste. So losses go from production up to before retail excluding including the wholesalers. So we measure first when we measure food losses we include the producers the intermediaries middleman and and the processors. And what we found is like most of the losses were at the producer level. So then when we develop the flap, we focus or we put all of our efforts at the producer level. So now the flap works at the producer level, but we have the methodology to to measure also the the intermediaries and the processors. So that's on the part of the of the of the flap, but it's it's a as mentioned it's an a crop and a commodity and country specific tool. So it's not like the attri the quality attributes for the tomatoes in Cambodia are not the same quality attributes of the tomatoes in Honduras. So the the units that they use to measure I don't know the bucket or the basket or the box measurement or weight in Honduras into the same as in Cambodia etc. So, so the app adapt all of these while you select this combination or what we call the scenarios. H on the other side the optic waste is used um to measure waste now we are where we are using we are currently applying in hotels in schools and here in fantins it can be also used at household but it's more a a user decision as mentioned food waste is a behavioral issue a behavioral problem it's us who decide to waste food because of we purchase too much food or we don't we don't use what to prepare or we don't like the food because it have a weird shape. So it's a totally different problem but first we need to start with with numbers. No. Okay. So if there are no more questions. Okay. There is one question here for flap. Is the app available to all type of crops? So the method so thank you for the questions. So the methodology it's available all for all type of crops and we are also including or we are soon currently are going to launch for animal products. Currently we have 46 countries and 20 crops but we can add uh any quantity and any commodity based on the requirement from the users. No. And so if if one country or one one person wants want us to include I don't know carrots in Malaysia uh yeah we can add it that's very easy for us but we prioritize while the people request us to to add that's why some if you go to the app some countries have like seven crops and other countries have like one or two no this is because how how how this was requested by the impletors or the users or the government but yeah we can add any any commodity enc um so do you think the students can use this tools for instance flap maybe yes but optist well opi opt is has been used by students from primary to secondary school. So I think it should be very very easy to implement this also at the university cantens. No erh we have been contact by different universities to test like to implement as mentioned you don't need any specialized equipment. So if you have let's what we call fancy equipment like for tablets and some buckets and the scales h you can implement from the more basic way to the more fancy way. this is how how you want to show or want to implement. So from a very very manual way to that very automatic way it depends on on the equipment you can afford. So I think it's uh very easy to to to do it. Okay. Thank you so much. Um does anybody else has any question? You can raise your hand. Otherwise we will thank Luciana for her time as this is the last session. Um and Luciana you know she's a doctor she's been a researcher for many years. I only want to ask um last question for Luciana for the closing of all this series. Um I don't know if you want to leave the students with a key message or you know like yeah one key message for the students in in general um before you know um starting their career if they wish to to to work to work at at the United Nation FAO or international organizations. That's all and thank you so much before we we close the whole session. >> No, thank thank you Meline and thank you PSU for organizing this series of of lectures. Um I hope and I think they are they are going to be very very uh useful for the students. Um and as as mentioned before I think the most important part as a students and as research is um to be technical no erh to follow what uh your supervisors or advisors provide to you but also being curious. No h not always is writing the rock. So they when you are an student you have the opportunity to to try and fail and try again. No. So that's the the important part and so yeah that that should be my my message. >> Thank you so much. You know when many don't you don't know that Luc and I we are Peruvians. We did our studies in the same university Agrarian University in Peru. So I'm glad to have Luciana here for today's session. Ladies and gentlemen, as we conclude today, we mark also successfully competition of FAO techn series lectures um 2026. Over the past two weeks, we have explored diverse range of topics through antimicrobial resistance, sustainable and water management, indigenous people's knowledge and food systems, digital tools, bio economy, aquaculture and food lost and waste. Together this lecture have demonstrated to brief FL's work in supporting the sustainable inclusive resilient and agri food systems. On behalf of food and agriculture of the United Nations and the San University network for agriculture and food security, we thank uh we would like to express our deepest appreciation to all of you and your generosity for sharing their experiences and and your questions. Thank you so much once again and see you soon. Tenna, can we take a a picture for this for our reporting? Thank you. Just like one, three, two, one.