Food wastage amounts to US$ 310 billion annually in developing countries, the bulk of it from fruits and vegetables. Could a 4,000-year old idea for food storage help in reducing such wastage?

Food storage, from ‘farm to fork’, requires infrastructure, energy and suitable space, among other factors. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has identified, unsurprisingly, the bulk of the food wasted as fruits, vegetables, roots and tubers. All are highly perishable but all necessary elements for micro-nutrient provision for many who now suffer from undernourishment and malnutrition in the Asia-Pacific.

The use of an ancient cooling technology that uses the effects of evaporative cooling is proposed to address such food wastage.

… Tamara Nair is Research Fellow at the Centre for Non-Traditional Security Studies (NTS Centre) and Christopher Lim is Senior Fellow at the Office of the Executive Deputy Chairman, both in the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. This is part of a series.