Farmer-led data gathering pilots 2018-2021 (Year 2)

The primary objective of this research was to pilot in England a farmer-led approach to gathering data on food surplus and waste which tested how farmers can be supported to collaborate in small peer groups to monitor relevant farm performance and identify opportunities to make productivity gains. A secondary objective was to generate data on food surplus and waste in primary production to address data gaps in England in the blackcurrant, raspberry, onion, and brassica sectors.

The findings from Year 2 confirm the findings of Year 1; particularly that supporting farmers to collaborate on food surplus and waste requires more than facilitation. Collaboration around food surplus and waste on farm requires a solid understanding of grower priorities and constraints and relies on the project convener to ensure that the project design centres on growers’ needs and concerns, such as scaling data collection, being clear on how data will benefit growers, and engagement with others in the supply chain.

Engaging the whole value chain is arguably the most important recommendation to come out of the project across both years. Supply chain factors continue to be identified as major drivers of on-farm food surplus and waste, and many of these cannot be addressed by growers alone.

This video case study looks at how Suntory have worked with their blackcurrant growers to reduce in-field food losses.