Following the recently concluded World Economic Forum’s 2016 Annual Meeting in Davos, Rockefeller foundation announced the launch of YieldWise, a seven-year, $130 million initiative that will demonstrate how food loss and waste can be cut in half globally to ensure the strengthening of food security and advancing healthier, more productive food systems around the world.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), we grow enough food to feed all the 1.2 billion hungry or undernourished people on the planet, yet one-third is never eaten. Given the projected 2 billion increase in the global population by 2050, the need to minimize loss, not just maximize production, is critical.

To do this, through YieldWise, The Rockefeller Foundation will be engaging private, non-profit and government actors across the food supply system. With large multinational companies like The Coca-Cola Company and Dangote as key collaborators, the initiative will focus on linking small and big businesses that can mutually benefit from diversified sources for products and enhanced markets.

YieldWise’s immediate focus will be in Kenya, Nigeria and Tanzania, where up to half of some crops are lost to inefficient harvesting, storage, processing and time to market. The Rockefeller Foundation will focus on streamlining the supply chain from farm to market, putting proven technologies – many of them simple – in the hands of smallholder farmers to increase yield and create new paths to prosperity.