Project Overview

Project at a Glance

Client: African Development Bank (AfDB)
Duration: April 2025 – July 2025 (4 months)
Geographic Scope: Uganda
Methodology: RCT-Food Loss and Waste Scoping Study
Role: Sole consultant

The Challenge

The African Development Bank required comprehensive scoping of food loss and waste patterns across Uganda’s agricultural value chains to design targeted infrastructure investments. The study needed to identify where losses occur in the production-to-market continuum, quantify their magnitude across different commodities, and provide evidence for prioritizing infrastructure development.

Key Requirements:

  • Map loss patterns across multiple agricultural value chains
  • Collect data from diverse stakeholder groups (farmers, traders, processors, retailers)
  • Cover both rural production areas and urban market endpoints
  • Deliver actionable insights within a compressed timeline
  • Maintain research quality standards across varied geographic and infrastructure contexts

Our Approach

Study Design & Preparation

HDS developed a nationally representative sampling framework appropriate for food loss and waste assessment. The study design incorporated multiple agricultural value chains including grains, horticulture, and livestock sectors, ensuring coverage of Uganda’s major production systems.

Working closely with AfDB technical advisors, HDS refined survey instruments to capture both quantitative loss measurements and qualitative insights on infrastructure gaps. The questionnaire development process included:

  • Farmer-level surveys covering production practices, post-harvest handling, and storage
  • Trader and transporter interviews on logistics challenges and loss points
  • Processor and retailer assessments of quality standards and rejection rates
  • Key informant interviews with agricultural officers and market administrators

The CAPI system was programmed in SurveyCTO to enable real-time data capture, GPS documentation of facilities, and photographic evidence of loss incidents.

Team Mobilization & Training

HDS assembled specialized field teams with experience in agricultural surveys and value chain research. The team structure included:

  • Project Manager: Overall coordination and client liaison (George Sentumbwe)
  • Field Supervisors: Regional coordination and quality oversight
  • Data Manager: CAPI programming and data validation (Abdul Naafi Nsereko)
  • Enumerators: Trained in commodity-specific loss measurement protocols
  • Logistics Officers: Vehicle coordination and stakeholder access

The training program covered:

  • Food loss and waste measurement methodologies
  • CAPI operation and data security protocols
  • Value chain mapping and stakeholder interviewing techniques
  • GPS documentation and photographic evidence collection
  • Loss quantification methods appropriate to different commodity types

Equipment deployed included Android tablets with SurveyCTO, GPS units for facility mapping, and tools for loss measurement (weighing equipment, quality assessment guides).

A field pretest validated survey instruments and allowed refinement before full deployment.

Field Data Collection

HDS deployed multi-sector enumeration teams across rural and urban settings simultaneously. The deployment strategy balanced:

  • Production zones: Engagement with farmers and primary aggregators in rural areas
  • Transport corridors: Interviews with traders and transport operators
  • Processing facilities: Assessment of handling practices and infrastructure
  • Market centers: Documentation of wholesale and retail loss patterns

Regional teams operated independently while maintaining coordinated reporting to ensure consistent methodology across sites. Field supervisors managed daily operations, including:

  • Scheduling interviews with diverse value chain actors
  • Negotiating access to markets, storage facilities, and processing centers
  • Coordinating vehicle movements across survey areas
  • Ensuring cultural and linguistic appropriateness of data collection

The simultaneous multi-sector approach enabled comprehensive mapping of loss accumulation from farm to final market.

Quality Assurance & Data Management

HDS implemented standard quality control protocols throughout field operations:

Daily Data Validation:

  • All completed surveys uploaded to secure servers each evening
  • Automated consistency checks run overnight by Data Manager
  • Error flags and clarification requests returned to supervisors by morning
  • Enumerators addressed queries before proceeding to next day’s interviews

Field Supervision:

  • Project Manager conducted weekly regional visits
  • Supervisors observed sample of enumerator interviews
  • Random back-checks conducted with selected respondents
  • GPS coordinates and photographic documentation cross-verified

Data Security:

  • Encrypted data transmission via SurveyCTO platform
  • Multiple backup systems (server, external storage, cloud)
  • No data retained locally on tablets after upload
  • Access controls limited to authorized project personnel

Data Processing & Deliverables

Following field completion, HDS conducted comprehensive data cleaning:

  • Investigation and resolution of outliers and inconsistencies
  • Standardization of variable naming and labeling
  • Calculation of derived variables relevant to loss analysis
  • Preparation of comprehensive data dictionary

Delivered Products:

  • Raw dataset in multiple formats (Stata, CSV, Excel)
  • Cleaned and coded dataset with documentation
  • Codebook detailing all variables and transformations
  • GPS coordinates of surveyed facilities
  • Photographic documentation library
  • Technical field report documenting methodology and observations

All deliverables were provided to AfDB for their analysis and investment planning processes.

HDS’s Implementation Strengths

Value Chain Expertise

HDS leveraged experience from previous agricultural surveys (IFPRI rice studies, University of Sydney agricultural research, JICA production assessments) to design appropriate loss measurement protocols. Supervisors brought commodity-specific knowledge from these projects.

Stakeholder Access

The firm utilized established relationships with district agricultural officers and local authorities from previous work in Uganda’s districts. This facilitated market access, stakeholder introductions, and community-level coordination.

Logistical Coordination

HDS managed simultaneous multi-regional deployment while maintaining schedule adherence and budget discipline. Vehicle logistics, team movements, and stakeholder scheduling were coordinated centrally to optimize efficiency.

Adaptation Capacity

Field teams addressed operational challenges (seasonal weather impacts, stakeholder availability, infrastructure limitations) through flexible scheduling and problem-solving while maintaining methodological consistency.

Project Significance

Food loss and waste studies provide critical evidence for infrastructure investment prioritization in agricultural development. By quantifying where and why losses occur, such research enables targeted interventions in storage, transport, processing, and market infrastructure.

This study contributed to AfDB’s broader agricultural investment strategy for Uganda, providing ground-level data on post-harvest challenges and infrastructure gaps across multiple value chains.

Project Team

HDS Leadership:

  • George Sentumbwe — Project Manager
  • Abdul Naafi Nsereko — Data Development Consultant/Programmer
  • Jennifer Alinaitwe — Field Supervisor
  • Denis Tishekwa — Field Supervisor

Field Team:

  • Multiple enumerators with agricultural survey experience
  • Regional logistics coordinators
  • Field guides for stakeholder access

Related HDS Agricultural Value Chain Projects

This FLW study built on HDS’s established experience in agricultural systems research:

  • JICA Rice Production Studies (2017, 2024-2025) — Rice value chains in West Nile and Eastern Uganda
  • IFPRI IPM Technology Adoption (2023, 2025) — Agricultural technology and production systems
  • University of Sydney Doho Rice Scheme (2021-2022) — Post-harvest technology and market access
  • IFPRI Land Degradation Study (2024) — Agricultural practices and environmental factors

These projects provided HDS with deep understanding of Uganda’s agricultural contexts, post-harvest challenges, and value chain dynamics that informed the FLW study design and implementation.

Contact

For inquiries about agricultural value chain research, food systems assessments, or infrastructure investment studies:

Homeland Data Services Ltd
Plot 1688, Kiwatule Along Kaduyu Road
Nakawa-Kampala, Uganda

📧 sentumbwe@hds-survey.com
📞 +256 779 838 104