Agrifood systems in northern Central America: agrologistics for modern family farms. (Report No: AUS0002972.)

ABSTRACT

This report explores the agrologistics challenges and opportunities faced by agri-food systems in three countries in Northern Central America, namely El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras, with a specific focus on the impacts on family farming systems. As an overarching principle guiding the analysis, the report adopts the World Bank's framework of Green, Resilient, and Inclusive Development (GRID), which recognizes that the challenges of poverty, inequality, climate change, and systemic shocks such as COVID-19 are strongly interrelated, and thus need to be addressed simultaneously and systematically. As such, the study seeks to highlight ways in which enhancing agrologistics systems can drive food system efficiency, environmental sustainability, resilience and inclusion in Northern Central America, thus contributing to wellbeing and overall economic performance. In this study, the term agrologistics is used to refer to the infrastructure, machinery, related services, and information systems that allow agri-food products to move from the original point of production to the final point of consumption. The analysis follows the five key components of agrologistics value chain, namely (a) on-farm post-harvest management;(b) storage and handling, including cold storage;(c) processing and packaging;(d) transport from the farm to collection and processing centers, and onwards to distribution networks;and (e) distribution by wholesalers, retailers and exporters, which in the case of exports involves customs and other border crossing processes.