Driving force analysis for food loss changes in Cameroon

Abstract Reducing food losses (FL) is a promising way of improving food security. This is much more urgent for the developing world with a high level of food insecurity. However, driving factors contributing to the changes of FL are poorly understood. Here, we report on an investigation into the contribution of five potential driving factors to FL in Cameroon between 1994 and 2013, using a Logarithmic Mean Division Index (LMDI) approach. The results showed that FL in Cameroon has increased more than 4 fold during the study period. The increase of FL per unit crop production (intensity effect) contributed the most to increase FL (36.87 % of the total change), followed by the increase of per capita crop consumption, i.e. supply scale effect (34.55%), population growth (26.72%), and changes of crop production structure, i.e. structure effect (5.079%). Only the dependency on self-production (self-sufficiency effect) contributed to decrease FL (3.22%).