Assessments of Food Waste Practices for the Reductions of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Selected Cities of Ethiopia

By the year 2050, the global food system must feed nine billion people, out of which around 8 billion would be in developing countries. And also the global community should change the food system to achieve Sustainable Development Goal #2 which is to end hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition, and promote sustainable agriculture by 2030. Most importantly, in the year 2017, the tragic landslide at the waste collection site at the place known as koshe in the capital of Ethiopia killed 116 people. This landfill was 30% arise from food waste. Nevertheless, it is estimated that at least 21% of all food produced in Sub-Saharan African countries is wasted. Food systems account for 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, the study of Assessments of Food Waste Practices for the Reduction of Greenhouse Gas Emissions in the selected cities of Ethiopia was undertaken with the main focus on food waste prevention, As is seen from the data (n = 50), 48% of our respondents were holders of MSc degree, 24% Ph.D. degree, 22% Primary education level respondents and the remaining 6% BSc degree holders. On the other hand, 78% of our respondents were fully employed, 50% were in the age range of 30 to 40, and 28%. Moreover, 58% have an income of ≥ 10,000 local currency and pay for food 40% of their income per month. For the correlation between the city of living and the money spend on food, P-value was 0.15 indicating there was no correlation between respondents’ area of living and the amount of money spent on food purchases. The amount of money they usually pay for food per their family members per week is ≥ 1000 which means they spend approximately 40% of their income per month which is a significant amount. Moreover, correlation analysis between income range and the money spent on food purchases per week shows that the P-value of 0.2 indicates there was no correlation between income and food expenditures. Incredibly 84% said they don’t consume all that they purchased indicating they are no plan for food purchasing, producing avoidable food waste, and 92% replied that they never record their meal and snack including when, why, and how much they usually consume, which is another indicator of bad food habits which also leads to eating disorders.