Analyses of some economic impacts of food potato going to household waste in Hungary

Abstract

In our fast-moving world with roughly 792 million people starving (HCSO, 2016a) and scarce resources, it is crucial that prevention and reduction of food waste and food wastage receive more attention.
Food wastage from finished products and from foodstuff supplied to ultimate consumers poses global and national problem that triggers negative tendency in efficiency at national level. According to a HCSO study from 2011, the annual food waste is up to 1.3 billion tonnes on a global scale while it is estimated to reach roughly 1.8 million tonnes annually in Hungary including waste from production to consumption in each segment. The quantity of domestic food waste is 400 000 tonnes published by the Hungarian Food Bank Association, 2015a.
In line with our targets, Inputs during agricultural production (in non-financial and financial quantitative measures) were assigned to the quantity of potato and potato-based food wastage. The aim of this method is to raise consumer awareness that how much resource (land, water, fertilizer, pesticide, seed potatoes and diesel oil) they use and how much resource is used unnecessarily by the wastage of finished product (potato) in agriculture. 
If households waste 10% of food potato intended for consumption, they waste an amount equal to 2 917 million HUF. 
Based upon our calculations a land of 814 ha is unnecessarily used due to 10% waste of table potato. Value of unnecessarily used resources is tantamount to 855 million HUF based on our calculations of which water is 332 million HUF (39 %), seed potato 316 million HUF (37%), fertilizer 134 million HUF (15%), pesticide 40 million HUF (5%) and diesel oil 33 million HUF (4%).