Impact of advanced storage facilities on households’ maize storage losses and food security in China

Reducing post harvest losses has been an option to enhance food security. Hence, the Chinese government has implemented the “scientific grain storage project” to improve household storage conditions and reduce storage losses. Based on the data of 1202 rural households from 23 provinces in China, we used propensity score matching (PSM) to measure the effects of advanced storage facilities on household food security. The results reveal that advanced storage facilities significantly reduced household maize storage losses by 60%, allowing farmers to save 33 kg of maize (worth US$21) and reducing the maize storage loss rate from 2.85 to 0.87%. Adopters of advanced storage facilities stored their maize for 0.2 quarters longer and reduced the use of pesticides during storage. At the same time, using advanced storage facilities significantly strengthens household food security and reduces the proportion of market purchases to meet households’ food consumption. Moreover, the adoption of advanced storage facilities also has important implications for China’s national food security and resource conservation. Accordingly, the government should continue to encourage farmers to adopt advanced storage facility practices.