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Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan

The lessening of food wastage, specifically among nations where about half of its worldwide quantity is produced, has turned to be a mammoth challenge for environmental, social and economic sustainability, and represents one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) within the Agenda 2030...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Zhao, Jin, Madni, Ghulam Rasool, Anwar, Muhammad Awais
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2022
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8893606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35239709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264534
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author Zhao, Jin
Madni, Ghulam Rasool
Anwar, Muhammad Awais
author_facet Zhao, Jin
Madni, Ghulam Rasool
Anwar, Muhammad Awais
author_sort Zhao, Jin
collection PubMed
description The lessening of food wastage, specifically among nations where about half of its worldwide quantity is produced, has turned to be a mammoth challenge for environmental, social and economic sustainability, and represents one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) within the Agenda 2030. The quantity of food being thrown away in spite of being in an edible condition has become alarming in middle and high income countries. The COVID-19 lockdown strategy, both at local and international levels, has expressively altered work, life and food consumption behaviors globally, directing to food wastage as a multi sectoral issue. Pakistan has no exception to such manifestations. The main objective of this study is to analyze the perceptions of rural people of Pakistan regarding food wastage during the COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate whether behavior about food wastage among rural households varied or not during the pandemic, a descriptive survey was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and 963 responses were selected for further empirical investigations. The findings of the study reveal that food waste actually decreased in spite of an increased amount of purchased food during the lockdown. Our results highlight that the effect of the pandemic has led to reduction in food wastage among rural respondents, an increased consciousness for the morals of food waste, and awareness of environmental impacts of food wastage. The conclusions of this study highlight that rural consumers of Pakistan are emerging with a new level of responsiveness about food wastage with possible positive impact on the environment in terms of decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and other pollutants. The study findings imply that this pandemic time provides a suitable window to raise awareness about food wastage among rural as well as urban households while contemplating effective strategies to overcome the issue of food wastage in the country.
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spelling pubmed-88936062022-03-04 Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan Zhao, Jin Madni, Ghulam Rasool Anwar, Muhammad Awais PLoS One Research Article The lessening of food wastage, specifically among nations where about half of its worldwide quantity is produced, has turned to be a mammoth challenge for environmental, social and economic sustainability, and represents one of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) within the Agenda 2030. The quantity of food being thrown away in spite of being in an edible condition has become alarming in middle and high income countries. The COVID-19 lockdown strategy, both at local and international levels, has expressively altered work, life and food consumption behaviors globally, directing to food wastage as a multi sectoral issue. Pakistan has no exception to such manifestations. The main objective of this study is to analyze the perceptions of rural people of Pakistan regarding food wastage during the COVID-19 pandemic. To evaluate whether behavior about food wastage among rural households varied or not during the pandemic, a descriptive survey was carried out using a self-administered questionnaire and 963 responses were selected for further empirical investigations. The findings of the study reveal that food waste actually decreased in spite of an increased amount of purchased food during the lockdown. Our results highlight that the effect of the pandemic has led to reduction in food wastage among rural respondents, an increased consciousness for the morals of food waste, and awareness of environmental impacts of food wastage. The conclusions of this study highlight that rural consumers of Pakistan are emerging with a new level of responsiveness about food wastage with possible positive impact on the environment in terms of decreased greenhouse gas (GHG) emission and other pollutants. The study findings imply that this pandemic time provides a suitable window to raise awareness about food wastage among rural as well as urban households while contemplating effective strategies to overcome the issue of food wastage in the country. Public Library of Science 2022-03-03 /pmc/articles/PMC8893606/ /pubmed/35239709 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264534 Text en © 2022 Zhao et al https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Zhao, Jin
Madni, Ghulam Rasool
Anwar, Muhammad Awais
Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title_full Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title_fullStr Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title_full_unstemmed Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title_short Exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during COVID-19 lockdowns: Implications for food security in Pakistan
title_sort exploring rural inhabitants’ perceptions towards food wastage during covid-19 lockdowns: implications for food security in pakistan
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8893606/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/35239709
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0264534
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