Small policy changes can accelerate the adoption of improved on-farm storage among smallholder farmers

• Though key to food security, improved storage is rarely adopted by smallholders facing high post-harvest losses. • A small subsidy—reflecting the current fiscal burden—increased purchase rates sixfold. • Free trial bags didn’t affect purchase rates later-on but improved household food security quickly. • Removing the fiscal burden, similar to other agricultural products, accelerates adoption. Reducing food losses is a significant and often overlooked opportunity to bolster global food security and enhancing the resilience and sustainability of global food systems. Food losses are highest in low-income countries where millions of smallholder farming households remain particularly vulnerable. As yet, smallholders’ adoption of loss-minimizing storage technologies, such as hermetic storage bags, remains low. Here, we study the effects of two types of policy options on the adoption of improved on-farm storage in the case of Ethiopia. Using a randomized controlled trial, we show that a small partial subsidy, which mirrors the current fiscal burden on these technologies, can lead to a sixfold increase in the adoption of hermetic storage bags (from 11% to 67% adoption). While providing a free trial bag did not increase purchase rates later-on, it did rapidly improve household food security. These findings underscore the need for policymakers in low-income countries to consider reducing fiscal barriers on post-harvest technologies, as is common for other agricultural technologies, to contribute to enhanced food security and more resilient food systems.