Food Wastage In India: Between The Farm And The Kitchen

By Kushal Mehrotra / INN Live

The world needs more food to feed itself. But how much more do we, Indians, really need to grow? Of the food crops we already grow, an appalling amount is wasted, while significant amounts turn into cattle feed and biofuels.

Despite millions of Indians going to bed on a hungry stomach, the country is letting food worth a whopping Rs 44,000 crore go waste each year due to lack of adequate storage infrastructure. 

While the wasted fruits and vegetables alone was estimated at Rs 13,300 crore, other food products like rice, wheat, serials and meat are also allowed to perish without consumption. 
Union Agriculture and Food Processing Minister Sharad Pawar informed Rajya Sabha on Friday that setting up more large cold storages and better post harvesting facilities alone can curtail wastage.

The minister claimed that the government has taken many steps to encourage creation of additional storage capacity and complimented states that had taken more interest in efficient food storage. Despite these, he insisted that requirement for cold storage remains very high. 

The Saumitra Chaudhuri Committee, constituted by the Planning Commission in 2012, has estimated the country’s cold storage requirement as 61.3 million tonne as against the present capacity of around 29 million tonne.

The Centre provides grant-in-aid for states to build cold chain infrastructure, which is 50 per cent of the total cost of plant and machinery in general, areas and 75 per cent in difficult areas including the Northeast. However, it has kept the sealing as Rs 10 crore. 

Reducing the amount of food wastage was one of the major arguments the government had put forth while allowing Foreign Direct Investment in retail sector last year, as it insisted that companies would invest in back-end cold storage infrastructure. 

However, since the FDI clearance, it is yet to receive a proposal from the global retail giants. 

Earlier, Food Minister K V Thomas told Deccan Herald that nearly 30 per cent of the country's fruits and vegetables perish due to lack of cold-storage facilities, while thousands of tons of food-grain rot in ill-equipped warehouses. 

Between 15 and 20 per cent of cooked food at weddings, parties or restaurants is wasted as well.

Though Thomas mooted the idea of introducing guest control system in marriages to prevent wastage of food, it failed to take off due to accusation from several quarters.

India produces around 250 million tonne of foodgrain in a year, but its annual consumption remains far lower at 220 million to 225 million tonne. The country has failed to take advantage of the higher production levels as it is reported that more than 250 million people go to bed hungry each day. 

The report released by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation last year said 48 per cent children under the age of five are stunted (too short for their age), indicating that half of the country's children are chronically malnourished.