Waste not, want not, fix farm-to-fork
Indian Council of Agricultural Research scientists last week, India, one of the key players in the global agricultural commodities market, wastes about 74 million tonnes of food every year. This accounts for roughly 8% of the 931 million tonnes of food wasted globally. Beyond the numbers, that kind of wastage is criminal.
Here, two definitions are essential. 'Food loss' means the loss of agricultural produce between the farmland and the retail level. 'Food wastage' denotes the loss of food at the retail, food service and household level.
Both are global challenges in the SDG charter of action, which aims to halve per-capita global food waste and reduce food losses.
There are several reasons behind India's colossal food loss. The country lacks a robust cold chain and storage infrastructure, particularly at the farm level, and intermediate processing in the production catchments. This is why, on Friday, at World Food India 2023, Prime Minister Narendra Modi urged startups and companies to invest in the processing sector.
