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Post Harvest Loss - Challenge
Post harvest losses, specifically, food loss and
waste are a global endemic challenge that affects all nations, rich and poor.
Food losses and waste are seen during the food
supply chain, from initial agricultural production stages to the end household consumption
stage.
In developing nations food losses are borne during
the post harvest and processing stages, while developed and high income countries
register food waste during the retail and consumption stages of the end consumer.
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FAO Food Loss / waste indicators
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Europe & North-America
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Sub Saharan & South/ South-East Asia
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Total per capita production of edible food for human consumption
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900 kg/ year
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460 kg/ year
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Per capita food loss
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280-300 kg/ year
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120-170 kg/ year
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Per capita food waste
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95-115 kg/ year
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6-11 kg/ year
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Ref: FAO study, Global Food Losses and Food Waste, 2011
Each country has a unique set of drivers that are
responsible for causing food losses and food waste.
Country specific factors such as selection of local
crops and production trends, available infrastructure, presence and alignment of
marketing chains and channels to facilitate distribution and consumption of agricultural
commodities determine food losses.
Poor and developing nations have a common set of
factors in terms of poor roads, infrequent supply of electricity at high tariffs,
absence of dry and cold storage facilities, and fragmented logistics which tend
to hamper the efforts of these nations in reducing food losses and waste from farm
to fork.
Indian agriculture is not immune from these problems and serious efforts need to
be marshaled on a large scale to stem the repercussions of food losses and waste.