Food Loss and Waste: India Has the Data, Now It Needs the Money and the Plan

Source: Original editorial ↗ The Hindu

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The Lift Line

“It is no waste stream but a resource base.”

Why This Editorial Matters for Your Exam

Konda Chavva, Officer-in-Charge of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Representation in India, writes on the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (29 September). The piece links a GS3 staple (post-harvest management and storage) with climate policy (methane from organic waste) and Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.

GS Paper 3: Storage, transport and marketing of agricultural produce; food processing and related industries; public distribution and food security; conservation and environmental pollution.

Background and Context

Loss versus waste. The two are measured separately.

Term	Where it happens	Indicator (SDG 12.3.1)	Custodian
Food loss	From harvest up to, but not including, retail	Food Loss Index (12.3.1a)	FAO
Food waste	At retail, in food service and in households	Food Waste Index (12.3.1b)	UNEP

SDG target 12.3: by 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.

India’s three national surveys, as the author lists them.

Round	Commodities covered
2005-07	45
2012-14	45
2020-22	54 (a study for the Ministry of Food Processing Industries by NABCONS, the consultancy arm of NABARD, across 15 agro-climatic zones and 292 districts)

What the 2020-22 round found. Post-harvest losses of 3.89 to 5.92 per cent for cereals, 6.02 to 15.05 per cent for fruits and 4.87 to 11.61 per cent for vegetables, worth about Rs 1.53 lakh crore a year, according to the Ministry’s figures.

The Day. The UN General Assembly designated 29 September as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste in 2019; it was first observed in 2020, led by the FAO and the UN Environment Programme (UNEP).

The Analysis

1. India measures loss better than most, but not waste. Three national rounds give India the base to report the Food Loss Index. The gap is downstream: shops, hotels, caterers and homes, where the Food Waste Index applies.

2. The cheapest gains are before the market. The author identifies the biggest scope in storage, drying, cooling, moisture management and processing, with traceability tools to track produce. These are low-tech fixes that small farmers and firms can adopt if finance reaches them.

3. City waste is a hidden asset. Assessments by the FAO and the National Council of State Agricultural Marketing Boards (COSAMB) found that big wholesale markets can produce up to 100 tonnes of organic waste a day, and that in some cities a fifth of urban organic waste reaches landfills. Treated, the national total of about 3.5 million tonnes a year could offset about 3.3 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent, or close to USD 30 million in carbon credits.

4. Finance is the missing link. The FAO and the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) are matching loss hotspots with climate-resilient technologies, and SIDBI is arranging credit for small and medium enterprises. The author wants this to become a connected national approach “with financing at its core”.

5. Cities need a playbook. The FAO is preparing a “Package of Practices” for urban food loss and waste, to help municipalities measure, prevent, reduce, redistribute and valorise waste.

Data and Institutions Vault

Prelims-grade facts:

Global framework:

• SDG 12.3: halve per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels and reduce losses along supply chains by 2030.
• Food Loss Index: custodian FAO; Food Waste Index: custodian UNEP.
• 29 September: International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste (UNGA, 2019; first observed 2020).

India’s numbers:

• National post-harvest loss surveys: 2005-07, 2012-14, 2020-22 (54 commodities); a fourth under way.
• 2020-22 losses: cereals 3.89-5.92 per cent, fruits 6.02-15.05 per cent, vegetables 4.87-11.61 per cent; about Rs 1.53 lakh crore a year.
• Mandi organic waste: up to 100 tonnes a day in big markets; about 3.5 million tonnes a year nationally (FAO-COSAMB).

Schemes that address loss:

• PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana (2017) and PMFME (2020): Ministry of Food Processing Industries.
• Operation Greens (2018): tomato, onion and potato, later widened to other perishables.
• Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (2020): Rs 1 lakh crore financing facility for post-harvest infrastructure.
• SATAT (2018): compressed biogas from waste; GOBARdhan (2018): cattle dung and organic waste.

⚠️ Watch the trap: food loss is measured up to, but not including, retail; losses in shops and homes count as food waste.

The Debate

For the author’s view. Loss reduction is one of the rare policies that helps farmers, consumers and the climate at once, and the data and technologies exist.

The complications. Post-harvest loss often reflects small, scattered holdings and distress sales that storage alone does not cure; cold chains need reliable power and prices that justify the cost; and household waste depends on behaviour, not credit lines.

The balanced verdict. Pair infrastructure finance with aggregation (FPOs, cooperatives), price information and urban waste systems, and measure household waste so that policy can target it.

How to Think About This

Follow the tonne. For any food-security answer, trace a tonne of produce from field to plate and ask where it is lost, who bears the loss, and which scheme or institution can intervene at that point. It turns a vague “reduce wastage” line into a value-chain argument.

Diagram-in-Words

Takeaway Box

• Problem: India loses about Rs 1.53 lakh crore of produce a year after harvest.
• Strength: three national loss surveys, the basis for SDG reporting.
• Gap: little data on retail and household waste.
• Levers: finance for drying, cooling and storage; mandi waste to compost and bio-CNG.
• Goal: SDG 12.3 by 2030.

Sources: The Hindu, PIB, NABCONS study on post-harvest losses, FAO, International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste

Source: Food Loss and Waste: India Has the Data, Now It Needs the Money and the Plan — Ujiyari.com | Free UPSC & State PCS Editorial Analysis

Key Arguments at a Glance

Konda Chavva, the FAO’s officer in charge in India, argues that tackling food loss and waste can strengthen food security, cut emissions and pressure on resources, and raise incomes, and that India, which already has national loss data, must now close data gaps on waste, direct finance to storage and cooling, and build city-level systems.

✓ Supporting

• India is the only country to have run three national post-harvest loss surveys, covering 45, 45 and 54 commodities in 2005-07, 2012-14 and 2020-22; a fourth is under way.
• These surveys measure losses on the farm and in the supply chain, but data on waste in retail, restaurants and households remain thin.
• Large wholesale markets can generate up to 100 tonnes of organic waste a day, adding up to about 3.5 million tonnes a year nationally, which if treated could offset about 3.3 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent.
• A 50-tonne-a-day bio-CNG plant in Surat has run for over five years, cutting methane-related emissions by about 7,500 tonnes a year, the author writes.
• The FAO and SIDBI are linking loss hotspots with technologies such as drying, moisture control and cooling, with SIDBI arranging finance for small firms.

⚠ Counter

Much post-harvest loss reflects small, scattered holdings and weak market access that storage alone cannot fix; cold chains need reliable power and viable prices; and waste at the household level is shaped by habits that finance cannot easily change.

→ Way Forward

Close data gaps on retail and household waste, make loss reduction part of agriculture, food-processing, urban and climate policy, channel finance to storage, drying and cooling for farmers and small firms, and give cities a practical plan to prevent, redistribute and valorise organic waste.