Food loss in developing economies like India.

Contrary to popular public perception, most of the food loss on the supply side is value loss instead of physical loss. I’m yet to see mountains of rotton produce either in trade markets or farms. Most of the produce is consumed by various strata of society.

Main reasons for this value loss is because of inefficient marketing of perishable produce. I firmly believe that dependency of logistics with the price discovery and resultant quality loss because of multiple handling and inefficient distribution / delay in produce reaching the demand side, is the main reason for value loss in food.

On the production side, second major reason of food loss is lower value realization because of poor crop planning, low production tech and low bargain power because of the fragmented small holdings. I can elaborate on these aspects till cows come home.

In nutshell, small farmers (nearly 80%) don’t have any money and / or incentive to invest back in soil, post harvest and quality improvements. Needless to say, inferior produce get them lower value, contributing to food loss.

Watch out this page for my views on possible solutions.