Food wastage must be non-existent especially in developing countries with growing population. As per US calculation, the food wastage is high enough (45%)of produce for developing countries. Albeit, immense effort being put to increase production, emphasis to stop food supply chain losses has been avoided.
Causes of Food Wastage
Solutions
Nonetheless, it’s still not the ripe time to predict that these solutions would result in improved supply chain management in Indian agriculture, right funding by the private equity firms in India, reducing inefficiencies and enhancing farmer realizations along with curbing food waste can indeed make a difference.
Causes of Food Wastage
- Insufficient storage system for produces, as it is often stored outside under tarps that cannot protect from pest and humidity.
- Inadequate cold storage and chain transportation facilities are the prominent cause behind perishable products to spoil.
- Restricted availability of Mandis, pose great trouble for small farmers who cannot transport their produce at their disposal. They need to travel several km to the nearest Mandi.
- Poor roads and improper transport facilities cause massive delays.
- Various segments of middlemen between the farmer and the end consumer drive prices up, cutting bargaining power.
- Lack of a developed agricultural funding system, leading formers to take loans with high interest from commission agents.
- Dearth of technology and education to produce agricultural products.
- Post-harvest management system like Commodity Management companies can offer solutions to remove the middlemen and connect farmers with crop markets, simplifying the transportation of produce from farms to the professional and commercial buyers.
- Cold Chain Solution providing companies can offer customized solutions for cold storage and cold transportation for temperature-driven produce.
- Startup companies are offering alternate marketplaces to connect all stakeholders in the supply chain - from farmers to vendors of services like transportation and through a web and mobile driven information exchange system.
- Contract farming is yet another way to guarantee buy-back of the grains at a fixed amount that can improve efforts from the private sector.
- Right utilization of IT and mobile service in offering real time market information, micro loans and personalized advisory services can also be of help. All these initiatives are being taken and lot of private equity funds in India are being invested for improving the agribusiness of India.
Nonetheless, it’s still not the ripe time to predict that these solutions would result in improved supply chain management in Indian agriculture, right funding by the private equity firms in India, reducing inefficiencies and enhancing farmer realizations along with curbing food waste can indeed make a difference.
