Crop worth Rs 55,600 cr wasted every year

For a country reeling under an unprecedented food crisis, here is an alarming figure: India losses Rs 55,600 crore worth of crops each year after harvesting. This has been admitted by the government before the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture.

Foodgrain worth Rs 16,500 crore, roughly 10% of the foodgrain produced, is lost after harvesting every year.

Considering that India has turned into a net importer of pulses as its crop productivity declines, it is shocking that Rs 2,000 crore or 15% of the pulse crop is destroyed each year.

And, while the government, fearing that staple crop production is failing, pushes for a horticultural mission to compensate for the loss in agricultural growth, 30% of all fruits produced, roughly worth Rs 13,600 crore, go to waste.

The losses in vegetable crops are as bad: 30% of the vegetables the country produces worth Rs 14,100 crore are lost due to mismanagement after they are harvested. Livestock and fisheries produce worth Rs 8,400 crore too are lost annually.

The Parliamentary standing committee, reacting to the information, has reported, "The wastage of agricultural produce is massive, processing levels are very low, around 2% for fruits and vegetables, 26% for marine, 6% for poultry and 20% for buffalo meat as against 60-70% in developed countries."

While a certain percentage of post-harvest loss is considered natural, the high rates prevailing in India, studies by FAO and others show, are close to the losses recorded even in African nations.

Bad harvest timing, inefficient machinery, lack of storage facilities, contamination, inordinate exposure to heat, cold, and lack of moisture are the major reasons experts cite for the losses which can be prevented to some extent.

But, worse still is the fact that the agriculture ministry does not even collect actual figures; these are all rough estimates. The government does not carry out any exercise to evaluate the actual losses.

"The committee is deeply perturbed to note that even after existence of many decades, the department of agricultural research and education or the Indian Council for Agricultural Research have no authoritative estimates of post-harvest losses till date. The committee has no choice but to remind the department (of its work)," the committee notes.

"After 50 years of existence in case of DARE/ICAR, speaks volumes about the irresponsible manner in which the two are fulfilling their mandatory responsibility," the parliamentary committee members note castigating the ministry.