Agriculture and its associated produce in India are insufficient to ensure food security. Not all food produced is consumed, and a significant amount is wasted as a result of an unorganised and inefficient logistics sector. Farmers lose income, and consumers face higher costs as a result.
As per the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), approximately 33% of India’s agricultural and allied productions are wasted, enough to feed 195 million hungry people. The majority of food is lost in transit from to the plate at various stages of the supply chain.
The recently launched National Logistics Policy (NLP) is hoped to be cost-effective and efficient in limiting perishable commodity losses by improving cold supply chain efficiency and cold storage facilities to leverage export-oriented agriculture and related sectors.
According to a study conducted by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research-Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (ICAR-CIPHET), approximately 165 lakh tonnes of vegetables, 78 lakh tonnes of fruits, and 45 lakh tonnes of food grains are lost to the tune of Rs 1.68 lakh crore due to a lack of infrastructure for short-term storage, particularly at the farm level, as well as a lack of intermediate processing in the production catchments.
Between 2015 and 2020, India’s cold storage capacity increased by approximately 1 million tonnes per year, from 32 million tonnes to 38 million tonnes. However, the concept of a national integrated cold chain is still lacking, with a greater emphasis on single-commodity cold storage.
Three-fourths of India’s cold storage is dedicated to fresh produce, with the remainder dedicated to farm products. The vast majority of cold storage units (72%) are single-commodity units. 68% of the horticultural units are used to store potatoes. Only 40% have sorting, grading, and packing facilities. Modern cold storage solutions with additional services are required because they can boost profitability and productivity.
Unless policies are implemented to allow small farmers and farmer-producer organisations to reap the benefits of cold chain development, it will remain exclusive to a few exporters. Small farmers growing fruits and vegetables are unable to benefit from the cold chain because the majority of cold storage units and refrigerated transport are used by potato traders, livestock products, and dairy. Small-scale solar-powered cold storage units for pre-cooling at farm gates can be installed.
As per studies in India, reducing food loss through efficient logistics and cold chains can boost farmers’ incomes by leveraging lucrative markets in India and abroad. Higher farmer incomes can be realised through loss reduction by leveraging distant markets by extending product shelf life, diversifying to high-value crops, and expanding buyer bases.
For the consumer, it helps to normalise the price of fruits and vegetables over time and across borders. A well-connected cold chain increases the availability of diverse foods, makes them more affordable and accessible, and, most importantly, fosters growth and job opportunities through backward integration, including in the catalysed food processing sector.
Solutions for reducing food loss should take farmers’ perspectives on education, harvest techniques, storage and cooling facilities, and supply chain infrastructure into account. Food losses are reduced as the cold chain from production to consumption improves. A large number of small farmers participate in cold storage and directly benefit from it by having better storage conditions for their seeds and selling directly after harvest.
Farmers-producer cooperatives (FPCs) in Punjab and Haryana demonstrate the need for cold chain solutions to allow farmers to sell fruits and vegetables in new and profitable markets. The food processing industry’s lacklustre development is attributed to infrastructure gaps in cold chain integration and lopsided development. Pack houses, ripening chambers, and reefer trucks are all in short supply — 99.6%, 91.1%, and 85.4%, respectively.
The fruit supply chain at Azadpur Mandi, one of the country’s largest markets, is hampered by a lack of cold chain infrastructure. According to studies, pre-cooling and transportation refrigeration can reduce food loss by 32% in open trucks, 9% in reefer trucks, and 16% in carbon dioxide equivalent emissions.
It is worth noting that the net area under vegetables and fruits is approximately 15% of the total sown area, with losses disproportionately higher (50%) than most cultivated crops such as rice and wheat. Food inflation, on the other hand, has recently been linked to higher prices of vegetables and fruits as a result of supply shortages.
The National Logistic Policy is expected to focus on green logistics systems in order to incentivize resource-poor farmers, farmer producer organisations (FPOs), and self-help groups to use cold chain facilities to maximise farm returns.
Only when the cold chain infrastructure is moved to resource-poor farmers struggling to create better livelihood opportunities by cultivating high-value crops will it be effective, expand, and fructify.
Improvements to cold chain facilities will benefit both producers and consumers. The cold chain’s scope has expanded to include increasing transportation efficiency, precision, and speed, as well as parameters for preserving produce quality, texture, and freshness. This coincides with the development of cutting-edge technologies that enable food tracking and the generation of real-time data on the movement of refrigerated cargo.
As a result, under the National Logistic Policy, there is an opportunity to expand cold chain facilities in order to make a variety of nutritious foods available to the consumer basket at affordable prices.
