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India loses ₹1.5 lakh crore value of farm produce annually, examine reveals
NEW DELHI: India loses agricultural produce value ₹1.5 lakh crore annually as a result of post-harvest inefficiencies, in accordance with knowledge revealed by the Union ministry of meals processing industries (MoFPI) on Thursday.
In a written response to a query raised by Lok Sabha MP Vamsi Krishna Gaddam, Union minister of state for meals processing industries Ravneet Singh stated {that a} 2020-2022 examine by NABARD Consultancy Providers (NABCONS) estimated a 5-10% lack of perishable meals throughout transportation alone.
The examine additional reveals that losses from cereals, together with rice, wheat, and maize, quantity to almost ₹26,000 crore. Pulses and oilseeds collectively endure losses exceeding ₹18,000 crore. Moreover, vegetables and fruit, that are notably perishable, account for losses of round ₹57,000 crore.
Among the many hardest-hit fruits are bananas, mangoes, and citrus fruits, with losses amounting to ₹5,777 crore, ₹10,581 crore, and ₹4,347 crore, respectively.
Greens corresponding to onions, potatoes, and tomatoes additionally contribute considerably to the full losses, with ₹5,156 crore misplaced from onions alone and ₹5,921 crore from tomatoes.
The Union Ministry outlined a number of authorities initiatives geared toward addressing the difficulty of crop losses, citing elements corresponding to the shortage of correct storage services, insufficient transport infrastructure, inefficient provide chains, and improper post-harvest dealing with.
Amongst these initiatives is the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana (PMKSY), which focuses on creating services for the processing and storage of agricultural merchandise. This consists of the event of mega meals parks, built-in chilly chains (a provide chain utilizing refrigeration to take care of perishable items), and agro-processing clusters.
To mitigate losses related to the transportation and dealing with of perishable items, the federal government supplies credit-linked monetary help to entrepreneurs establishing meals processing models, together with chilly storage services. As of October 31, a complete of 1,187 initiatives had been accredited beneath this scheme.
Moreover, the Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare has applied the Agriculture Infrastructure Fund (AIF) scheme, launched as a part of the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative in July 2020. This scheme supplies financing for the creation of chilly storage services, warehouses, and processing models to scale back crop wastage and improve worth addition.
