Cut down post-harvest crop losses
It is perhaps not too late even now to amend the Food Security Act, 2013, to impose some well-judged curbs on food wastage
babies; they require tender care to reduce mortality”, maintains S N Jha, assistant director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. This is particularly true of fruits and vegetables which are generally plucked manually without the use of clippers or other modern tools. This tends to cause external or internal injuries to the products. Moreover, these crops, harvested under hot sun, are often not allowed to cool down before being graded, packed or transported out of the fields, thus further shortening their shelf life. Considerable quantities are ruined even in cold stores as commodities not compatible with each other are kept in the same chambers at the same temperature and humidity, he points out.
Regrettably, these seemingly minor, yet implications-wise major, issues are generally not being attended to under most ongoing post-harvest food management programmes. Many of the existing schemes are focused more on value-addition through processing than on loss mitigation through scientific handling of food at every stage of its journey from the farm to the fork. Special awareness and technology transfer drives are, therefore, needed to address this issue.
Similarly, organised action is imperative also to save the wastage of prepared food which can conveniently be fed to the undernourished and hungry. Private companies and industrial houses can play a useful role in this field under their corporate social responsibility obligations. The government can also incentivise them to do so by offering fiscal and other sops. They can organise collection of superfluous food from social events to supply to orphanages, homes for beggars, night shelters and other such places.
Some countries, including the rich ones, have put legal sanctions against wasting food. France, for instance, has barred supermarkets from destroying unsold or unconsumed food and has mandated them to donate it to charities. India, too, could have incorporated something like this into its right to food law. It is perhaps not too late even now to amend the Food Security Act, 2013, to impose some well-judged curbs on food wastage.