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Food Wastage in India- A Ciphet Study

India is growing more food but also wasting up to 67 million tonne of it every year as per a government study.That is more than the national output of countries such as Britain or food for Indian state of Bihar. The value of the food lost is Rs 92,000 crore a nearly 2/3rds of what it costs the government to feed 600 million Indians with subsidized rations under National Food Security Program.According to the study done by Ciphet,fruits,vegetables and pulses the main drivers of food inflation are wasted the most.Being perishables they are prone to rotting and pests,weather and lack of modern storage are the other reasons for wastage.The study was done to update findings two years ago that revealed enormous levels of food being wasted along the supply chain.The situation is alarming for the individual crops for example onions vanish on their way from farms to markets as do 2.2 million tonne tomatoes.Overall 5 million eggs crack or go bad due to lack of cold storage. The results provide fresh estimates of the value of wastage and also put a question mark on policies that focus on increasing output with little investment in technology to preserve food.The findings will be submitted to the ministry of food processing.The report recommends on farm training and cold storage investments.Some of the technology is home grown and cheaply available  but under utilized.This needs to be corrected and upgraded.