WASTE, WASTE AND WASTE! THE GREAT FOOD PARADOX!

Food wastage is as old as human civilization and there has never been or never will be unanimity regarding the extent of loss at different stages of production, distribution and consumption. From time to time estimates (are they not guesstimates?) of food waste are aired in developing as well as the developed countries, though there is some credibility problem in completely trusting those figures. Latest to come out is a report which puts the wastage globally at a staggering 1.2 billion tons annually though the methodology used to decide on this awesome figure is not known. It is true that significant amount of food, whether raw, cooked or processed, is lost and the reasons for this unfortunate phenomenon can be many. While people in rich countries cause food wastage on their dining tables, those in poor countries incur losses in the field during production or defective storage or distribution inefficiencies. While the wastage of food is real, what the world does not know is how to cut down or prevent such losses. Here is a critique on this issue and after reading this one still does not get a clue as to how much is really lost and how that can be tackled.  

"The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of food produced around the globe, or 1.2 to two billion tonnes each year, never reaches a human mouth. Vast quantities of produce from developing countries is lost due to poor storage or inefficient farming, while wasteful behavior by consumers and supermarkets means half of all food bought in the west is thrown away. As many as 30 per cent of UK vegetable crops are not even harvested because they do not meet retailers' stringent demands on appearance, which are based on what customers will accept. Supermarkets often reject entire crops of "perfectly edible" fruit and vegetables at farms because they have the wrong size or appearance, and are guilty of encouraging consumers to buy more than they can eat with promotions on perishable items, the report said. Use-by dates can also cause more waste because retailers use conservative estimates to avoid the threat of legal action, thereby encouraging customers to throw perfectly good food away before it has gone bad, it was claimed. Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said: "The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. "The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers." The report called on governments to introduce better technology and food storage facilities in the developing world and introducing policies to reduce waste by supermarkets and consumers in countries like Britain".

Taking the case of India, both the so called experts as well as the governing class were routinely touting figures like 30-50% as food losses though there are not many reliable sources of information to verify the same. Even the Prime Minister of the country has recently pronounced that 30% of food in the country is wasted though he forgets that his government as well as the previous ones are responsible for this miserable state of affairs in the country. On one hand there is a glut of food grains coming from the farmlands of the country while there are millions of Indian citizens starving due to inaccessibility to affordable food. It was only last year that the Supreme Court pulled up the government for allowing food grains to rot in the open for want of efficient management and critical shortage of grain storage facilities in tune with the production increase from year to year. As for dining table wastage, the upper middle class and rich people only can be accused of such callousness while big caterers and restaurants do waste food due to reasons beyond their control. Education and sensitization of kids during early stages of their life can instill in them a sense of responsibility and awareness regarding the criminality of wasting food on the dining table. Food banks which are now being established in the western world are doing a yeoman service to at least arranging to lift foods from super markets and other retailers which are no more marketable but still edible for distribution to poor people. Field losses of raw foods can be avoided only if farmers employ modern preservation technologies and sound scientific storage practices.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

ANOTHER BUMPER CROP? THE IMPLICATIONS

Any news regarding increased food production should be welcomed, especially in a country like India where hunger and poverty live side by side. If so why is that the latest "projection" by government agencies ( based on sowing estimates!) predicting a bumper harvest of food grains this year should create panic in the government? The answer is simple. Those in power at Delhi is again going to be caught in a state of unpreparedness to store the grains that will flow into the government granaries in the coming months. The problem is further accentuated by the higher support price being decided by the government against the advice of its own expert panel for political expediency. Those keen observers of the "grain politics" GOI is practicing in the past, cannot forget the rap it got from the Supreme Court last year for allowing precious food grains to rot in the open as sufficient storage facilities were not organized in spite of knowing the problem for almost two decades. With no clarity still emerging regarding the so called "Direct Cash Transfer" scheme and the fate of PDS in the coming years, what is in store for millions of people living below poverty line in future is still uncertain. Here is a critique on this vital issue facing the nation.   

Officials said wheat production in 2013-14 season that starts from April 1, is expected to be between 85 and 90 mt as sowing till Friday is around 458,000 hectares more than last year. This year, the country harvested a record 94 mt of wheat compelling state agencies to procure an all-time high 38 mt, a staggering 10 mt more than 2011-12. A situation similar to this year is also expected in 2013-14. Already, in rice state agencies have procured 1.2 mt more till yesterday as compared to the same period last year. By the close of the season, government plans to procure almost 40 mt of rice from farmers this year, 5 mt more than 2011-12. Wheat and rice procurement seasons are different. Rice procurement starts from October every year, while wheat begins from April. However, all this will not come at a low price. Infact, with government increasing the minimum support price (MSP) of wheat for 2013-14 season by Rs 65 per quintal, the food subsidy burden will straight away rise by Rs 2,275 crore. In 2012-13 Union Budget, the food subsidy has been pegged at Rs 75,000 crore. "With increase in MSP by Rs 65 a quintal, procurement cost of FCI will surely go up, and depending upon how much is procured and for how long it is stored and at price it is distributed under PDS, the subsidy Bill will get inflated. Presuming that FCI will procure at least 35 mt of wheat (last year it procured 38 mt), and if all other costs remain the same, the subsidy bill will go up by minimum Rs 2,275 crore," Gulati said. The burden will also be no less on consumers as wheat prices along with that of wheat flour will further move up. "Retail prices of wheat will go up further unless larger leakages from PDS flood the market at lower prices," Gulati said. The direct fallout of over-emphasis on grains, which the CACP sought to correct by recommending freezing the MSP of wheat for 2013-14 season is that import of edible oils and pulses is expected to cross Rs 65,000 crore in 2012-13 financial year, a steep jump of almost 16 per cent from the previous year. But, a bumper harvest does not necessarily mean that the farmers are getting benefit from producing more. A recent field visit by senior officials from the department of agriculture found that rice prices in eastern India has plummeted to almost Rs 800-1,050 a quintal, as against the Centre determined MSP of Rs 1,250 a quintal in the absence of suitable state intervention mechanism. Official data showed that this year (2012-13) rice procurement in the three major eastern states of Bihar, West Bengal and Odisha has been less than one-fourth of last year."This clearly shows that something is serious wrong with the policy as farmers are producing more, but in many area they are not getting adequate returns for their labour," another expert said.

What is becoming tragic is that farmers who toil hard against all adversities are becoming more and more stressed financially while the consumer prices are soaring making the lives of both more and more miserable! One of the funny reasons attributed to food inflation is that many states are succeeding in plugging leakage from the PDS, resulting in less and less transfer of cheaper grains from the distribution chain to the open market! Openly or surreptitiously GOi is bound to allow more and more export of grains to prevent spoilage like last year due to shortage of storage facilities. If direct cash transfer system were in place throughout the country probably there would have been higher off take of grains by those economically poor families with the cash received from the government. But this "gift" of the government may take years to come to the hands of all the beneficiaries as the infrastructure for fund transfer is grossly inadequate as of now. Thus bumper harvest or normal harvest, it makes very little difference to the two important players in this ball game, viz the poor farmer and the ever suffering aam aadmi!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

POST-HARVEST FOOD LOSSES-THE PERCENTAGE GAME!

Dramatization of figures is invariably resorted to by human beings for getting the desired attention. Probably this trait is embedded in the psyche of people since time immemorial and there is always a thin dividing line between an outright lie and a reasonable fact. This practice is especially popular with politicians who indulge in over estimation of their achievements, especially during the election time! Even scientists are not immune to this malpractices, if it can be called one, as reflected by a recent study which says that two thirds of publications withdrawn in reputed periodicals are due to deliberate distortion of results and unsubstantiated claims! An interesting report on post harvest food losses in India reveals how a nation can indulge in whole sale cooking of figures, obviously to highlight the need for investing on projects that can save these losses. Interestingly the loss figures of 30-50% being mentioned routinely in government circles during the last 5 decades remain the same in spite of pouring billions of rupees by the government on R & D, infrastructure and other areas! If this is not shameful what else it is! Is it not pathetic that no sustained studies have been conducted nationally to put down precisely what losses occur from the farm to the fork? A few scientific field studies do indicate that the post harvest losses are no more than 1-8% in case of most durable foods while the corresponding figures for perishables are slightly more, in the range of 6-18%. yet the Prime minister of this country had the gumption to solemnly declare before the country that one third of the food produced in India go waste! Here is an excellent piece of analysis on this subject which must make every Indian hang his head in shame for the sheer callousness, mismanagement and insensitivity to the welfare of its citizens!

"The figure has been in the air for long, so it has become acceptable. However, there is no hard study to back this number," said Pronab Sen, principal adviser in the Planning Commission. Sen told Business Standard the figure might just be a "guesstimate as he has serious doubts if such a study could even be conducted, especially for vegetables, which are seasonal and too diversified, unlike food grains and fruits". The 35-40 per cent loss claim does not even figure in the Planning Commission's working group report on agriculture marketing infrastructure for the 12th Five-Year Plan. It states that among vegetables, the post-harvest loss ranges between 6.8 per cent and 12.4 per cent, with the lowest loss in cauliflower and the highest in tomato. According to a study by the Indian Council on Agricultural Research (ICAR), among fruits, the minimum post-harvest loss is in sapota and the maximum in guava at 18 per cent. "The number for fruits is still believable as fruits are not seasonal in nature, but vegetables are seasonal, which makes data on production and wastage even difficult," said Sen.
Among cereals, the post-harvest loss ranged from 3.9 per cent to six per cent, with the lowest loss in sorghum and the highest in wheat. In pulses, the lowest loss was seen in chickpea at 4.3 per cent and the highest in black gram at 6.1 per cent.
A department of industrial policy and promotion paper on multi-brand retail in 2010 had said: "As per some industry estimates, 25 to 30 per cent of fruits and vegetables and five to seven per cent of food grains in India are wasted". This paper quoted industry estimates and not any hard study. However, even this number does not match the 35-40 per cent wastage being cited by the government now. The traders' community, too, has slammed the government for "cooking up" the figure. "Based on the ICAR study and the Planning Commission working group report, these post-harvest losses are nowhere around the staggering percentage quoted by the government. It appears that the government is coming up with these bogus figures for making up a case for allowing FDI in multi-brand retail," said Praveen Khandelwal, secretary general of the Confederation of All India Traders".

Looking back every Five Year Plan coming out of the corridors of National Planning Commission must be viewed with some apprehension because most data based on which planning is done in this country must be more of guestimates rather than real field generated information through scientific and representative studies. If at all there is a country in this Globe which consistently fails to keep the target dates for completion of any project, it is none other than India. Time over runs were between 50% and 500% and one can imagine the cost over runs as a result of these costly management lapses during the last 3-4 decades. The tragedy is that no politician seems to be serious or unduly worried about such enormous wastage of resources of the country while the neighboring China is galloping towards numero uno status in the world through their well planned and executed development projects on time in all critical sectors of economy. The astronomical sized financial scams, whether in coal sector or telephone sector do not speak well of the country's track record as a serious nation, capable of rubbing shoulders with countries like the US, the EU, China, Korea or Brazil.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com