Food grains, fruits and vegetables worth $6.8 billion go to waste every year in India because of inadequate storage facilities, a minister said on Friday. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar said the country''s storage requirement was 61.3 million tonnes against the current capacity of around 29 million tonnes, citing a report commissioned last year. "The present gap is around 32 million tonnes," he said in the upper house of the parliament, according to the Press Trust of India news agency.
The total wastage of cereals, fruits and vegetables would add up to 440 billion rupees ($6.8 billion) a year, the minister said. Pawar said the government had initiated various steps to encourage the creation of new storage capacity, which is in focus as the ruling Congress party rolls out a massive new food programme to feed the poor. The Food Security law, which the government is attempting to steer through parliament, will offer subsidised grains to nearly 70 percent of the population, or more than 800 million people.
Nearly two-thirds of India''s 1.2 billion population still depends on agriculture for their livelihood and the government is the country''s biggest purchaser of produce through its centralised procurement system. Food grain production during the agricultural year 2012-13 is estimated to have touched a record 255.4 million tonnes but analysts say the government does not have the warehousing facilities to store the produce.
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