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this malpractices, if it can be called one, as reflected by a recent study which says that two thirds of publications withdrawn in reputed periodicals are due to deliberate distortion of results and unsubstantiated claims!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

FOOD LOSSES-MORE TALK AND LESS ACTION!

Food losses are estimated differently by different people through more of a guess than figures based on any definitive data. Ever since our independence, figures varying between 20% and 50% were routinely used by people to "stress" on the need to develop and deploy technologies that could reduce this wastage. While estimation of pre-harvest food losses is an extremely hard task, post-harvest losses can be quantified by bench mark surveys in different agricultural regions of the country. Food Corporation of India which procures about 10% of country's food grain production reports that their handling and storage losses are less than 2%. In the recent food convention at Bangalore a top scientist put the value of annual food losses at an astronomical figure of Rs 765 billion, though it is not clear how this figure was arrived at.

"Out of the loss of Rs 76,500 crore,equivalent to the annual budget of three big states, Rs 52,400 crore accounts for perishable fruits, vegetables and poultry products. This calls for augmenting infrastructure facilities,including storage and gearing up food processing industry", Dr A K Srivastava, Director and Vice-Chancellor NDRI Deemed University said.

According to some social scientists in India practically nothing is wasted because of the prevalence of abject poverty amongst more than one third of the population. Of course due to insufficient cold storage facilities there can be some quality losses but quantitatively the loss is considered negligible because there is a substantial clientele for low quality perishables also at lower prices. If a realistic estimate of real losses is to be made, only scientific survey of the entire food chain at the ground level can bring out the facts.

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

FOOD FOR SCHOOL KIDS-A NATION'S CONCERN

Any responsible nation must be concerned about the way the health of the children is affected by poor choices and forced buying of foods considered devoid of much nutrition and causing health problems later in life. The food services in the schools are often controlled by private caterers and their concern invariably is how to protect their margin rather than promoting health of their 'captive' customers. Many a time due to lax monitoring system and lack of regular studies on the impact of the program on the health status of school kids, policy makers remain in dark as to what is going on at the ground level. This is true of almost all countries where foods are made available in the schools as meals and snacks.

Credit is due to the US for coming to realize the implications of lack of realistic hard data regarding foods consumed in their schools by youngsters. The national concern is reflected by the proposal to enact a law that will force the government to commission a critical study of the present system. "It calls for an in-depth study of the nutritional value of foods and drinks marketed in middle and high schools, as well as the vehicles advertisers use to reach young consumers in our nation's schools. Previous studies have shown that some foods available in schools have minimal nutritional value, and are high in sugar, fat and sodium".

In a country like India, GOI is concerned only with earmarking funds for school meal program and its achievements year after year is measured in terms of ability to spend the budgeted amount, not the results. Increasing allocation for the program regularly is also a talking point though in any management system, future allocations are decided only after assessing the performance. It is left to NGOs and multilateral international agencies to bring into focus flaws in the program based on some limited local studies. A nation concerned about this issue must have a statutory authority to audit the program

technically and bring about changes to make it more effective and ensure that tax payer's money is not wasted.

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