Small-scale Cold Storage For Fruit and Vegetables in India
Overview
India’s agricultural sector, employing 52% of the nation’s population[1], accounts for 17.4% of GDP[2] . It has the potential to enable India – which today is the world’s biggest producer of milk, spices and pulses, and the second largest producer of fruits and vegetables worldwide[3] – to become a self-sufficient food producer as well as a major food exporter. Currently, however, Indian production merely contributes 1.7% of total international trade of fruits and vegetables[4]. Also, prevailing poverty, rapid population growth and below average productivity levels have kept problems of mal and undernourishment that call for an improvement in India’s food supply [3].
Whilst productivity levels are one point of possible intervention, the post-harvest chain of food supply cannot be neglected[5]. As a matter of fact, out of 76.42 million tons of fruits and 156.32 tons of vegetables produced in India, about 40% go to waste creating an annual loss of about $6 billion. The loss is mainly caused by a lack in food processing and cold storage facilities [4][3].Targeting post harvest losses instead of solely focusing on the production site can offer higher internal rates of return, have a significant impact on poverty alleviation, and improvement of health and food security whilst ensuring a more sustainable use of resources[5].
India's cold chain and cold storage sector - the status quo
Further Information
References
- ↑ IBEF (2014) Indian Food Industry. [Online] Available from: http://www.ibef.org/industry/indian-food-industry.aspx [accessed: 5th August 2014]
- ↑ CIA Factbook (2014) India.[Online] Available from:https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html [accessed 12th August 2014]
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Worldbank (2011) Case study: Waste to Wealth by Incubating Mini Cold Storage Technology Ventures in India [Online] Available from: http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTARD/Resources/335807-1338987609349/IndiaCaseStudy.pdf [accessed: 17th August 2014]
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 TechSci Research (2013, February 6th) Global Cold Chain Logistics Market. [Powerpoint Slides]. Presented at the National Cold Chain Summit in Hyderabad. Available from: http://www.assocham.org/events/recent/showevent.php?id=822
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 Kader, A.A. (2005) Increasing Food Availability by Reducing Postharvest Losses of Fresh Produce. In: Mencarelli, F. and Tonutti, P. (eds.). International Postharvest Symposium, Verona, Italy
