India's Opportunity in Tackling Food Loss and Waste

Gist India faces a critical paradox where, despite producing enough to feed its 1.4 billion citizens, a significant portion of its agricultural output is lost across the value chain. By addressing food loss and waste, India can secure a "triple win" that strengthens food security, reduces climate-harming emissions, and boosts farmer incomes. For civil services aspirants, this shift highlights a crucial transition from merely increasing agricultural production to optimizing supply chains, promoting circular economies, and empowering urban local bodies to manage organic waste. Background Globally and within the Sustainable Development Goals SDGs framework, a distinction is made between food loss which occurs along the supply chain from farm to retail and food waste which occurs at the retail, hospitality, and household levels . Countries are required to track their progress using the Food Loss Index to meet SDG targets related to responsible consumption and production. Historically, India’s agricultural policy has been heavily skewed towards boosting gross production yields rather than building robust post-harvest infrastructure. Prior to recent interventions, systematic data on post-harvest losses was sparse globally. Today, India leads in…