POST - HARVEST HANDLING AND VALUE ADDITION IN AGRICULTURE

STATE OF AGRICULTURE IN INDIA Agriculture is practiced in about 140 million hectares in 55000 villages. About 60% families (34% households + 26% agri-labours) and 1180 lakh farmers are engaged in agriculture.

Income of farmers is very low as compared to non-farm workers and the gap is increasing. This is major source of agrarian distress and also diminishing interest in farming resulting serious implications for future food security.

Present food grain production is about 271.98 million tons (2016-17). We will need 470 million tons food grains for our fast growing population estimated to be 165 crores by 2050.

India has world’s largest area under cultivation in food grains (wheat and paddy). However, India is home to 25% of the world’s hungry population.

CHALLENGES OF FARM SECTOR Farm productivity enhancement under marginal environment. Chemical free production. Conservation of natural resources. Farm income enhancement.

USE EFFICIENCY OF PESTICIDES Pesticides Use efficiency Wastage * Weedicides 5% 95% * Insecticides - Liquid form used in spray 2% 98% - Solid form used in soil 3% 97%

RESIDUES OF PESTICIDES ABOVE TOLERANCE LIMIT Maharashtra - 75% Gujarat - 70% Andhra Pradesh - 57% Himachal Pradesh - 56% Punjab - 51% Other States - 10%

PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FOOD CROPS (Above Legal permissible limit) Rice - 1325 % Wheat - 322% Pulses - 96 to 124 % Oilseeds - 76 to 144 %

PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN VEGETABLES (Above Legal permissible limit) Brinjal - 860% Okra - 55% Cabbage - 95% Cauliflower - 320% Tomato - 263% Cucurbits - 147 to 371% Beans - 21% Potato - 9%

PESTICIDE RESIDUES IN FRUITS (Above Legal permissible limit) Apple - 140% Mango - 90% Strawberry - 155% Grape - 560% Papaya - 115% Banana - 51% Oranges - 21% Mandarin - 69%

ULTIMATE CONSEQUENCES OF CHEMICAL FARMING By the end of 2050: Ground water will be totally unfit for drinking purposes and more or less entire population will be in crisis of drinking water.

By the end of 2050: Entire earth would become barren and Soil will be un-productive. No crop production even after heavy investment and there will be no alternate to prevent people from starvation.

By the end of 2050: Due to un-safe air for respiration and heavy occurrence of various diseases, Human death rate will increase skyrocketing in spite of vast medical aids and peoples will be struggling for survival.

At global level: STATE OF FOOD LOSSES As per recent report of FAO, about 1.7 billion tones or 1/3 of total production is lost or wasted every year.

1 in each 3 persons worldwide is not getting enough food to eat per day. Approximately 800 million people sleep hungry every night .

More than 80% of global food losses occurs in 3 stages: 24% during production stage. 24% during post-harvest operations. 35% during consumption.

Food losses in India: About 30 to 35% Agriculture produce is lost every. This includes 25 to 30% loss of food grains, 35 to 40% loss of Fruits & vegetables and 20 to 25% loss of meat. The economic value of such loss is estimated to Rs 44000/- crore.

The total food loss and wastage per year in India is estimated to the value of Rs. 92651/- Crores. This value is about 49.50% of total budget allocated for Rural, Agriculture & allied sectors during 2017-18

During the storage of FCI, the food grain losses is estimated to 30%. Food grain losses at farmer’s storage is estimated to 6%. During the storage of FCI, the food grain losses is estimated to 30%.

STAGES OF FOOD LOSSES During post harvest operations. Curing after harvest. Sorting and grading. Pre-cooling before storage. Storage. Transportation. Dehydration and packaging. Value addition.

At the end of supply chain. - Weddings & Banquets (56%). - Restaurants (21%). - Hotels (17%). - Homes (6%).

IMPACT OF FOOD LOSSES 1. Wasting of one kilogram wheat would mean wasting of 1500 liters of water that utilized during its production. Incase of 1 kg loss of paddy, the loss of water is 3500 liters utilized during production.

2 Food loss is responsible for emission of green house gases globally estimated to nearly 3.3 billion tones per year. It contribute 8% of total global greenhouse gases.

3 The enormous food loss per year results economic, environmental and social impacts to the tune of 1 trillion Dollars, 700 dollars & 900 Dollars, respectively.

6. Create major challenge of food security. 4. Increases cost of food of consumers. 5. Reduces income of farm producers. 6. Create major challenge of food security.

REASONS OF FOOD LOSSES AND ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN Insufficient budget for research on loss reduction. Fund should be increased for research on reducing food grain losses.

Lack of responsibility of FCI officials. Major reforms are needed in the functioning of FCI and making officials responsible for grains losses and money wastage.

Poor storage infrastructure. Storage infrastructure and facilities should be modernized. CAP godowns should be converted into Silos with mechanized assemblies. Use of silo bags (3 layered Poly bags) are recommended for safe storage of food grains.

Poor transportation facilities Transportation should be in containers instead of gunny bags.

FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR STATE OF FOOD PROCESSING SECTOR Food sector has emerged as a high growth and high profit sector and ranks 5th in the world in production, export and consumption.

Food processing sector contributes: 14% of manufacturing GDP, 13% of India’s export, 6% of total industrial investment, 32% of total food market. Employ 13 million people directly and 35 million indirectly.

Number of players in Food processing industries are small. About 42% output comes from unorganized sector, 25% from organized sector and rest from small players.

At present, the total value addition by food processing industries is about 8% of total food production.

STAGES OF VALUE ADDITION 1. Post-harvest primary processing: (Cleaning, grading & packaging. Applicable to fruits & vegetables).

Post-harvest secondary processing: 2. Post-harvest secondary processing: (Basic processing, packaging & branding, Applicable to grains, high volume low margin business).

3. High-end processing: It is capital intensive, high technology dependant & competitive business). (Involves complex processing technologies, equipments & finance,

Major constraints in building Agro-Industries in India Lack of coordination between the R&D Institutes (ICAR, CSIR and DBT) and the agro-industries.

Poor market linkages for processed products for getting price advantage. Lack of sufficient credit availability, administrative encouragement and policy support. Very Poor transport system and high-way structures for well connectivity with urban markets.

Shortage of skilled manpower and lacking of core competency. 7. Lack of power supply which is single most limiting factor.

CONCLUSION 1 Emphasis and priority on organic farming for: Minimizing Post-harvest losses, Production of quality processed products. Prevention of degradation of natural resources. Nutritional security.

2. Emphasis and priority should be on diversification wheat–paddy based cropping system to: Climate-hardy, drought resistant, essential nutrients rich and low water-loving super food crops.