Budget 2023 Needs to Focus on Minimizing Post-harvest Losses.

Shweta Lamba , Dr. Nitya Sharma

The Indian agricultural sector is slowly shifting towards the horticulture and livestock production sector. Driven largely by a rise in income levels, urbanization, and changing consumption patterns, the demand for fresh and processed food products is increasing multifold.

A recent study by NABCONS estimates a monetary loss of 1.5 trillion rupees (USD 18.5 billion) to post-harvest losses in 54 crops in India annually. It accounts for 2.35% of the national GDP (at current prices for Q1 of 2022-23) and is higher than last year’s entire budget of the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare (MoAFW). The highest contribution to the economic loss was by livestock produce - milk, meat, fish, and eggs (21.70%), followed by fruits (19.34%), and vegetables (17.97%).

Since India is the second-largest producer of fruits and vegetables in the world, there lies a huge domestic and export potential with a comparative advantage in terms of production volumes and diversified crops. However, the sector faces several roadblocks in terms of lack of awareness, poor accessibility to innovative and good agricultural practices, poor cold supply chain infrastructure, and market volatility.

There is a need for the upcoming budget to lay higher allocation to horticulture and livestock produce sub-sectors, especially focusing on the need to minimize post-harvest losses in the perishables. This would not only pave a way for food and nutrition security but would also help in improving farmers’ income and progressing towards achieving SDG target 12.3 which calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses by 2030.

We hope the upcoming budget reflects the intent to bolster agricultural extension and the technological transfer from lab to farmers, bridge the fragmented cold supply chain sector through schemes such as Kisan Rail, improve processing infrastructure and promote traceability practices to boost exports.