India's Post-Harvest Food Loss and Waste Challenge Explained

India produces enough food to feed its population, yet a significant share is lost or wasted before it is consumed. This has been tracked through the Ministry of Food Processing Industries, which has conducted three national Post-Harvest Loss (PHL) surveys, in 2005-07, 2012-14 and 2020-22, covering 45, 45 and 54 commodities respectively, from farm to retail. India is the only country to have generated three such nationally representative surveys, and this data feeds into its reporting of the Food Loss Index under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A fourth survey round is currently under way.

This effort sits alongside India's domestic waste-governance framework. The Solid Waste Management Rules, 2016, framed under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986, require source segregation and decentralised processing of wet waste, of which food waste is a major component. Reducing food loss and waste also supports India's climate commitments under its Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), since decomposing organic waste releases methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The scope for cutting losses is largest where storage, drying, cooling, moisture management and processing are weakest. This is precisely the supply-chain dimension examiners have asked about before: better cold storage, transport, and market linkages reduce the gap between what farms produce and what actually reaches consumers, while also lowering emissions and raising farmer incomes.