India’s ₹1.5 Trillion Food Waste Crisis

Celebrating the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste along with the rest of the world, the Reserve Bank of India( RBI) featured the event in its Bulletin for August 2025. Financial and environmental  goods of food waste in India were  oppressively advised about. The study said that hamstrung storehouse and distribution systems beget in periodic losses of agrarian affair of over ₹ 1.5 trillion in the country. A statistic that highlights the critical need for  regular change. The bulletin claims that indeed if fruits and vegetables are the fastest expanding sectors in Indian husbandry, they’re also the bones most at threat of pricing volatility and decaying crops. These crops have constantly outpaced rice and wheat by adding 1.3 to 1.45 chance points to monthly agrarian expansion.  Nonetheless, the perishability of their goods and India’s poor cold storehouse installations affect in substantialpost-harvest losses. 

The paper continues to argue that little  growers, generally having lower access to contemporary storehouse and cold chain  structure, devote a bigger percent of their  means to their land for growing fruits and vegetables. This makes them particularly sensitive to corruption and request swings. Unlike rice and wheat, where prices are rather steady, fruit and vegetables witness great price swings caused by shaky force chains and poor preservation  styles. 

According to the RBI, the problem is  substantially structural. The four  countries of Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Punjab hold around 71 of India’s overall cold  storehouse capacity of 40 million metric tons. utmost conspicuous is the fact that only one crop — potatoes — consumes utmost of this  storehouse capacity. Because of this imbalanced distribution, vast regions of the country and other perishable goods warrant sufficient storehouse structure, hence worsening the issue of trash and forces  growers into ongoing loss cycles. 

Inadequate cold chain structure causes both  fiscal loss and severe environmental consequences. Along with dispensable  hothouse gas emigrations, every kilogram of food wasted loses water, labor, and energy expended to produce it. The UN named September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste in 2019 and stresses the Significance of scrap reduction at every step in the food chain. Every  position is demanded for a sustainable worldwide food force, from stores and transportation networks to homes and retail shelves. 

Still relatively dependent on climatic trends and lacking  structure, India’s agrarian sector employs nearly half of the country’s population. The RBI bulletin hints at the pressing need to  modernize transportation,  storehouse, and delivery networks. perfecting cold chain logistics, funding distributed  storehouse results, and educating growers inpost-harvest operation may all greatly reduce losses, according to experts. 

The report also notes the profitable inconsistency. India challenges. Millions of people in the nation are still undernourished indeed while the country is one of the  topmost food directors in the world. In a nation trying to guarantee food security, food waste and loss aren’t only ineffective but also a moral and  mortal catastrophe. Resolving the issue demands a coordinated strategy among government agencies, the marketable sector, and cooperatives of  growers. 

Technology can help to bridge these gaps; it might have a revolutionary effect. Among original results to help balance request  force and keep fruit’s newness are solar- powered cold  storehouse, real- time temperature monitoring, and AI- grounded demand  soothsaying. Government enterprise including Operation Flora and the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana have made early attempts to  breakpost-harvest operation. Still, experts stress the need of broadening these programs and  icing equal access. 

Led by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization( FAO), global  prayers to action indicate that around one- third of the population FAO bulletin’s Release corresponds with these demands. Annually, billions of tonnes of food produced throughout the world are wasted or lost. For India, where agrarian livelihoods are vital for social stability and  pastoral income, lowering food waste is an experimental need. 

More storehouse options might also help to stabilize pricing.However, they aren’t forced to  vend them at veritably low prices right after crop, If growers have the capacity to store their perishable  particulars for a longer period of time. This could lead to  further fair returns and help to reduce the smash- and- bust cycles that presently characterize  yield  requests. Open-private collaborations and  cooperative  storehouse systems might  exclude the  structure gap more effectively than just depending on government  installations. 

Also pivotal for changing consumer  geste 

are  mindfulness sweats. City people  frequently throw away food at the retail and domestic  position because of too  important buying or poor  storehouse practices. The RBI’s focus on this issue during the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste reminds us that food security and sustainability are participated  liabilities. 

Intervention is possible at every stage of the food  force chain —  product, processing,  storehouse, shipping, and consumption — and it’s carried out in several phases. The UN stated that the  ideal is to develop” smarter systems” whereby every grain saved helps to shape an unborn flexible and sustainable. 

From a broader standpoint, addressing food waste and loss is compatible with India’s climate pledges as well as its pursuit of the Sustainable Development Goals( SDGs),  specially Objective 12 Responsible Consumption and Manufacturing. The RBI’s findings indicate that food loss is an  profitable, ecological, and ethical problem as well as an agrarian bone.

On this worldwide day, the communication is straightforward lessening food waste means conserving employment, guarding the  terrain, and guaranteeing millions a better future. With the ₹ 1.5 trillion lost each time, millions of people may be fed and the base of India’s  pastoral frugality might be strengthened. Because every saved food is a step toward a more environmentally friendly future, the path ahead calls for  invention, backing, and most importantly — collaborative responsibility.