Stop Food Loss to Counter Climate Change

Artificial refrigerant gases cause global warming... and so do decomposing gases from wasted food

India has the world’s largest footprint in cold stores. Recent estimates indicate that over the last few decades we have created 130 million cubic metres of refrigerated warehousing space. Most importantly, 97% of these happen to be users of natural refrigerant gases – in effect this is the world’s largest collection of users of ammonia based refrigeration. This is not a petty matter, as most of the developed world has cold stores that deploy artificial refrigerants. Unlike ammonia, these artificial fluids - Hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and Hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) - either caused Ozone depletion or are negatively impacting Global Warming.

In Europe alone, reports indicate that almost 50% of their food chain refrigeration is using such gases with a thousand times higher global warming potential (GWP) than CO2. Ammonia on the other hand, extensively used in India, has zero GWP.

High Technology in Agriculture

Use of technology in agriculture is normally interpreted as technologies that go into on-farm machinery. However, there are many more high-tech applications, involving various sciences, which have come into regular use in agriculture.

Drones are used in farming for various reasons

For example, India has a program called CHAMAN which uses satellite based remote sensing information or geo-informatics to manage crop forecasting. High tech systems, that use overhead Drones, chemistry labs and spectrograph analytics are part of agriculture and are used to manage crops and diagnose soil health. Spread your gaze wide, and you will find almost every possible form of science being applied in the field of agriculture.

General Queries on Cold-chain

1. What are the components of well-designed cold-chain system?
Simply explained, a good cold-chain is one that is designed to integrate the entire set of activities needed to transfer the harvested or produced value from source to consumer, while ensuring all climate controls for the value under its care. Such a system would also safeguard the environment, be efficient in managing waste and comply with food safety standards.

Doubling of Farmers' Income

In day-to-day conversation, a number of terms sometimes lead to confusion, especially when the words involved are in disconnect from colloquial and professional context. Revenue and profit are often used interchangeably by the average person, but these terms have separate meanings, albeit profit being an outcome of revenue. Contextual clarity on terminology is important to avoid confusion of intent or action. 

Value Realisation is directly linked to market connectivity, waste occurs when connections fail.

Revenue is a synonym for income, whereas profit mean net income. Profit, in simple terms, means the income or revenue that remains after all expenses.

Increase in Farm Yields is not always Revenue Generating

Frequently Asked Questions on AICIC Study

“All India Cold-chain Infrastructure Capacity” (AICIC)[1]
(Assessment of Status & Gap)

Q1 - The NCCD-NABCONS Study (AICIC) has covered cold storage needs for horticulture produce only and not for processed food products. Therefore, the findings are grossly underestimated?

Table 2.2 of the report provides a list of food items which were selected for primary study in the AICIC. In this selection, meat products (livestock, poultry, fish), processed products (including frozen peas, ice-cream, butter) are listed besides fresh produce. The topic is also expanded upon in other parts of the report.

In addition, to offset any lack of relevant data and information (consumption or production) of specific products, the holding periods in cold stores in the chain of various temperature categories, especially frozen products, was used to buffer the assessment of capacity required on the on a higher side. In relation, it is prudent to note that various reports suggest only 2%-4% of processing occurs in India. As such, even if none of the processed foods had been studied, the resulting underestimation would have been minimal.

Logistics Connectivity is Key to Reduce Food Loss

Food has one end-use, to be consumed...food loss or waste occurs when food left unconsumed - or, when food perishes before it could reach the market within its normal saleable life cycle.

Food loss can be reduced... only by ensuring that all the harvested produce reaches its logical end use. This means that food delivery mechanisms must also aim to counter the perishable nature of food, to extend its saleable life cycle.