Government has got a study done on “Assessment of Quantitative Harvest and Post-Harvest Losses of Major Crops and Commodities in India” by ICAR – Central Institute of Post-Harvest Engineering and Technology (CIPHET), Ludhiana. The study has estimated that annual value of harvest and post-harvest losses of major agricultural produces at national level was of the order of Rs. 92,651 crore calculated using production data of 2012-13 at 2014 wholesale prices.
The CIPHET study has assessed the losses at each stage of supply chain viz harvesting, collection, thrashing, grading/sorting, winnowing/cleaning, drying, packaging, transportation and storage depending upon the commodity.
It may further be mentioned that National Center for Cold Chain Development (NCCD) under Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare had commissioned a study on “All India Cold Chain Infrastructure Capacity (Assessment of Status & Gap)” conducted by NABARD Consultancy Services Pvt. Ltd.(NABCONS). As per the gap study, the cold chain requirement in the country stands at 35 million tonnes of cold storage vis-a vis available capacity of 32 million tonnes. This study however, excluded the requirement for milk, meat, marine and processed products.
Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare under Component of Sub-Mission on Agricultural Extension (SAME) provide support to State Extension Programmes for Extension Reforms. This Programme is under implementation in 652 rural districts of 29 States & 3 UTs across the country and provides training, information and extension support to farmers through trainings, exposure visits, demonstrations, study tours, farm schools etc. Through above interactions, farmers are educated on aspects of agriculture including improved methods of storage.
This Scheme has recently been revised to include manpower support; roping in the farmers’ feed back in to planning by setting up Farmer Advisory Committees (FACs) at Block/ District & State Level and providing farmer-to-farmer learning and extension support through Farmer Friend. The Modified Scheme has dedicated Specialists & Functionary Support at State (2 per state), District (5 per district) & Block level (4 per Block).
Various activities supported under this initiative for educating and creating awareness amongst farmers include trainings, exposure visits, demonstration, study tours of farm schools etc. Since inception, 4 crore farmers have been benefited through various farmer oriented activities which includes trainings in modern and affordable methods to farmers for prevention of wastages.