Food production and distribution

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The value of agricultural production in India is $1000 billion.........employing maybe 350 million people, depending on what one terms employment...children, mothers etc.

The primary problem of agriculture in India is twofold:

There are not enough food processing factories to package and take them to the customers........an awful lot of food in India rot and are wasted due to lack of food processing. India needs at least 10,000--20,000 food processing factories IN or near the actual sites for agricultural production. But this has never been a priority for any government....especially Congress.


The other problem is related to INFRASTRUCTURE........transporting the agricultural products to the cities and other such venues. India needs a vast fleet of refrigerated VANS and TRAIN COMPARTMENTS to take the food in hot India to their destinations in fresh pristine conditions....so better rail and road systems with the compliment of more Tata refrigerated vans and train compartments.
 
Finally India needs more supermarkets and mass food market outlets in cities where food is more readily available.



It is a sad cruel irony that in a country that is such a huge successful food producer, a significant percentage of its food is exported (a low value export of mostly under developed countries).....whilst another significant percent rot, whilst 400---850 million Indians eat only one meal of white rice per day.

I understand that self sacrifice and fasting is strong in India, but this takes the cake of logic and cruelty.



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India is a major agricultural products exporter but children here remain stunted, experts say

Pratiksha Ramkumar by Times of India Horticulture production has surpassed production of food grains in the country for the first time and the Central Government is likely to create further growth in horticulture to ensure that the country can access a balanced diet, said agriculturists at the inauguration of the Indian Horticulture Congress here on Thursday.

Field crops like rice, wheat and maize contribute to only 30% of the agriculture production in the country, said Ashish Bahuguna, secretary, department of agriculture and co-operation.

"The remaining come in from horticulture (30 to 35%) and livestock and dairy development activities (30%)," he said.

"In fact, we have become a major exporter of agricultural products because of our excess production," he added.

The year 2013-14 saw India becoming the second largest producer of fruits (11.8%) and vegetables (13.3%). The country is also the largest producer of banana, mango, sapota, papaya, cauliflower, acid lime, peas and okra. However, nutritional security was yet to reach the country's entire population, said Bahugana.

"It a big embarrassment for the government that despite producing all this nutritional food, we have the highest number of stunted children," he said.

"We have to improve the availability of fruits and vegetables to people so that they may improve their diets," he added.

Geneticist M S Swaminathan, who attended the event as the chief guest, said, "Horticulture is an important catalyst in making available a balanced diet for the people."

"A balanced diet does not just have carbohydrates but proteins, minerals and drinking water," said the father of the green revolution.

However, the increase in production of fruits and vegetables has definitely contributed to the country's exports increasing. "Indian flower export markets are estimated at $11 billion now and is expected to grow up to $20 billion by 2020," said Tamil Nadu Governor Dr K Rosaiah, who inaugurated the four-day event.

The state contributed to 8.2% of the fruit production, 4.9% of the vegetable production and 18.10% of the flower production in the country, said the Governor.

"We rank fourth in fruits with 6.6 million tonnes production and a cultivation area being 3.09 lakh hectares," said Rosaiah.

However, agriculturists emphasized the need for more scientific technologies and research to overcome challenges the horticulture sector would face in the future.

"We would need an increase in demand, climate changes, labour shortage and shrinking land resources," added Rosaiah.

"People need to know that the economic returns per unit area is higher in horticulture crops than in field crops. At the same time, horticulture crop cultivation is labour intensive and be a source of livelihood," said K L Chadha, president, the horticultural Society of India.