Tackling Food Waste In A Hungry Nation

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A boy selling food in a farmers market in India. Representational image: 7MB
India is one of the world's largest food producers in the world. But thanks to food waste, millions go hungry.

For Bhaskar Kumar, it is a struggle to name green leafy vegetables found in India for his homework as his staple diet is rice and salt with vegetables served only on festive occasions. But the eight-year-old from Pilakhana village in India’s northern state of Uttar Pradesh decides not to ask his mother Shakuni Bai, aware she skipped dinner four times that week.

For Bai is among 194 million Indians going hungry daily, according to the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) – despite India wasting food worth about $14 billion a year, according to government figures.

India, one of the world’s largest food producers, is trying to tackle waste during production, processing, retailing and consumption by funding internal initiatives and by partnerships on best practice and technology with overseas investors.

But many of those struggling to get enough to eat are concerned that progress is too slow in India which ranked 100 among 119 countries in the 2017 Global Hunger Index, with 14.5 per cent of the population undernourished.



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