India produces enough to feed its population yet loses a significant share of its produce across the value chain. Examine the causes of post-harvest losses and evaluate government interventions to reduce them.

India grows more food than it needs, but a lot of it is lost between the farm and the market. This lowers farmers' incomes and wastes scarce resources. A NABCONS study commissioned by the Ministry of Food Processing Industries (MoFPI), for 2020–22, measured these losses for 54 commodities across 15 agro-climatic zones and 292 districts [1]. Its findings show that the problem lies across the whole value chain, not in production.

Causes of Post-Harvest Losses

• Handling at the farm: losses begin during harvesting, collection, grading, cleaning and drying [1].
• Poor storage and transport: the study blames inefficient handling, storage and transport, mainly for vegetables, fruits and cereals [1].
• Broken cold chain: India has about 90% (32 million tonnes) of the cold storage it needs, but only about 15% of the refrigerated transport it needs. The shortfall of pack-houses and ripening chambers is over 90% [2].
• Weak processing links: there are gaps in infrastructure, technology and skills near farms [1].

Government Interventions

• PM Kisan SAMPADA Yojana: MoFPI's umbrella scheme for post-harvest infrastructure and processing capacity [1].
• Operation Greens: it began with tomato, onion and potato and now covers 22 perishable crops. It gives a 50% subsidy on transport and on hiring storage [3].
• Using data to guide policy: the NABCONS study mapped losses stage by stage. In August 2025 a Parliamentary Standing Committee asked for an updated loss study [4].

Evaluation Strengths

• Infrastructure built around production clusters links farmers and FPOs (farmer producer organisations) to processors [3].
• Cold chains work: an Indian pilot project cut kiwi fruit losses by 76% [5].

Limitations

• Too focused on storage: cold stores have grown faster than cold transport. This goes against the 2017 committee call for block- and district-level cold chain networks [2].
• Split responsibility: the short-term part of Operation Greens moved to the Agriculture Department in 2023–24 [3].
• Gaps in districts: the Standing Committee suggested government-owned cold storage and supply-chain systems in districts [4].
• Climate cost: food cold chains are linked to about 4% of global emissions [5].

The interventions have built real capacity, but they are only partly effective because they focus on storage more than on moving produce. The next step should be district-level cold chain planning, energy-efficient cooling, and loss data for each stage from the new survey. This would help India meet SDG 12.3 on cutting food loss while also improving food security and farmers' incomes.