Problem of Food Storage and Losses in India

The concept of Food System has been introduced in Geographical literature recently. The basic idea in the study of this food system is to examine how the various components of food production and consumption are interrelated. There are two technological operations in the entire process of food production and consumption –pre-harvest technology and post-harvest technology. The post-harvest technology relates to cutting of crops, their drying processes, threshing, haudling, storage, transportation, marketing and consumption-while it is important to increase yields of the major food crops, an appreciable increase in the availability of foodgrains could be achieved by minimizing the food losses in the post-harvest processes. The book on Problem of Food and Losses in India deals with physical environment, principal systems of food storage in India and methodology. The magnitude of loss of foodgrains in the various processes of the post-harvest technology and the physical, biological and engineering factors which are responsible for losses in the post-harvest technology have also been discussed. Pattern of food losses in the sample villages of sandy soil zone, sandy luam zone, loamy soil zone, clayey luam soil zone and clayey soil zone have been analysed at the micro-level. Moreover, this study also identifies the relationship between the quantum of loss of foodgrains and type of soil. The data in this regard have been processed through field work with a detailed questionnaire. The book is extremely useful for policy makers, agricultural geographers and scientists, national and regional planners and program-managers, keenly interested to minimize the food losses in the post-harvest technology in India.