“India loses approximately 1 lakh crore through food loss. Adequate and sustainable cold chain infrastructure will not only reduce post-harvest losses but also significantly reduce the country’s carbon emissions” said Mr Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, while addressing the Post-Harvest and Logistics Summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi today.
“Food that is lost and wasted accounts for 38 percent of total energy usage in the global food system. Further, when food is lost/wasted, all resources that go into the production of that food, including land, water, energy human capital, are all wasted,” he said while highlighting the significance of cold chain industry in reducing food losses and ensuring a greener future.
He added that the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare is committed to the development of cold chain through the Mission on Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH) providing several incentives to interested stakeholders and promoters.
Setting the context for the summit, Mr P. Ravichandran, Chairman, CII National Committee on Cold Chain and President, Danfoss Industries Private Limited, emphasized the need for collaboration towards greening India’s cold chain. “The Global Methane Pledge targets to achieve at least a 30% reduction in anthropogenic emissions of Methane by 2030; and this requires concerted efforts from all stakeholders," he stated, laying the foundation for the subsequent discussions.
Speaking on the occasion, Ms Liz Goodwin, Senior Fellow & Director – Food Loss, World Resource Institute, United Kingdom, underscored the importance of reducing food loss, stating “One-third of food produced globally by weight, is lost between farm to fork, costing around USD450 billion per year, to the global economy”.
The summit brought together experts from refrigeration, cold chain and food processing industry, along with government officials, global development bodies, academia, banking and financial institutions, and other stakeholders from across India and the world. Together they explored strategies that can lead to transformational shifts, mitigate the impact of climate change and its adverse impact of food and agriculture security, and foster the development of efficient cold chain.
The Summit featured some key technical sessions focussing on technological interventions and green financing in the cold chain for mitigating emissions across the agriculture value chain, energy efficiency and international collaboration to enhance the efficiency of cold chain.
As the B20 secretariat, CII organized this summit to engage industry stakeholders in G20 countries to shape the future of cold chain. With the participation of representatives from more than 10 countries, including major G20 countries, the summit fostered international cooperation to prioritize and develop long term solutions for a greener and more climate resilient cold chain.
23 June 2023
New Delhi