Reasons for the low per capita availability

♤ Poverty: India is a hugely demand-constrained economy due to poor purchasing power reflecting poor access to nutritious food despite high production.

♤ Exports: When demand is low, an increase in local production need not translate into increased availability as a larger portion of the produce may be exported.

♤ Government stocks: Huge public stocks have been built up, foregoing consumption. The food in these stocks is deteriorating because of poor management, reducing availability.

♤ Huge leakages in Public Distribution System

♤ Post-Harvest losses: Around 25-30% of the production is wasted which means the inefficient utilisation of production and lowering of its availability.

♤ Absence of a unified Agricultural market which creates wide differentials in prices for the same commodity in different regions. It also leads to sharp seasonal variation of prices.

These higher levels of post-harvest losses are caused by the following:

♤ Inefficient supply chain for the distribution of the fruits and vegetables because of several problems:

o Numerous stake holders working in isolation

o Absence of demand forecasting

o Absence of application of technology improvements

o Lack of system integration

o Presence of large number of unorganized retailers

♤ Improper bagging without crating,

♤ Lack of temperature controlled vehicles and cold chain facilities. According to research, approximately only 10% of the fruits and vegetables produced in India use cold storage

♤ Unavailability of enough processing facilities for the agricultural produce

♤ Lack of vertical integration of production with processing.

The government has adopted multi-pronged strategy to improve food availability in India:

♤ Increase production through various programmes such as Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana, ISOPOM etc.

♤ Increasing purchasing power through welfare measures such as MGNREGA, NSAP etc.

♤ Reducing leakages by improving PDS through Aadhaar and Direct Benefit Transfer.