How does food waste affect world hunger – 7% of global food wastage occurs in India
What is the reason that even today about 828 million (80 crores) people face a food shortage and sleep hungry? The reason for this is not only lack of food and overpopulation but food waste or loss is also a big problem. Let us know how to affect food waste and world hunger truth through this article.
Globally, one-third of the food produced for humans, equivalent to 1.3 billion tonnes and valued at a trillion dollars, is wasted. When excess food is thrown away at home, it falls under the category of food wastage. A lot of food is wasted in street food and restaurants.
Most of the food loss occurs from the time the grain is produced to the time it reaches our dinner plates.
India has the highest employment in the agricultural sector. And the largest producer of rice and wheat in the world.
In a developing country like India, food gets lost at the time of harvest because
- Lack of proper storage space
- Repeated use of outdated technology
- Transportation challenges
According to the UNEP Food Waste Index Report of 2021, 7% of global food wastage occurs in India alone.
Now this food wastage is less in developed countries because they use the latest technology. They have enough space to store the grains grown. Food is transported from one place to another without any wastage through transport.
Apart from this, it also comes to light that 80 percent of the hungry people in the world live in places where food grains often get destroyed due to climate change. And starvation becomes a problem. Such people mostly have to depend on food grains produced in other countries.
How to save food waste at your level
If we can save food from going into the dustbin even at the individual level, then the wastage of food can be reduced. In India, 61% of food waste comes from households, 26% from food service, and the remaining 13% from retail.
On an individual level, all you have to do is put as much food on your plate as you can eat. Thereby saving food wastage. It has also been seen that at weddings in India, people fill their plates with more food than required and later the same food goes into the dustbin. Food worth crores of rupees gets wasted, and lakhs of people sleep hungry due to lack of the same food.
