How is India suffering from chronic poverty? Tackling India’s hunger problem and ways to fight it through technology

A huge chunk of the Indian population suffers from chronic hunger. On the Global Hunger Index, India is at the 97th position. According to a study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IRPRI), one-sixth of India’s population is undernourished, while 190 million people go to bed hungry daily. A total of 30% children below the age of 5 years are underweight. India alone accounts for around 30% of neo-natal deaths internationally, all linked to malnutrition.

Rs. 50,000 crore worth food wasted yearly behind India’s hunger

One may be tempted to conclude that the culprit is insufficient food production. However, this is not true. In India’s case, around 40 percent of fruits and vegetables and about 20 percent of grains get destroyed because of insufficient infrastructure and supply chains that are inefficient. Food never reaches consumers. Around Rs. 50,000 crore worth of food is wasted every year. Such wastage has other ramifications as well. It results not only in hunger but it also releases millions of tons of methane gas from garbage dumps—further polluting our environment. Billions of gallons of freshwater, which was used to cultivate that wasted food is also lost.

“Reducing food waste would have a game-changing impact on natural resources depletion and degradation, food insecurity, national security and climate change,” said an official of Rethink Food Waste through Economics and Data, a US-based think-tank.

Hunger levels highest in Asia and Africa

Hunger levels are the highest in Asia and Africa. According to the study, 52 countries, usually from the two continents, have serious or alarming levels of hunger. Globally, more people die of hunger than Aids, malaria, and tuberculosis put together. Internationally, 45% children pass away due to insufficient nutrition. As many as 64% of the world’s poorest live in India, China, Bangladesh, Nigeria, and Congo. Along with the Indian Government and various international organisations such as the United Nation’s World Food Programme, UNICEF, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, several NGOs such as The Hunger Project, Fight Hunger Foundation, Astha Shakti, Akshaya Patra are working towards eradicating this problem.

Technology can reduce food wastage by better management

The Indian Government should leverage modern technology to minimize wastage, plug leakages and prevent hoarding and black marketing. Storage infrastructure needs to be bolstered and better planning is required at the supply chain level. Moreover, Inventory management systems can help keep a tab on aspects of food delivery and storage and prevent food wastage. They can also provide a 360º view of stock levels, inventory, and operations so that resources are effectively managed. A repository of inventory items could be maintained along with visibility of the supply chain and its usage can be optimized through anticipating shortage and overstocking.

Boost food preservation infrastructure and use inventory management systems

Warehousing and supply chain management issues can be addressed through putting up robust preservation and storage facilities. A public--private model can be followed for putting up structures that the government finds itself unable to do.

Modern inventory management can be made available to food retailers, particularly small players as a number of big corporates are already using such systems. Stocks can be reordered automatically at right time at warehouse to prevent wastage. Small retailers would be able to forecast and share data in better ways throughout the supply chain so that the twin aspects of supply and demand can be optimized, says Shashank Dixit, CEO, Deskera, a cloud company making inventory management software.

First published on LinkedIn