Farmers plagued by post-harvest food losses

SOLAN (AP):

Sunil Sharma, a young tomato farmer in northern India, must navigate decripit roads, corrupt policemen and blazing heat to deliver his produce in an unrefrigerated truck to New Delhi's wholesale vegetable market.

India is plagued by malnutrition and soaring inflation, but it's not for lack of food. It is the world's second-largest grower of fresh produce, but loses an estimated 40 per cent of its fruit and vegetables to rot because of the kind of problems Sharma faces every week.

During one recent journey trucking tomatoes for himself and two other farmers to the capital, he was stuck for three days.

"Of the 350 crates of tomatoes I started out with, I could salvage only around 150 crates. The rest had turned to pulp," a despondent Sharma said.

Post-harvest food losses of the scale found in India are a problem throughout the developing world and translate into lower incomes for farmers and higher prices for consumers. Inflation is already undermining living standards across Asia with world food prices at record highs since December last year, according to the United Nations food agency.