Climate change impacting food production as well as food affordability

As evidenced by rising temperatures, shifting precipitation patterns, and other extreme events, climate change is already affecting food security. These variables are also disrupting the supply chain, resulting in increased transportation waste.

In response to the challenges posed by erratic weather patterns, a number of entrepreneurs have emerged in recent years to help farmers increase production and yields through the use of technology.

According to a recent report, the Indian agritech market could be worth $24 billion by 2025. Despite the threats posed by erratic weather patterns, we have a huge responsibility to feed the people because agriculture, in India, is the primary source of income for 58 percent of the population.

What are India’s challenges, and how are these startups assisting farmers in these situations? Otipy Vice President Umesh Kumar shares his views with The Environment.

How climate change is impacting the food security of India?

Climate change has a huge impact on the food security of the world and more so for developing nations like India. Climate change has a dual impact on food production as well as the affordability of the produced food. Climate change is impacting the crop cycle due to changes in patterns of temperature, rainfall, etc. 

It is also disrupting crop production due to sudden drought/ flood, extreme weather, cyclones etc. causing huge loss of productivity and loss of crop in some cases. These factors are also interrupting supply-chain and causing an increase in wastages in transit.

Short supply of food would eventually lead to high inflation in food products and be less affordable to the mass. As per Global Food Policy Report 2022 by the International Food Policy Research Institute, climate change may push an additional 7 crore Indians towards hunger by 2030.

What will be the plan of action that India needs to take to mitigate this challenge?

While a full action plan needs a lot of R&D on how different factors like temperature, water availability etc. would play out in the future, India must build a temperature-controlled supply chain for foods to mitigate transit wastage. 

Climate change may actually force us to shift to completely new crops and change our food habits. But in all possibilities of production what remains a single solution is a temperature-controlled supply chain. India lacks in cold chain infrastructure and processes to handle products under a cold supply chain and needs to accelerate capacity building there.

 Tell us more about how you are tackling the issue of food wastage? What kind of support do you get from farmers in this regard?

For the category of perishable products, there are multiple factors playing an important role in tackling this problem, and the speed of the supply chain plays the most crucial role in reducing food wastage.

Apart from this the environment which includes the temperature, RH, Gas composition etc. also plays a pivotal role. We incessantly work on both the factors to keep the wastage in the value chain to the bare minimum with the help of the channel of our farmers from different parts of the country by following the below-mentioned steps: Scheduling harvest: Planning the harvest of the produce closer to delivery time which is mostly on the afternoon or early evening and as per our instructions.

Segregation of produce: To stop the spread of degraded food items, we get the healthy produce segregated from the diseased produce at the time of harvest.

Pre-cooling of the produce to remove excess field heat: Farmers bring their produce to the aggregation point quickly after harvest where it is put to pre-cool. This helps in improving the shelf life of produce, maintaining freshness for a longer period of time, and ultimately reducing wastage.

What do you think brands can do to work towards food wastage in the fresh segment?

Brands can undertake multiple measures to enhance their supply chain to ensure two important things to reduce wastage:

 Undertaking steps to increase the shelf life of the produce by adopting the natural processes only without the use of any kind of preservatives

 Investing in the delivery system to ensure the orders are delivered seamlessly to the consumers well within the shelf life of the produce

 Following a data-driven approach to predict demand and guide farmers on what, when, and how much to grow

 Focussing on handling processes by building processes to ensure the handling of goods with proper care and transportation of the produce to avoid wastage due to mis-handling in the supply chain.

What are the steps that Otipy is taking to ensure minimal food wastage? Explain your food delivery model.

At Otipy our approach has been to reduce wastage to the lowest possible level. With our innovative techniques and procedures, we have been able to achieve 4% wastage (1% volume + 3% Value) as compared to the industry standards of 30 -35 % wastage (20 – 25 %volume and 10 – 15% value)

In order to achieve these figures we have undertaken the following steps:

 Use of technology predictive algorithms: Otipy uses a strong prediction engine using 21 different factors to predict demand at individual SKU level. Farm harvesting is planned as per prediction only which helps us reduce the wastage.

Reduced delivery time: We ensure that perishable products are delivered to consumers within 12 hours of harvest/ production.

Recyclable packaging material: All the farm products are packaged in specially designed recyclable packaging to let products breathe and stay fresh.

Taking extra care of sensitive products: There are some fruits and vegetables which decay at a faster rate, such food items are immediately pre-cooled near farms before getting transported. Temperature controlled environment is maintained throughout the supply chain for such products.

Any piece of advice for your customers to follow for maintaining minimum wastage?

People can contribute at an individual level to prevent wastage of food in their everyday life. In order to maintain a minimum wastage we would request our customers to follow these very two simple steps: Remove packaging and transfer the fresh vegetables and Fruits in the refrigerator as soon as it is delivered. Do not stock up perishable items for more than 2 – 3 days.

Otipy is agro-tech launched in 2020, caters to over 5 lakh households largely in Delhi-NCR moving over 100 tonnes of fresh produce from farms to consumers daily.