Correct Answers Tesco Application Form. Correct Answers Tesco Application: Fill & Download for Free

Thanks for the A2A. This is a long answer so, have divided it into sections as follows.Also, food is a big category and the question asked is a very broad one so I've focused on two main food groups discussing their most prominent wastage problems.-Introduction to the concept of Food Wastage-Why level of food wastage is important - problem # 1-Where in the supply chain food wastage occurs-Why do grains rot and lead to wastage and whats the solution?-Why do fruits and vegetables get wasted in India?-How can India eliminate wastage of its fruits and vegetables?Introduction to the concept of Food WastageAn agricultural establishment produces many types of wastes (that are categorized under agro waste) in its daily operations. But since the details of the question enquire about food waste due to crops being perishable, and other problems, we'll focus on that point only.There is an interesting speculation with regards to food waste world-wide. It goes like this:Food is lost or wasted throughout the supply chain, from initial agricultural production down to final household consumption. Research indicates that in medium- and high-income countries food is to a significant extent wasted at the consumption stage, meaning that it is discarded even if it is still suitable for human consumption. Significant losses also occur early in the food supply chains in the industrialized regions. In low-income countries food is lost mostly during the early and middle stages of the food supply chain; much less food is wasted at the consumer level.Overall, on a per-capita basis, much more food is wasted in the industrialized world than in developing countries. As per FAO estimate the per capita food waste by consumers in Europe and North-America is 95-115 kg/year, while this figure in sub-Saharan Africa and South/Southeast Asia is only 6-11 kg/year.Now here, researchers differentiates between two terms 'Food Loss' and 'Food Waste'. While food losses refer to the 'decrease in edible food mass' due to production, postharvest and processing stage techniques, food waste particularly refers to losses occurring at the end of the food chain due to retailer and consumer behavior (Parfitt et al., 2010). Though 'food loss' is also a persistent problem in India, most of the media and industry focus on 'food waste' which this question seeks answers for.Now in a country like India (as in many other low-income developing countries) both food losses and food waste are mainly connected to:1. financial, managerial and technical limitations in production and harvesting techniques,2. lack of storage and cooling facilities in difficult climatic conditions,3. inefficient infrastructure, packaging and marketing systems.The point is what are the best ways to tackle this problem along all the three parameters mentioned above. In most of the cases, tackling food waste requires cultural and societal change, whereas preventing produce losses is in most cases about the application of relatively basic engineering and management practice.And since we are focusing on 'Food Waste' in particular, let us try to first understand the some things with regards to level of wastage before throwing in solutions.Why level of food wastage is important - problem # 1The key to solving any problem lies in applying 'appropriate solutions' rather than the 'best solutions'And one problem we face in India is that data is not easily available. Let us take an example of data on food wastage of grains. Some independent reports suggest that 7% (16-17million tons) of the grains are wasted every year while high estimates go up to 55million tons and official reports are always significantly lower. According to some media reports 'an estimated 21 million tons of only wheat – equivalent to Australia’s entire annual crop – rots or is eaten by insects, owing to inadequate storage and poor management at the government-run Food Corporation of India (FCI). What most agricultural experts agree on is that most data related to agricultural waste is anecdotal.Let us look at some more examples:- According to Sharad Pawar in 2013, "food worth $8.3 billion, or nearly 40% of the total value of annual production, is wasted". But food loss and wastage is better understood when described in terms of tonnage rather than value.- Media reports state the fact that 'Meat accounts for just 4% of the food wastage but contributes 20% in the economic cost of the wastage which is believable, however, loss and wastage of vegetables and fruits is reported to be 70% of the total produce, yet it translated into only 40% of the economic losses for the period.------------------ Note: Any which way you see, 70% of total produce being wasted has to be an exaggeration because what it means is that the actual fruits and vegetable consumed in India are actually produced on just 4.6million hectares viz., 2.4% of the gross cropped area against the 15.6m hectares (8% of GCA) dedicated to it. And additionally, out of 243 MT produced, only 73 MT was consumed and exported - if these figures are to be believed, we might just know why Agricultural GDP in India is so low despite employing so many people but the main thing is that the numbers don't add up when you start getting into details of each vegetable produced and compare the state wise yields and output).According to Indian horticultural database 2013, "Out of the total production of fruits and vegetables, nearly 76 per cent is consumed in fresh form, while wastage, and losses account for 20 to 22 per cent".Now the reason why statistics are important is because solutions depend on extent of problem, if the wastage ratio is indeed 70%, the sector needs big reforms based on how much is being wasted at each stage and even big budget allocations or investments to fix the problem while if the wastage ratio is 20%, it can be sorted by introducing small improvements targeting inefficiencies within the supply chain management.Note: Solutions to wastage of grains is different from solutions for wastage of Fruits and Vegetables, not only due to the nature of their perish-ability but also due to their supply chain structure. Majority of fruits and vegetables are distributed in the private sector supply chains, meaning government never sets price for or takes custody of the produce. On the other hand, majority of the grain is purchased by the government while a portion (usually high quality) is distributed by the private sector.So the first step towards finding a solution to India's food wastage problem is finding out what exactly is being wasted and by how much.Where in the supply chain food wastage occursTo actually understand why food is wasted we need to first understand at which stage of supply chain is the agricultural produce being wasted, for which we need to first briefly understand the structure of the supply chain.There are two main types of agricultural supply chains in India – one which is highly-regulated by the government and another that is run by the private sector (as discussed above).Let us do this product wise to get an idea. We can start by focusing on Grains (like wheat for example) which is mostly government controlled and fruits and vegetables that are run by the private sector mostly.Like any other agricultural produce, the supply chain starts at the farm for both products. Now the most striking feature of India's farm sector is the fact that most land holdings are very small – averaging around just a couple acres. Wheat is grown on 13 per cent of the cropped area of India.This is how wheat cultivation is spread across the nation state wise.Nearly all farmers sell their produce in local government controlled markets (APMC -Vanita Ashar's answer to I have just begun studying the Indian economy. What is the APMC Act? What are its pros and cons?), which are often just a few kilometers up the street from the farms.The transactions may be handled predominantly by Commission Agents who negotiate prices with the farmers (note: they don't own the produce at any point, just find a buyer and charge a small commission of between 2-6%).At this point the supply chain may split between the government and the private sector. If the government is buying a regulated crop, the FCI will transact with the Commission Agent or Farmer at a regulated MSP. In case of wheat as in many regulated grains, the FCI buys grains and stores it at their warehouse for redistribution.So, Why do grains rot and lead to wastage and whats the solution?The chart above explains the problem very well as it was till 2012.And what is the solution to this?As of 2013, FCI operates a network of warehouse facilities throughout India in both grain surplus and deficit states with storage capacity of 27 million tonnes of bagged wheat and rice. State agencies hold stock on behalf of FCI in warehouses totalling another 16 million tonnes, bringing the total government covered storage capacity to 43 million tonnes (2013).However, due to successive record wheat and rice crops and the state’s obligation to purchase these cereals at a minimum support price that is often higher than the market price, the national storage gap, estimated for 2012 at about 10 million, continues to widen.In India’s 13th Five Year Plan for the years 2015 to 2020, the National Planning Commission has committed the country to realize 18 million tonnes of silo capacity for government’s grain in storages to be provided by the private sector on a Build, Own and Operate (BOO) basis.Read more about the government efforts to solve this problem here Grain Storage trends in IndiaI'm not providing any solutions as such (as the question asks for) since I feel, many necessary steps are being taken by the private sector to solve the problem in the short run here.Next we see, Why do fruits and vegetables get wasted in India?Unlike grains, fruits and vegetables are highly perishable. So, in the case of fruits and vegetables, the wastage we talk about is mostly post harvest wastage. As soon as the fruits and vegetables are cut off from their natural nutrient supply, their quality begins to diminish. This is due to a natural process that starts as soon as the biological cycle is broken by harvesting. Once it is harvested, the agricultural product is edible for only a limited time, which can vary from a few days to weeks. There are various types of spoilage here:Physical spoilage and Physiological aging - This occurs as soon as the biological cycle is broken through harvesting and the produce starts dehydrating. This process cannot be prevented, but can be delayed by timing harvest correctly and also by storing the agricultural products in a dry and draft-free area at as low a temperature as possible. Another solution to avoid such a damage is by reducing time from farm to market to plate.Spoilage due to insects or rodents - Insects and rodents can also cause a lot of damage. Not only by eating the products, but also by passing on micro-organisms through their hairs and droppings. This can again be avoided by proper storage facilities.Chemical, enzyme and Microbial spoilage - Chemical and enzyme spoilage occurs especially when vegetables and fruit are damaged by falling or breaking. The peel of a fruit or vegetable provides natural protection against micro-organisms. So particularly when peel is damaged, it can release enzymes that trigger chemical reactions. Tomatoes become soft, for example, and apples and other types of fruit turn brown. It can be avoided by careful handling of produce while harvesting and transportation. Enzymes can also be deactivated by heating the fruit or vegetables. The same effect can be achieved by making the fruit or vegetables sour or by drying them.Now challenges with transporting and storing food are the main factors which lead to any kind of spoilage and loss of food in India.Most of the fruits and vegetables are grown in some parts of the country from where they are distributed to the other states and districts by trucks.And if you look around, the problems are many:1. The biggest obstacle in India is that farmers (even large-scale farmers who can afford technology) are not able to preserve the food they grow on their farms due to a 'lack of reliable electricity'.2. There’s no refrigeration in majority of the private trucks used for transport of food.3. Many vegetables that are transported between markets within just one state to reach the consumer are loaded, sorted or repacked at least four times on an average.4. The roads on which they are transported are not necessarily paved.5. Long Distance Truckers are often harassed and delayed by RTA for bribes.An extreme example of the problems discussed above is the case of Sunil Sharma, a young tomato farmer in north India, for whom trucking his produce to New Delhi's wholesale vegetable market is a weekly obstacle course - and a race against time.He must navigate poor roads from his farm in the Himalayan foothills, landslides triggered by monsoon rains and petty corruption by police, all before the crop in the back of his blazing hot truck degrades to worthless rot.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.Below is a rough diagram (to indicate the scale distribution and supply) of the channels along which a fruit, vegetable may travel between farm to plate.What this chart does not talk about is the informal steps through which deals are cracked at wholesale markets.-> Hundreds of vegetable and fruit trucks reach the wholesale market each morning.-> Commission agents trawl the narrow alleys between the crates, looking out for the best bargains.-> Deals are struck, crates of vegetables- color-coded to indicate the owner- are auctioned in a high-decibel exchange and swiftly heaved onto trucks by a swarm of sweating musclemen.Next we see, How can India prevent wastage of its fruits and vegetables?Some believe allowing supermarket giants such as Walmart, Tesco and Carrefour to operate in India's multibillion dollar retail market could succeed where the government and private sector has failed.Note, that for fruits and veggies, government doesn’t declare minimum support prices (MSP), this may also give plenty of opportunity for the middleman to exploit farmer by refusing to buy their produce at a fair price causing delays in purchase leading to wastage. This is just a random example of how supply chain inefficiency may affect wastage.While a high tech solution like bringing in supermarket giants sounds tempting, the probability of it solving specific problems smoothly is minimum considering ground realities. A well established network of entrepreneurs and individual traders who run the current informal but sophisticated system cannot be replaced over night by foreign retail giants due to the political powers they hold on state and central governments.Wastage can however be tackled in other ways. After all many studies indicate that 'lack of access to cold chain technology and reliable energy sources' are the major reasons for crops perishing after harvest.In such a scenario, rather fighting for large-scale solutions that seek to change the structure of the industry, the governments should focus on simple solutions like 'better refrigeration that uses sustainable energy sources'. Some immediate solution the government can adopt are:1. To incentivize small business, remove unnecessary red tape, which puts off investors in small-scale technology solutions - Today, less than 4% of India’s fresh produce is transported by cold chain. Cold storage and refrigerated transport infrastructure is patchily distributed across the country, leaving many regions with no effective cold chain. Uttar Pradesh, one of 28 Indian states, has almost a quarter of the total cold storage facilities[123]and 75–80% of Indian refrigerated warehouses are suitable only to store potatoes, a commodity that produces only 20% of agricultural revenue. As a result only 4 million of the 104 million tonnes of fresh produce transported in India every year does so in a cold chain.It is not solutions the country lacks but investment in the right technologies. Promethean Power Systems designs and manufactures refrigeration systems for 'cold-storage applications in off-grid and partially electrified areas of developing countries' in Pune. Their products enable food suppliers to reliably store and preserve perishable food items—such as milk, fruits and vegetables—without the need for expensive diesel-powered generators. (Read more about them here Promethean Power Systems | Solar Powered Refrigerationor watch below video)2. Microfinance initiatives and farmer co-operatives could also help smallholders to purchase equipment and benefit from new technology and infrastructure - There are many small-scale service companies in India likeCold Chain Network - Refrigerated Truck Transportation EXPERTS all over India-BANGALORE, MANGALORE, GOA for example that seek to provide a range of cost effective cold chain and operational logistics solutions to companies.The government does subsidizes as much as 50% of the capital cost of a cold chain project today, and even grants 75% in difficult regions, up to a maximum of 10 crore rupees, approximately US$1.6 million. Eligible investments include plastic crates, packing houses, pre-cooling facilities, cold storage and refrigerated vehicles.Yet India’s cold chain falls far short of what is needed. And many pitfalls in the system still discourage investment. Cold storage industry on edge of precipiceAccording to the National Centre for Cold Chain Development (NCCCD), there are currently 6, 488 cold stores in India with a total capacity of 30 million tonnes, which is 36 million tonnes short of estimated demand, and the market is expected to quadruple by 2020. The NCCCD also estimates the country needs another 17, 000 refrigerated lorries, although this number seems not to take account of likely future growth, given the huge size of the potential market.Perhaps more needs to be done to focus on renewable energy solutions.And this is also where statistics come in handy, if the wastage level was indeed 70% of the fruit and vegetable as indicated in the HT report linked below, the government can provide much higher subsidies to facilitate cold storage development.To read about more about cold chain-technologies being developed world-wide mainly targeting food loss and wastage in developing countries go through some of the articles listed under 'Further Reading' below.Sources:Page on fao.orgIndia wastes more farm food than China: UNIndia must tackle food wasteResources - WaterlinksFour Problems with India’s Food Supply SystemsPage on fao.orgIndia Hopes Private Warehouses Will Reduce Food Grain Storage ProblemIndia turns to China for grain storage expertisePost Harvest Spoilage prevention of fruits and vegetablesSpoilt produce blights Indian food chain | The NationalGraft, bad infrastructure fuel India's food rot - FirstpostPage on ft.comFurther Reading:Tech can prevent huge food waste problems in developing countriesPage on uk.comEmerging SME's of India2013 Winners | Powering AgricultureCold Chain TechnologiesConstruction Of Cold StorageCase Study: IndiaOther answers related to the sector that may be interesting to understand the problems of the sector:Vanita Ashar's answer to How effective is India's sugarcane policy? What measures can be taken to solve the problems of sugarcane farmers?Vanita Ashar's answer to Why do onion prices in India fluctuate so often (compared to other vegetables) and how is this significant in the economy?