Roadmap for Tackling Food Loss and Waste in India: Policy, Practice and Partnerships
Reducing food loss and waste (FLW) is recognized globally as an opportunity to address the challenge of hunger, nutrition insecurity, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions while also advancing economic development. A recently published working paper by WRI India and Food and Land Use (FOLU) India platform highlights the ‘The Knowns and The Unknowns’ of FLW in India with research as the major gap, that is the cornerstone to tackle FLW challenge through policy, practice, and partnerships. WRI India has been actively involved in stakeholder consultations on challenges and opportunities of food loss and waste in India, in the past year. An emerging gap is the lack of action agenda and coordinated partnerships on food loss and waste in India. This led to the setting up of Friends of Champions 12.3 network in India, but we need more deliberations on pathways for reductions in food loss and waste in India. It is now imperative to define a clear strategy defined by key stakeholders for reducing food loss and waste in India and bring this issue into sharper focus.
In partnership with CRB, WRI India, and FOLU Coalition in India is co-hosting a session on ‘Roadmap for tackling Food Loss and Waste in India: Policy, Practice, and Partnerships’ from 14:00 to 15:30 hrs (IST) on October 28, 2021. This discussion is aimed at co-creating a roadmap for effective management of food loss and waste in India drawing both upon existing good practices and extensive engagement with relevant stakeholders in the agri/ food value chains.
The session will begin with a Keynote Address by Dr. Ashok Dalwai (IAS), Chief Executive Officer, National Rainfed Area Authority (NRAA), Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare, Government of India and Chairman, Inter-ministerial Committee on Doubling Farmers’ Income (DFI), followed with Special Remarks by Dr. Liz Goodwin, Senior Fellow and Director, Food Loss and Waste, WRI.
The session follows a consultative design with discussions in two breakout groups on Practice and Partnerships with policy as a cross-cutting theme within both the groups to deliberate on key issues to develop an action agenda for food loss and waste in India. Invited expert speakers would share their experience, knowledge, and suggest a way forward to tackle FLW in India. The session concludes with Plenary and Closing Remarks by Mr S Vijay Kumar, India Country lead of FOLU and Distinguished Fellow, The Energy and Research Institute (TERI). Both the keynote address and the plenary session are open for participation by all.
