COVID-19 shrinks food supply chain: Manoj Pant

Highlighting the need for a robust cold chain infrastructure to strengthen the supply and storage of perishables to suffice India’s population, Manoj Pant, Regional Business Manager West, Snowman Logistics, notes “India is home to 535 agri-tech startups that use technology to bolster agricultural productivity. Food security in India has been immensely impacted by the pandemic in four main aspects – availability, accessibility, stability, and utilisation of food. Disruption in supply chains and a decline in demand have caused a loss of production and income to the farmers and traders. Closure of mandis and QSRs due to the lockdown led to a surplus accumulation of perishables. Since post-harvest losses are highest in the fruit and vegetable sector, agri-tech startups can bridge the gap with demand-driven cold chains, warehouse monitoring solutions, and market linkages that can significantly boost farmer income. With innovations in technology like storage monitoring based on the Internet of Things (IoT), image sensing for quality grading and digitisation of mandis will prevent the wastage of perishables.