India is both a leading producer and exporter of agri-food products as well as the world’s sixth largest food and grocery market. Agriculture in general, therefore, and agri-food products in particular, is key to India achieving high inclusive growth as well, generating employment and attracting investment. However, India today faces several challenges related to sustainability across the entire food supply chain – farm-to-fork – ranging from fragmented supply chains, lack of storage facilities, rejection of food products by key importing markets, high use of pesticides, poor quality of inputs and significant food loss and waste. While India has been able to meet food security, the country has not achieved nutrition security and is suffering from both malnourishment and over-nutrition related illnesses. Yet, there is no vision document or roadmap to achieve a sustainable food system. There are also limited discussions on how sustainable food systems should be addressed under India’s trade agreements.
The objective of this policy brief is to fill this lacuna. It presents India’s strength as a producer and exporter of agri-products, examines the policies towards building a sustainable food system and their impact, analyses best practices and suggests how they can be scaledup/replicated. It identifies regulatory and other issues and makes policy recommendations that will help develop a sustainable food system, take the country from food security to nutrition security, help enhance quality production, exports and earnings of farmers and enable India to engage better and benefit from trade agreements.
