Letters: Prevent farm waste

I found Surinder Sud's column, "Ease of farming with mechanisation" (June 7), interesting. The benefits that hiring out-of-farming equipment can usher in to the farming economy through training programmes and maintenance devised in association with manufacturers of various types of farm equipment are immense. Along with this, a programme to prevent waste of agricultural and horticultural output should be implemented.

Simultaneously, a programme to reduce waste of agricultural and horticultural output in a time-bound manner by augmenting pest-proof, and where needed, refrigerated storage facilities, should be pushed through.

The quantity of agricultural waste in India was estimated at 40 per cent of the output, or around $8.5 billion sometime ago, and could be worse now.

It is a sad commentary that in Punjab, a state where about Rs 25,000 crore of foodgrain can be stored in the godowns of Food Corporation of India alone, much of the harvest was stored in the open, by the roadside.

N Narasimhan, Bengaluru

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