Dilution of grain quality standards -Its impact on food scenario in India

The Minimum Support Price ( MSP) scheme offered by the Government for many commodities is to counteract the depressing market prices often manipulated by middlemen working in rural regions fleecing the farmers, especially when there is a production glut. Quality standards are in vogue based on which procurement operations are done. Many pundits feel that if India has achieved self sufficiency in food grains with enough quantities in the granaries for ensuring long term food security, these MSP programs are to be applauded. It is another matter that Food Corporation of India has been finding it difficult to manage the logistics of storage with a part of the procured grains becoming unfit for human consumption. Here again there is a raging debate whether silo storage or gunny bag storage is more suited to Indian conditions with both sides having their own points for justification. What stands out in this debate is that government, who ever has been ruling the country, could not do much to save grains going rotten inviting condemnation even from the Supreme Court of the country!

One often wonders what would have happened if there was no MSP program in India? Will the production base shrink? Will there be unbearable price escalation in the grain market? What would be its impact on the Public Distribution System (PDS)? Would there be more farmers' suicides? Will there be large scale starvation? Will the farmers abandon agriculture and increase the already high rate of urban migration?  Very difficult questions to answer! During the current year government diluted the food grain quality marks to accommodate offerings from farmers in some states where there were unexpected weather contingencies in the form of nonseasonal rains which are supposed to have damaged the harvest. It is a moot point whether such standards are to to be meddled with for the sake of convenience from time to time. Where is the sanctity for National Food Standards? Can government relax the provisions of food safety regulations allowing private traders to indulge in adulteration because of this situation? Again difficult to get a clear answer. 

Another dichotomy in the system is that government has quality standards for buying from the farmers but is least concerned with what happens to these grains after procurement and storage for years together before distribution at the PDS out lets? It is common knowledge that most consumers who depend on PDS supply for their survival find it hard to use these sub-quality grains unfit even for feeding animals!

Tragically food safety inspectors seem to have been "instructed" not to "touch" the so called ration shops for quality checking in the national interest! Accountability is a non-existent word in the dictionary of those handling food grains in this country, with all of them going scotfree for negligence, callousness and dishonesty in depriving the citizen of wholesome foods! The political gimmick now being enacted in the name of Food Security Act probably will worsen the problem further because of increased burden in procuring adequate grains for supply to the "entitled" citizens. Giving cash in lieu of entitled grains through jan dhan banks is another gimmickry because government is going to give to the deprived consumer cash, equivalent to the MSP price of these grains. In to day's market where rice and wheat are sold at prices varying from Rs 35 to 60 per kg, how much grain can be bought? Will it extinguish the fire in the tummies of poor and famished due to hunger?    

How is the government going to use the food grains procured during the current year? Is it legal to supply them under the Food Safety Act? Food Corporation of India (FCI) generally follows a practice of 'First In First Out' (FIFO) using the freshly procured to replace old stocks which are channeled into PDS. However the wheat currently being procured is not in a condition to be stored for long. According to experts most of the grain procured suffer from lustre loss, which is supposed to make it vulnerable to pest attacks, and thus long term storage of the crop is highly risky. FCI is supposed to supply food grain mostly consisting of rice and wheat to PDS from the previous stocks, while the new crop being procured is stored for about 2-3 years before routing through the distribution channel. .FCI supplies around 22 million tonne of wheat annually to the PDS. but this time the procurement is targeted to be 30 million tons for operationalizing the food security act. This has made the Government to relax the quality standards and pressure from Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh,has further compounded the problem resulting in compromising with grain quality. Of course some minor value cut equivalent of around Rs 3.63 per quintal from Rs 1450 per quintal minimum support price was imposed on the grains not adhering to the food ministry's revised quality norms. The purpose of relaxing norms was to ensure that farmers in key wheat growing states could get almost the entire MSP for the wheat sold to FCI and state-owned agencies, irrespective of quality.

A relevant question that begs for an answer is the dynamics of management FCI has in mind to segregate the procured wheat this year so that they do not get mixed up with the existing stocks in warehouses from where PDS outlets get their supplies. How far the new policy of sending the freshly procured directly to the PDS outlets will affect the quality of the existing stocks some of them nearing their expiration period is an important question. Of course one has to sympathize with the current government which inherited such a chaotic system with no long term vision in mind and "managing" during the last few decades almost on a fire fighting mode! Probably it may be time to rethink these issues more deeply and evolve a long term policy for managing the food grain market in the country.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

"Heavenly" Cocoa literally reaching the heaven! Supply side problems can destroy chocolate industry

Chocolate products made by processing cocoa beans into the cocoa mass and cocoa butter have carved out a niche place in the hearts of consumers both young as well as old over the last 5 decades with a few international conglomerates ruling the roost. Chocolates create a dichotomous image in that some scientists feel they contribute to the run away obesity syndrome that is common in many developed countries while the scientific community including health specialists vouch for the good aspects of cocoa nutrition to elevate it to a pedestal based on the antioxidant credentials of cocoa phenolics present in abundance in this beverage crop. Probably both arguments are true if the ground reality vis-a-vis cocoa industry is taken into consideration. Per se chocolates cannot be considered an obesogenic substance unless they contain high levels of sugar and saturated fat, both capable of generating high calories, which may be unnecessary for a person consuming a regular balanced diet.and eating chocolates in moderate amounts can always be condonable with no guilty conscience! Emergence of so called bitter chocolates with low sugar levels as a healthy food bears testimony to this fact. It is against this context that one has to view the alarming reports about likely scarcity of cocoa beans predicted to happen soon. Let us look at the multidimensional impact of such a shortage on the industry as well as the consumers.

If industry leaders are to be believed chocolate prices have been going north during the last 3 years with prices registering more than 60% increase for most brands. This inflationary trend has been attributed to supply sources being adversely affected reducing the flow of bean very significantly. More than 65% of global production of  cocoa beans, estimated at about 3.7 million tons, is accounted for by western African nations like Ivory Coast, Ghana and Nigeria.and any productivity decline there can causes shocks in the international cocoa market. According.to International Cocoa Organization production of cocoa has suffered a 40% decline last year due to the impact of the devastating fungal disease called Frosty Food that has ravaged the agricultural landscape in Africa. There does not appear to be any let up in the production decline which has already caused a deficit of about 70000 tons currently which may reach the 1 million ton mark soon in about 7 years. Imagine the consequences of such a dimension of shortage on the fortunes of the chocolate industry since cocoa beans cannot be substituted with any other known substance to day. Naturally chocolate industry will have to find ways and means to tackle this problem in the long run with an adequate and feasible response.  

The production decline in cocoa alone cannot account for the shortage being experienced by the chocolate industry which always has the means to absorb minor shocks through technological means. For example products like white chocolate, milk chocolate or other varieties do not need as much cocoa solids as pure chocolates or bitter chocolates and small dip in cocoa production can be dealt with by varying the product mix to lessen the proportion of these high cocoa containing products. Similarly cocoa butter which is an essential ingredient in good quality chocolates can be replaced or substituted to a limited extent by plant fats with similar melting and crystallizing properties. Sugar component also can be increased or suitable fillers like caramel, nougats etc can be incorporated to reduce the cocoa solids level. Naturally such changes in formulations can reduce the over all sensory quality of these products and if cocoa crunch continues as being predicted, consumers will have no option but to compromise on eating quality expectations.        

Another interesting point being mentioned in chocolate circles is that growth of chocolate market, currently placed at $ 50 billion, is going through a high growth phase resulting in widening of demands across the world. Such unusual demand for chocolate is largely being driven by countries like China, Europe and the US where chocolate consumption is growing at a rate considered very high. China which is an established economic super power to day, has more people aspiring to imitate the life styles prevalent in the US and Europe and chocolate industry sees a great surge in demand in this country. Western Europe with a $ 12 billion market never seems to be getting satiated pushing the demand for chocolates further .Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Ireland, and Belgium. are leading countries driving the market in Europe. In the US consumers are demanding bitter chocolates and products containing more than 70% cocoa solids which again is putting a stress on the supply side of cocoa beans. In other markets like India and other developing countries due to buying power constraints lower end chocolate products like milk chocolates which use only about 10% cocoa solids may meet the market demand. Eastern Bloc countries are reported to be emerging as a dynamic market for chocolate products which did not exist a few years ago. 

Adding to the worries of the chocolate industry there is a powerful movement campaigning against use of cocoa beans from countries like Ivory Coast because of extensive use of child labor in the plantations there. According to some estimates in Ivory Coast alone more than 2,00,000 children aged between 5 and 15 years are working in plantations there with about 6% being suspected to be there through child trafficking. The famous Harken-Engel Protocol.now being insisted upon for buying cocoa beans stipulates that child labor is not used in production activities in cocoa plantations though there is no international agency at present which has the mandate to enforce the Protocol. "Slave free" label for all chocolate products were suggested but no one seems to be taking this seriously. So are the consumers who at present are not sensitive to this issue of child labor though in future there could be pressure from consumer community on the chocolate industry to shun supplies from plantations employing child labor. This can certainly further restrict supplies of beans substantially in coming years.unless major chocolate manufacturers attempt backward integration with producers of cocoa beans to make certain that slavery is avoided or reduced progressively over a period of time.

While technological approach to design new products with lesser and lesser cocoa solids can meet the market contingency, long term solution can come only if efforts are made to increase cocoa bean production through expanded acreage for cultivation and increased productivity from the existing plantations. Probably it is a question of time before agricultural scientists are able to coax the cocoa plant to yield more crops but there is some anxiety that meddling with natural cocoa plant may unwittingly reduce some of the desirable qualities for which cocoa is known. As apprehended preliminary experiments with new cocoa plants have already confirmed that these new "avatars" have a different flavor profile once it is converted and processed into the chocolate products which the consumers may have difficulty to reconcile to! .Chocolate industry on the other hand is being pushed to a corner with no alternatives but to use them with the hope that consumers will eventually accept them. Surely chocolate industry is at cross roads to day and only imaginative, constructive and environment friendly approach can save it from catastrophe!

V.H.POTTY

http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Water crisis-How food and beverage industry can help global water conservation efforts

Recent reports from Delhi "state" where a new government took over the reins assuring 20000 liters of water free to every family are indeed scary when the country is facing acute shortage of drinking water in almost all parts. While quantitatively this may be sufficient, what is missed about the quality of water supplied under the so called protected water supply system in almost all towns and cities are supposed to have. Besides the tendency for many families to consume more than that is necessary and waste this precious natural resource is indeed appalling! It is true that government in any country should have the onus to ensure that every citizen is provided with clean air and clean water in adequate quantities which is not taken seriously by any government in India since independence. In stead precious money is being invested on distributing freebies on an alarming scale.under the pretext of food security! If even a fraction of this money spend on food subsidies, a substantial portion going to the pockets of undeserving people, had been invested in on potable water infrastructure projects, the current day problem of water scarcity and mal distribution would not have been so acute to day.

There is a consensus that it is time for launching a coordinated global action program to reduce the amount of hidden water used in food and drink production. Can this be true? The amount said to be used as of now thus is really mind boggling and if the average per person is computed it is still considered very high. According to some experts we must set a global target to reduce the amount of water used in food production worldwide at least by one fifth within 5 years from now which may not be difficult to achieve. If we refer to the UN data base each person consumes between 2,000-5,000 liters of water directly or indirectly through the food consumed every day working out to a staggering figure of 7.3 lakh liters to 18.25 lakh liters annually!  According to health pundits on an average a person needs at least one ml of water for every calorie consumed and imagine the minimum requirement for food intake only by 7 billion people in this planet. This is the bare minimum we need for just survival. Then there are other needs like cleaning, bathing and other daily chores to keep diseases away for which additional water is needed. 

By a rough estimate we use around 70% of all freshwater available for agriculture and allied activities while industrial sector absorbs another 20%, leaving just about 10% for domestic use. But this supply dynamics cannot remain static with the ever growing population calling for increased food production and greater quantity of water for industrial and domestic use. From where are we going to get this additional supply? If futuristic need projections are to be taken seriously, our water needs may burgeon to more than 7 trillion cubic meters in another 35 years! What will be the impact of such a situation on the habitats of people? Simple, almost 70% of them would be living in water starved areas while to day the corresponding figure is just 7%! Under such dire predictions can the world close the eyes praying to God to save us without doing any thing ourselves? 

Sure lot can be done if we take a common sense approach to solve the impending water crisis. Efforts by all including individuals, families, educational institutions, industries, farmers and every one having a stake in preventing a water famine in future must put their heads together to cut down on water use, conserve it and deploy modern technologies to recycle water. Efforts must be redoubled to reclaim pure water from sea water and brackish water bodies through low cost technologies, as Israel and gulf countries have shown to the world. If this has to be converted into an action program there are some essential steps that need to be thought of. Primary responsibility of the governments world over must be to reorient their food production policies to cut down on water usage by different stake holders by 20% within a matter of 5 years. Though industry is using less water than farmers, there is considerable scope to reduce its water foot print through technically sound solutions including water recycling in a big way. Probably it can get support from the governments through financial and other incentives to adopt them in a big way to see the impact almost immediately. How effective government cajoling can be seen in Tamilnadu where rain water harvesting has been made mandatory in the city of Chennai way back and the water shortage there is no more a critical issue.substantial investments in water management technologies and water purification processes are inevitable and the world cannot shy away from this responsibility any more. It is known that world will need 60% more food by 2050 to feed the population than and even with the best of technologies an extra 20% of water will have to be secured to make the extra food required by then.

As for food and beverage industry water is a critical input there cannot be any compromise on water need if product safety is to be ensured. Operations like raw material washing ,cleaning , formulation, steam generation, packing etc need water and that too germ free water and there are continuous improvements being achieved by food scientists to reduce the water needs to as minimum as possible.  Water recycling is an area which needs urgent attention and government has a big role in facilitating and encouraging the industry to go in for massive recycling efforts through appropriate and practical quality and safety standards and financial incentives. It is time we realize that water is not an individuals problem or a particular nation's problem but it a global problem requiring cooperative global efforts.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Food gluttony that can destroy modern society -Why is man hurting himself through the food?

Food is a controversial subject being blamed for diseases caused by under eating as well as over eating. Hardly a day passes without any report blaming lack of food or imbalanced food for the under development of millions of people in the poverty ridden continents of Asia, Africa and South America. On the other hand same food is being implicated in causing a variety of modern day diseases among people in affluent countries, obviously due to over eating or consuming nutrition deficient diets. It is most unfortunate that food that sustains life on this planet is a cause for such a situation. It is not realized that food is like a weapon with multidimensional implications. If used wisely it can be a friend of human beings and if misused it can be a real threat to the lives of those who do not respect its virtues. Is it not a paradox that while some people struggle to get even the barest minimum of foods to survive there are others who indulge in gluttony and also waste foods unconscionably without a though for the poor? Is it not an irony that more money is spent to day across the world to fight health disorders and diseases caused by too much foods consumed than to eliminate the scourge of infection, malnutrition and under nutrition? 

We all grow up with this basic assumption dinned into our years that man needs a minimum of 2000 kC, 50 g of proteins, 50 g of fat and some micro nutrients essential which are not made in the body. Since last 3 decades dietary fiber and essential fatty acids were added as essential components of our diet. Interestingly these paradigm of health and nutrition remained almost static during the last hundred years except for some minor modifications. Has man changed much during this period? Of course the life styles of people who lived healthily hundred years ago were drastically different from the situation obtaining to day. The proportion of hard working people to the total population has been dramatically reduced during this period and the so called sedentary living is a rule to day than an exception! Why is that our great fore fathers produced children prolifically while to day two children family is the norm? Because they needed hands to help them to look after their avocation, be it agriculture or business. To day a farmer's son is unlikely to stay back in the farmland to carry on his father's tradition and culture and is more likely to end up in the urban ghettos that sprawl across hundreds of towns and cities across the country. Probably they want to earn fast and have no patience which is the most important trait of a farmer who has to fight with nature's aberrations and other uncertainties inherent in agriculture. 

If we look at the disease density in the urban areas and rural areas, though dependable statistics are hard to come by, many impartial observers agree that occurrence and prevalence of diseases like obesity, diabetes, hypertension in our rural hinterlands are relatively low. They are more vulnerable to water borne, air borne and food borne diseases due to acute safe water scarcity, utter lack of hygiene and less than healthy living environment. Ultimately it boils down to inadequate purchasing power and dilapidated infrastructure they suffer since decades with government not doing much to improve their lot. It may not be correct to blame the government alone for not doing many things which are within their ambit of action because lack of education and exposure to basic knowledge about good living also contributed to this Catch 22 situation. Hopefully this could change over the next few years if education facilities are expanded and employment opportunities are created. 

Why this talk about older generation and the present generation vis-a-vis food and health? During the last two decades thousands of studies have been undertaken to find solutions to modern day problems of health and invariably these studies focused on evolving methods and techniques to deal with diseases caused by over eating and wrong eating. Billions of dollars have been spent by several countries to deal with their citizens who have no control on the foods they eat and suffer from life style health disorders.While diseases like diabetes or blood pressure or heart disease are not curable easily but only to be managed through a plethora of drugs on which the pharma industry are making trillion of dollars churning out such drugs. There are two vital differences in the life styles of older generation population and the new generation in terms of physical work and quality of foods consumed.  Good old foods mostly unprocessed food grains, fresh fruits and vegetables, raw edible oils etc of yesteryears have yielded way to "unnatural foods" made by the food industry devoid of most of the nutrients including health protecting phytochemicals. As for physical work to day's generation has a living style not based on physical work but on intellectual work operating computers and mechanized gadgets in practically every walk of life. What is the necessity for such a person to have same calories, proteins and fats if they are not spent doing physical work? Naturally the excess energy accumulates in the body contributing to bloated bodies with expanded waistlines and consequent health related disorders. 

The restricted calorie diets and their favorable impact on life span has been brought out by a few studies pointing out why there is a need to cut down on calorie consumption, especially for those who lead a life with minimum body movement or exercise. To day's rush to develop remedies for the consequences of wrong eating or over eating is some what misplaced though as they may serve the limited purpose of medically dealing with those crossing the Rubicon knowingly endangering their lives. How ridiculous it is for perfectly normal people to pop in pills after leading an undisciplined eating regime to get relief for the ill effects of their indiscretion! Bariatric surgery and similar surgical intervention cannot be a routine procedure while many weight reducing medications should not have been there at all!  

Look at the latest "research" in this area  where some over enthusiastic scientists have come out with a modified chemical substance made from inulin, a natural oligofructosan found in Chicory, Jerusalem artichokes etc which is claimed to "kill" the appetite in human beings to a significant extent. On one side, highly attractive and tasty foods are created for the consumers to "enjoy" eating and then new chemicals are invented to curb their consumption! What a paradox! Both the food industry and the well being industry make money in this convenient alliance! Dietary discipline is what is needed to maintain the health and that is why dietary guidelines are formulated from time to time for the benefit of the consumers. Recent development of Inulin propionate esters (IPE), prepared from in the laboratory by reacting Inulin with propionic acid anhydride is being touted as a solution to curb the tendency for uncontrolled ingestion of food.       .  

In the case of IPE there is some rationale because Inulin is a soluble dietary fiber that does not contribute to any calorie, passing through the upper GI tract into the large intestine undigested. Obviously human body has no means of digesting this fiber but the microbiome inhabiting the gut feast on them producing short chain fatty acids considered beneficial to the health in many ways. What is so special about IPE? IPE is a combination of two naturally occurring substances inulin and propionic acid and therefore cannot be considered as a new chemical synthesized by scientists. Short chain fatty acids, (SCFA) which are organic acids with 1-6 carbons in their molecules have been known to exert influence on the metabolic system in the human body and among the most important ones are acetic acid, propionic acid and butyric acid which together make up 95%of the SCFAs in the gut. Propionates just make up about 25% while acetic acid happens to be the major SCFA. As propionates were found to exert a significant influence on excretion of gut hormones involved in satiety, it is often considered as a substance of therapeutic value. If so, is it possible to increase its concentration in the gut to a level that can exert significant influence on quantity of food eaten? This is where IPE comes into picture.

SCFAs are produced in the gut by microorganisms that reside there using residual food components not digested in the GI tract till they pass down to the large intestine. These include resistant starches, dietary fibers, sugar alcohols, undigested proteins etc but the concentration produced is not enough to exert any significant influence on satiety. If propionic acid levels in the large intestine can be increased, it can exert influence on gut hormone excretion that can achieve satiety fast. IPE can be made with different levels of esterification involving the hydroxy moieties in the fructose molecules of inulin. Higher the extent of esterification more effect it will have on satiety. IPE when ingested goes through the GI tract all the way to large intestine where microbes deesterify it to release propionic acid at levels that are effective in creating satiety and stop gluttony. If these findings are confirmed by other studies, IPE may become the darling of the well being industry and thousands of products incorporating IPE are likely to flood the market in the coming years. 

The question mark that why man is hurting himself through the food gluttony widely seen to day, may never be answered and no matter what remedies scientists come up with, the immediate provocation and seduction by good foods can never be resisted. As long as this continues, like cigarette and alcohol, food will cause lot of damage for those with fickle mind and irresistible cravings for junk foods! Sadly modern food industry, well being industry and pharma industry will be reaping the benefits from man's "Himalayan"  folly!  

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Organized retail market sector in India-Inefficiency at its peak!

Shopping for daily needs is a chore no family can afford to ignore. From time immemorial buying and selling formed an integral part of human society and the barter system of the old world changed to cash and carry during the 19th and 20th centuries after monetization in the form of coins and notes during the last two hundred years, Modern days cash purchase is disappearing in many countries and credit and debit cards rule the roost. Imagine how cumbersome was the shopping experience in the olden days, compared to what we see to day with an array of super markets and Malls ready to cater to every whim and fancy of the consumer, at least in a few developed countries. The retail space in India is more or less monopolized by the so called unorganized sector shops, estimated to be about 14 million in number, though this figure will have to be taken with a pinch of salt but it is true that they are omnipotent in India in every nook and corner.

With the advent of the policy of encouraging foreign investment in the retail sector Government of India dramatically liberalized its FDI policies a couple of years ago but the response from international giants in this field has been at best lukewarm. Probably the wide spread presence of bit players, with average vending area of just 100 s.ft, in huge number and some of the pre-conditions stipulated for FDI, very few outsiders seem to have sufficient courage to invest in this sector. The domestic retailers in the organized sector with a vending area of over 500 s.ft and registered with sales tax, income tax and regulatory authorities who ventured into this sector more than a decade ago smelling big money are all struggling now, not able to displace the traditional shopping outlets to any significant extent. Not even 5% of the $ 520 billion retail market is in the hands of these large retailers with franchising and chain stores, most of them not able to come out of the red till now. More over their presence is restricted to large metros and small towns with practically no penetration into rural areas. Some how the retail industry appears to be forgetting the reality in India where there are more than 5.5 lakh villages and about 70% of the population eking out a living in these areas. Probably they must have realized the potential logistical nightmare in extending their operations to the rural hinterlands.

Why is that in spite of all the statistics doled out on the retailing potential in the country, organized retailing has not been able to get any significant toehold in this business? There are many reasons, most important one being the gross inefficiency in management of large sized stores as a consequence of which repeat buyers are reluctant to patronize them. Added to this more than two thirds of the buyers/shoppers are teen agers and youngsters with an impatient mind, having no time to waste in a supermarket which does not measure up to their expectations and aspirations. 91 % of them own at least one smart phone with which they can make fast purchases through on-line e-commerce portals. There are one million retailers now shopping on-line through various portals and they seem to be clients shifting their loyalty from super markets to e-commerce sellers. It is amazing that in cities like Bangalore e-traders are collecting orders on-line even for perishable goods like fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs etc and delivering the orders at the door step of the customers within a matter of few hours! Who will prefer going to the supermarkets as they function now with no accountability and sensitivity to consumer's woes when they visit their outlets.

What can these unfortunate investors do to expand their market reach and get out of the present "rut". Many things, most of them being simple and common sensical. These include better designed aisles, posting of aisle attendants to help to assist the consumer, adequate aisle width that will ensure a "collision-free" walk, convenient ferrying carts that move without wobbling, child carrying provisions in the shopping carts, special arrangements for physically challenged category of buyers, adequate toilet facilities, avoiding in-house maintenance and restocking periods to clash with the prescribed shopping times, scientific display arrangements, price tagging without any confusion, multiple billing counters, avoiding "guided buying" tendency where only a particular brand is displayed giving no option to the buyers, avoiding stocking only jumbo packs to the exclusion of small sized packs, product return policy for unsatisfied customers to return the product within a specified period and ultimately making the shopping experience a hassle free and pleasant one. 

Deployment of untrained personnel, cluttered atmosphere, over crowded billing counters, undue delay at the cash counters, unresponsive shopping assistants, suspicious viewing of the customers, absence of separate dedicated billing counters for senior citizens and small buyers with a few items purchased and above all the unhealthy environment of the shopping place are order of the day as far as most supermarkets are concerned. Loyalty programs where ever exist are not at all customer friendly. Discounts offered on many products from time to time are not of a magnitude that will attract consumers to their outlets like a magnet. Many super markets selling fresh fruits and vegetables force the customers to stand in separate queues to weigh and affix price tags and often bulk buyers crowd around such counters giving little respite to regular buyers. Those supermarkets without integration of their operations with farms where fresh produce are raised will not be able to survive for long because of quality problems. 

Under the Indian conditions it is not going to be easy for large buyers to establish as viable players unless some of the drawbacks and inadequacies as cataloged above are addressed with some seriousness. When a consumer walks into a supermarket his biggest expectation is that the materials sold are of superior quality compared to that offered by others. Then comes his desire to get his requirements at a price he considers reasonable. Supermarkets will have to offer attractive discounts to attract repeat buyers. They have a big advantage in that the ambiance, vast strolling space and wide range of products they can offer are some thing their competitors viz the small traders can never counter!  In contrast the legendary "mom and pop" stores have the singular strength in the form of "personalized" service which contributes to establishing some sort of  "kinship" between them. Considering all these imponderable factors, only very efficient super markets can survive in India.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com  

What is "healthy food environment'?-Can a public policy create it?

Remember how our thinking about smoking changed over the last fifty years? What was unimaginable then, namely banning smoking in public places, is now a reality in almost all countries across the world. Why did this happen at all? Because of the overwhelming evidence that tobacco is too dangerous to the people and the society as a whole, and a collective approach was needed to curb the smoking practice with a punitive regime that would push more and more people out of the vicious circle of smokers. Warning on the cigarette packs, high taxation on tobacco products and banning of smoking in public can be considered as restriction on the personal freedom, yet we did it and the result is there for all to see. It is not that tobacco has vanished from the face of this planet as such a thing can never happen when more than 7 billion people are living in this world with at least a few who can be considered incorrigible to follow the societal values. We can see this in alcoholism and psychotropic drug addiction with some not amenable to reforming them selves easily. Can food be the next mass action issue and the world has to unite to bring sanity among the people vis-a-vis addiction to unhealthy foods?

It is not that world is not doing any thing in this regard as every country is concerned about the adverse impact of "bad" foods on the health of its citizens and to a limited extent preventive policies are put in place to curb consumption of bad foods. Unfortunately different people have different notions when it comes to defining a bad food though every one agrees to the need to safeguard the safety of foods from fraudsters and uncaring food handlers and processors. But unsafe food is not the only bad food though such foods bring about damage to health and life quickly. There are thousands of food products manufactured and marketed by the food industry which harm the health slowly over a long period of time and they are also bad foods to be restrained from reaching the vulnerable consumer. Here is where class action is needed with contributions from the government, activists, legal fraternity, consumer groups, public bodies etc through concerted effort and coordinated programs. 

There appears to be some movement by the legal fraternity in the US to sue the food industry collectively for the cumulative damage wrought on the citizens there through manufacture and marketing of health damaging foods over the last several decades. This reminds us about similar action taken in suing the tobacco industry some years ago through American judicial system with a huge success and it is history that the tobacco industry had to shell out billions of dollars as reparation for its failure to foresee the adverse consequences of suppressing evidence about the dangers of smoking and luring innocent citizens into the dangerous practice of smoking! Similar legal challenge against the food industry cannot be ruled out in that country and if the industry continues to indulge in shenanigans without caring for the well being of its constituency, viz the citizens who provide them with their "bread and butter", a day may not be too far away when they will be forced to face the ignominy that literally "killed" the tobacco industry in the last millennium!  

Without waiting for any move to punish the industry can there be any other alternate options to the consumer community and the policy administrators to do some thing to reverse the present trend of increasing consumption of bad foods and consequently the rapidly hurtling of the country into the abysmal health trap with no hope of redemption? It is in this context that we have to appreciate new initiatives sprouting in many local communities and civic administrations in the form of encouragement to local foods, grading of foods on a uniform health scale and trying to create a healthy food "environment" that will help the much harried consumers to pick and choose foods which are least detrimental to his health. The present labeling system will have to give way to more efficient declarations in terms of nutrition and health. The traffic light system of labeling comes to our mind which has been implemented in some countries which helps "innocent" consumers in avoiding products with "red" light indication and going in for more and more "green" light labels. The healthy food environment movement which originated in Canada which aims to change the community environment and societal attitudes, deserves admiration because of the soundness of its concept and ease with which such environment can be created in public places.

To understand this concept better we have to look at out present food environment and observe how the consumers are behaving when selecting their foods. If we have an environment where only 100% junk foods are available on the table, even the best intentioned consumer will have to eat unhealthy foods only as there is no other alternate option to him. Even if a small sprinkling of healthy foods are included on the table, only iron-willed consumer will go straight to these foods, vast majority rushing to take tastiest foods but unhealthy in nature! Therefore reversing the situation by changing the menu to include predominantly healthy foods and just a few items of unhealthy items, may help many consumers to pick the healthy ones, creating a chain effect and in due course such food service settings will become a "done" thing in many public functions. 

According to the Canadian pioneers of this new strategy to lure away consumes from the clutches of unhealthy foods, an optimum mix of foods for creating a healthy food environment could be to include in the mix of foods offered about 50% high nutrition products, 40% moderately nutritive foods and about 10% junk foods so that no one can complain that one is forced to eat foods not liked by him. This presupposes that foods are graded according to the nutritive value and those who arrange foods are aware of the system. It is here that those in the community with some expertise in food and nutrition can help the organizers to choose the items on the menu as per their health promoting values. As a thumb rule foods made from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, poultry meat and fish with no added sugar, salt and saturated fats can be considered healthy while those made with partially refined raw materials but containing high nutrition components like dairy ingredients, high fiber food components and nutrient rich materials like fruits and vegetables can be considered as moderately healthy foods. Junk foods are just empty calorie rich items containing low levels of health boosting nutrients like proteins, vitamins and minerals, mostly rich in sugar and fat.

Can this approach be tried first in the canteens of state assembly complexes and Lok Sabha buildings, to be progressively introduced in all canteens working in various ministries in the states as well in the center. Railways can be another organization which can try this approach though there could be resistance from many passengers. But with a little bit of patience and perseverance, there is no reason why it would not be a success eventually. Further spread of this concept among thousands of bus stations across the country and temples with large foot prints should also be possible. Future licensing of restaurants must be linked to compulsory inclusion of healthy foods in the menu at least to the extent of 50% of the menu! If even a part of this ambitious program is implemented, the present government in Delhi might become the darling of the nation, remembered by the young generation which will be the long term beneficiary of this visionary attempt.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

Changing face of Indian agriculture-Mechanization vs manual operations

How often we hear the bland statement that rural India is responsible for feeding a population estimated at 1.20 billion in India and 70% of India's population is engaged in agricultural and other rural based activities, being the residents of more than 5 lakh villages across the country. However what is not clear is whether so many people are really needed to produce the quantum of foods being harvested year in and year out? There was this situation during the early stage of growth of this country when the technological base of agriculture, especially use of mechanical implements was indeed very weak, with most operations in the field being carried by the labor available locally. Over the years India's technological base has expanded and there is indigenous manufacture of many mechanical implements liker tractors which can fill the places of many manual workers with much more efficiency and it is no wonder that many well to do farmers are shifting to mechanized cultivation at least partially in many parts of the country, especially in Punjab and Haryana. Probably part of the productivity achieved during the last few years can be attributed to this factor. If this is so one wonders what ever has happened to the displaced labor caused by such mechanization trend? 

There is a strong feeling that the frenetic pace at which migration of rural population into urban areas must have some thing to do with declining opportunities for gainful employment in the farmlands in the country because of perceptible transition from predominantly labor oriented operations to a machine based production regime seen all over the country, though it is more in some states and less in some others. One of the amazing phenomena associated with this transition is that it flies contrary to the theory that small land holdings that characterize the land holding pattern in the country does not lend itself to mechanized farming unlike that existing in western countries where farm sizes can be 1000 acres and above in most cases. Look at the land holding pattern in India which brings out the stark reality about the predominance of marginal farmers in the agricultural landscape of the country. Almost 63% of the landholders have, on an average holding size of less than an acre of land to till while about 19% are relatively better placed by farming on a piece of land about the size of 3 acres per family. On the other end of the spectrum, 1% of the farming population own on an average 35 acres of land.per person. Others fall in between with average size holding in the range of 5 acres to 35 acres. The million dollar question that begs for an answer is how far such a landscape is amenable to mechanized farming? 

No doubt Indian agriculture is going through a transformation with governments, both at the state and central levels pumping in enormous money for sustaining the livelihood of the farmers, especially the so called marginal farmers. Minimum Support Prices offered to more than two dozen commodities and many farmer welfare programs are able to provide sustenance to millions of farmers. But at the same time more farmer suicides are taking place with a monotonous regularity defying any logical explanation. Billions of rupees worth of loans are being written off every year with politicians competing with each other in announcing such write offs! If India can boast of food grain stocks that is capable of ensuring food security we have to thank our hard working farmers who toil under adverse conditions like frequent droughts and floods. But can this situation continue indefinitely and will the farmers continue to stick to their land if agricultural activity becomes a perennially losing avocation? Land fragmentation in India is inevitable under a government regime where inherited land holdings by successive generations get shrunken in size and obviously becoming more and more non-viable. These inherited land pieces are not easily salable due to severe restrictive policies of the state governments with financially capable entrepreneurs barred from buying agricultural land. A classical Catch 22 situation!   

A recent report by one of the agencies under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) provides interesting information regarding the changing agricultural scenario in the country. According to this report, Indian farmers, in spite of enormous hurdles and limitations are increasingly using more and more power based mechanical devices replacing the human element to manage their lands. India is known for its bullock driven economy till a couple of decades ago with agriculture contributing substantially to the national GDP and man and the beast combination successfully brought about the green revolution in the last millennium achieving the much desired food self sufficiency. Even to day many agricultural and social experts are not willing to write off the poor oxen which was an integral part of the rural settings across the country. A 1000 animal village with 60% milking cows and the rest dry cows and oxen is being propagated by the government of India for the integrated development of a village which can sell its milk for generating income while the byproducts from the animals like cow dung can produce cooking gas as well as manure for the farms belonging to the villagers. How far such novel schemes will succeed in an era when people are exposed to the convenience inherent in mechanical implements based agriculture remains to be seen.    

If ICAR findings are to be believed, Indian agriculture is going through a far reaching change mode beginning two decades ago. The share of human power available for carrying out the various operations in farming seems to have come down to less than 5% while draught animals' share also hovers around another 5%. More than 90% of the power is estimated to be drawn from mechanical sources like tractors and power tillers ( 47%); electric motors (27%) and diesel engines (16%). Compare this with the situation obtaining 40 years ago when 60% of the power was provided by humans and animals - 15% by farm workers and 45% by animals. These estimates are based on an average value of power that a human or a draught animal or any of the machines generate per unit of land. An average human being notionally capable of yielding about 0.15 kilowatt power per hectare of land worked while a tractor can give 30.21kW. .

It is true that overall farm mechanization in India has just reached about 40% which may be a low figure when compared to 95% levels prevalent in many developed countries. Thus 40% of farm operations for major crops are done by mechanical power sources and 60% is still being done by non- power sources like humans and bullocks.which generate only 10% of the total power available in farming. Naturally such over dependence on non-power sources has its own limitations in terms of efficiency. To day tractors are used mainly for initial land preparation by most farmers.while many use mechanical means for threshing and irrigation. Free supply of power for pump sets has helped those farmers having more than two acres of land while marginal farmers are denied this vital input free. Core operations like transplanting, weeding, fertilizer use etc are still done by farm workers. The small size of land holdings does not permit use of power driven tools for these operations. The use of power tillers and other farm machinery is facilitated by their easy availability on rental basis for a cluster of villages. 

Many social experts feel that such rapid mechanization trend can create a human problem because machines are bound to displace humans in the farm hinterlands of the country resulting in huge unemployment and under employment. However the national statistical figures available most recently tell a different story. According to the figures from the government there were 111 million cultivators and 75 million agricultural labourers in 1991 working to about 185 million people directly engaged in farming activities. Look at the latest figures and what a change has come about defying any rational explanation. As per the 2011 census there were 119 million cultivators and a whopping 144 million agricultural labourers, making a total of 263 million people working on land. If population increase during this period  is factored, as against a population increased of 43% during the last twenty years, the number of landless agricultural laborers registered an astonishing increase of 93%. The primary reason for this is that there is nowhere else where this army of under-employed people can find work, forcing them to crowd into agriculture or related rural work. It also pushes up migration to cities in search of jobs. 

The MNREGA, a novel initiative from the government to provide sustenance to persons not finding income generating activities, especially during the non-agricultural season in many rural areas has definitely helped to alleviate the situation to some extent. According to some estimates government had spent over 2 lakh crore rupees between 2007 and 2014 on this much touted welfare scheme though there is nothing much to show vis-a-vis permanent assets created, as per the original intention of the planners. Another paradox that is glaring is that there are not many takers for jobs offered under MNREGA with more than half the allocation remaining unspent for want of demand! Probably this program may have to be revisited for bringing about appropriate changes immediately to serve the purpose and create assets in the area of operation. 

If there are 144 million landless agricultural laborers hanging around the villages, largely under employed, what is the government going to do to prevent such a colossal waste of human resources year after year which is bound to go up if the present trend of agricultural mechanization continues at the current pace?  As there does not appear to be any clear policy orchestration still, are we going to see more and more people in the rural areas being pushed to poverty due to this?  In the light of the big push being given to the "Make in India" policy of the new government in the coming years, why not create massive industrial townships with adequate infrastructure for skill development in many rural areas with supporting family care facilities so that the vast population of under employed people, wasting most of their time, are absorbed by the industry on a regular basis? After all per in acre employment, agriculture cannot compete with industry and boosting manufacturing sector can be a sure way of utilizing the otherwise wasted man power. Reports from China indicate that large scale shifting of rural population to specially built smart towns and transferring the land to giant American agricultural companies with most modern technology and deep pockets are being attempted to expand the food production to meet future needs of a burgeoning population. This is not to suggest that we must ape China but the idea of rehabilitating rural population through such novel out of the box thinking is necessary to save the country from a potential melt down in our rural hinterlands causing turmoil all around.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com