Special Plenary Session and 6th CII Cold Chain Awards
System interventions and adoption of post-harvest management for a robust agri supply chain

As we all are aware, Zero Hunger by 2030, is the first sustainable development goal set by the United Nations, which India is committed to. Further, with the country’s population set to cross 1.5 billion by 2030, it is crucial to ensure that food security is maintained through sustainable production and distribution systems.
In terms of production, India is a food surplus nation. We are the one of the world’s largest producers of milk & pulses and rank as the second-largest producer of rice, wheat, sugarcane, groundnut, vegetables, and fruits, as per the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). However, in terms of potential, India still has a lot more opportunities to offer, which can be enabled through an effective and economically viable cold chain which will integrate the supply chains of perishables, thereby reducing physical waste and loss of value of perishable commodities.
For setting up such an effective and viable cold chain, it is imperative to keep pace with the necessary infrastructure development, commodity specific protocols development, promoting technological innovations, dovetailing of various schemes, alignment between the various ministries for financial outlay and business model restructuring.
Towards leveraging multi-modal logistics, the Government has recently announced the PM Gati Shakti - National Master Plan, focussing on an end-to-end seamless, multi-modal transportation network. While the mission aims to overcome some of the key constraints it is equally important to have the right post harvest handling protocols in place for the produce being transported as it undergoes different modes of handling.
Also given the challenges of climate change it is important to incorporate adaptation and mitigation strategies in all logistics as well.
.