1/4th of our annual food produce is wasted every year between the farm & the hawker/local kirana shops.
It is not just moronic but criminal when 1/4th of population goes hungry every day.
FDI in retail would eliminate this scourge to a considerable extent within a very short span. Not a conjecture but a proven fact all over the world.
I need no other benefit to justify the case of FDI in retail. Despite that, there are n number of additional benefits that are huge.
Right observation. Wrong solution.
All it takes is very very minor changes in the govt policy that will boost the profit to the farmers. The amount of wastage of food produce is very high and it mainly happens between the farm and the storage facilities. Secondly the govt policy restrictions cripple the farmers from getting the right price.
All it takes is around 3500 crores to build enough storage facilities for a state (or country i don't remember properly) which can store the food grains and not let it rot outside waiting for storage space before it gets to the market subjected to changing weather conditions. The govt can do it very easily but won't do it. Secondly the policy of govt to restrict export of food grains outside india despite having supplies exceeding the limitations (demand+an year's buffer)set. The extra food production can be used to get a lot of foreign exchange and that money can be used to improve agricultural facilities across the country if it's a market based govt. or use it for giving food subsidies to the poor if the govt is a socialist/populist one.
Also there is a Minimum Support Price issue without which farmers can't even cover the transportation costs of their produce and they had to dump their sweat by burning the produce. The solution is not FDI. FDI only bring in more dollars which empowers the companies to foreign companies to remove these bottle necks at a small cost and take most of the profits back to their home countries. What use is it to us. The amount of money needed to improve these conditions can be done by the govt at throw away prices instead of the stupid NREGA or Food Security bill dumping lots and lots of money. A clever govt would use the same conditions to make money and use the same to give it to their core vote bank even if one has to go by the politics of today. The current govt. is inefficient to the core to say the least. I now regret for not following through on the business plan 7 years back when i was full of risk taking.