Half Of India’s Food Destroyed
(N.Z.P.A. Reuter—Copyright) NEW DELHI, Dec. 20. Insects, rats, bad processing and storage destroy half of all the food produced in India, according to a report published in New Delhi yesterday.
The report, produced by the Central Food Technological Research Institute in Mysore, said food losses were valued at 46,000 million rupees (£3450 million) yearly—twice as much as the Indian Government’s annual budget The report said that by scientific methods on a nationwide scale to prevent these losses, India would become not merely self sufficient in food but would have a surplus. It estimated that six rats eat food equal to the calorie
requirement of one human being. Calculating the rodent population of India at between 2400 million and 5000 million, the report said they destroyed at least 25 per cent of food raised for human consumption. The report called for extermination of rats on a national scale, a 10-fold increase in the storage capacity of Government warehouses, and manufacture of enough insecticides to treat 30 million tons of marketable food.
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Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 10
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175Half Of India’s Food Destroyed Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30939, 21 December 1965, Page 10
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