A 'food system' involves the infrastructure and processes that go into feeding the population, such as growing, harvesting and transportation.
The Food Sustainability Index (FSI) measures how sustainable these processes are. Here's a look at India's position among 67 countries studied in a report by the Economist Intelligence Unit and Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition.
Increasing production
India's foodgrain production has been increasing steadily over the years, reaching a record level in 2018.
India, the midpoint
Despite the increase in food production, the Food Sustainability Index ranks India 33rd among 67 countries in 2018. China does better than India, while other BRICS partners are rated poorly.
Where do we lose out?
A comparison with the global scenario indicates that India does well on preventing food loss and wastage, but is below average in sustainable agriculture and is one of the worst while tackling nutritional challenges.
Drilling down further, we find that India does badly on parameters like quality of life and land use patterns. The Food Sustainability Index is based on three broad categories: food loss & waste, sustainable agriculture and nutritional challenges. It contains 38 indicators and 90 individual metrics. All parameters are scored on 100. Lower the score, less sustainable the practices are.
| 1) Food loss | 72.7 | 71.4 |
| 2) End-user waste | 98 | 63.8 |
| 3) Water | 72.1 | 74.9 |
| 4) Land (land use, biodiversity, human capital) | 57.2 | 55.7 |
| 5) Air (GHG emissions) | 71.3 | 78.4 |
| 6) Life quality* | 32.3 | 71.7 |
| 7) Life expectancy | 72.3 | 61.4 |
| 8) Dietary patterns | 59.7 | 51.7 |
