India wastes food worth ₹1.5 lakh crore every year.
Yes, you read that right.
While farmers toil in the fields, 40% of fruits and vegetables never make it to your plate. They rot on the way, in trucks, godowns, or markets. It’s not because the food isn’t good. It’s because the system isn’t.
Now, technology wants to fix it.
The Scale of the Problem
Food waste in India is not just about leftovers at weddings or half-eaten meals. Most of it happens before the food even reaches consumers.
- India suffers a food loss of about ~$17,703 million annually due to post-harvest losses of crops and allied produce.
- In 2021, nearly 40% of fruits and vegetables were wasted due to poor storage and logistics.
- A weak cold chain infrastructure causes massive spoilage during transportation.
The result?
Farmers lose income. Consumers pay higher prices. Food inflation worsens. And millions go hungry.
This isn’t just an agriculture issue. It’s an economic, environmental, and social challenge.
Where the Chain Breaks
The farm-to-fork journey is fragile.
- Crops are harvested at the wrong time due to a lack of weather intelligence.
- There aren’t enough cold storage units near farms.
- Long, unreliable supply chains cause delays and spoilage.
- Markets often lack real-time demand data, leading to overproduction or wastage.
This gap between farm and consumer is where technology can step in and startups are doing just that.
Enter Agritech: The New Supply Chain Fixers
Over the last few years, a new wave of agritech startups has emerged in India. They combining IoT, AI, data analytics, and cold-chain solutions to plug leaks into the food supply system.
Three names are leading this change:
Each of them tackles a different part of the problem.
1. DeHaat: Smart Farming from the Ground Up
DeHaat connects small farmers directly to buyers and input providers through a digital platform. It is one of the very few companies providing end-to-end solutions & services to the farming community in India.
- It gives farmers real-time crop advisory using AI and satellite data.
- It provides access to seeds, fertilizers, and market demand updates.
- Farmers can sell their produce to institutional buyers without middlemen.
This reduces the time between harvest and sale, lowering spoilage.
Today, DeHaat works with over 1.8 million farmers across 12 agraian states. By making farming more data-driven, it’s making food flow faster and more predictably.
2. WayCool: Rebuilding the Cold Chain
WayCool Foods is one of India’s fastest-growing agri-commerce companies. It’s not just moving food; it’s reimagining how it moves. The company runs a full-stack supply chain, covering everything from farm to fork. Using advanced tech like IoT, AI, and real-time tracking, WayCool keeps food fresher for longer and reduces spoilage at every step.
Through its farmer engagement program, Outgrow, the company works directly with 85,000+ farmers. This ensures better planning, fewer middlemen, and less waste. WayCool also manages a broadline product range across fresh produce, staples, and dairy, reaching over 1 lakh clients across modern trade, general trade, and food services.
Its popular consumer brands, Madhuram, KitchenJi, L’exotique, and Freshey’s, are powered by this tech-enabled network. By tightening the farm-to-market link, WayCool is proving that smarter logistics can mean less waste and more value for farmers and consumers alike.
This matters. Because bananas, tomatoes, milk, and leafy greens don’t have the luxury of time. A few extra hours in the heat can destroy the value of an entire shipment.
3. Stellapps: Tech That Saves Milk
Stellapps is India’s first startup to fully digitise the dairy supply chain. Founded in 2011 and incubated at the Indian Institute of Technology Madras, this Bengaluru-based IoT pioneer is turning milk into data and data into impact.
Milk is the world’s largest crop. But in India, it often faces low yield, poor traceability, and quality loss along the way. Stellapps is fixing that through its SmartMoo™ platform, a full-stack IoT solution that digitizes everything from milk production and procurement to cold chain management.
The result? Less spoilage, better quality, and higher income for farmers. The platform collects data through sensors on milking machines, chilling equipment, and even animal wearables. This data then flows to the SmartMoo™ Cloud, where it’s analysed and shared with all stakeholders, from farmers to cooperatives.
By making every step trackable and transparent, Stellapps reduces waste before it happens. It’s a powerful example of how agritech can turn everyday produce into a smart supply chain, improving efficiency, income, and quality at scale.
Beyond Startups: The Infrastructure Puzzle
Technology alone can’t solve India’s food waste problem. It needs policy support, infrastructure, and coordination.
- India has only ~8,800 cold storages, most clustered in a few states.
- While the Indian government recognises the cold chain industry as a sunrise industry, the coverage still is low.
- Many rural roads remain weak, making transportation unreliable.
The government’s push through schemes like the Pradhan Mantri Kisan SAMPADA Yojana and agri-infra funds is helping, but the gap remains large.
Public-private partnerships can scale cold storage, logistics hubs, and farm-gate tech faster.
Policy Meets Tech
The Indian government has been pushing for the Digital Agriculture Mission, e-NAM (National Agriculture Market), and warehouse digitization.
But startups bring something unique: speed, innovation, and last-mile access.
- When AI gives weather alerts, farmers harvest smartly.
- When cold chain works, produce survives the journey.
- When supply and demand are synced, waste falls.
Policy + Tech + Infra = Real impact.
A ₹1.5 Lakh Crore Opportunity
Fixing food waste isn’t just about saving resources. It’s about unlocking value.
- Better logistics can raise farmers’ incomes.
- Fewer wastages mean lower prices for consumers and better food security.
- It also cuts methane emissions from rotting food, a climate win.
This is why agritech is no longer a “niche” play. It’s a national economic strategy.
Why the Timing Is Right
Three factors make this the perfect moment for India to act:
- Smartphone Penetration: More farmers are online and accessible.
- Logistics Boom: India’s warehousing and trucking sector is growing rapidly.
- Climate Pressures: Reducing waste is crucial for food security and climate goals.
Startups like DeHaat, WayCool, and Stellapps are showing what’s possible when tech meets the field.
The Road Ahead
To truly solve the food waste problem, India needs:
- More farm-gate infrastructure, cold storages, collection centres, better roads.
- Stronger financing for agritech innovation.
- Digital traceability systems to track produce in real time.
- Collaborations between startups, state governments, and cooperatives.
Think of it this way: the food problem isn’t just about growing more. It’s about wasting less.
Final Bite
Every tomato that rots in a truck is lost income, lost nutrition, and lost climate opportunity.
India doesn’t lack farmers. It doesn’t lack produce. It lacks a smarter supply chain.
Agritech startups are proving that technology can bridge this gap, connecting fields to forks without the waste.
Fixing the ₹1.5 lakh crore food waste problem is not a distant dream.
It’s a doable mission, and the solutions are already here.
