Food Supply Chain and Sustainability

Though the food chain plays a crucial role in ensuring food security, nutrition, and economic growth, but it still faces incessant challenges of inefficiency, wastage, and environmental degradation. Specifically in developing nations such as India, post-harvest losses in agricultural crops range between 25–50%, primarily because of the inadequate chain infrastructure and poor handling practices. These losses contribute significantly to greenhouse gas emissions and resource depletion. Hence, there is need for a holistic approach towards sustainability in the food chain one that can integrate economic viability with environmental responsibility. Emerging technologies certainly offer transformative potential through numerous benefits achieved through its application across the chain. By embedding such innovations into the food chain, the entire agricultural ecosystem can achieve minimized waste, enhanced food safety, aligned with global sustainability goals such as SDG 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production). This paper emphasises upon  the crucial  need for smart and sustainable food networks that ensure resilience in the face of growing global demand.