GS Paper 1 15 marks · 250w 14 min Medium
From being net food importer in 1960s, India has emerged as a net food exporter to the world. Provide reasons.
Subtopic: Geography · Agriculture and food self-sufficiency
How to structure your answer
Introduction (from ship-to-mouth to net exporter) → Green Revolution technology → institutional and policy support → irrigation, credit and infrastructure → allied revolutions and research → Conclusion (achievement and caveats).
Written within the word limit
201 words · target 250 words · 14 min
From food importer to food exporter
In the 1960s India depended on PL-480 wheat imports in a precarious “ship-to-mouth” existence marked by recurrent scarcity; today it ranks among the world's largest food exporters, notably of rice.
Reasons for the transformation
- Green Revolution: from the late 1960s, high-yielding varieties (associated with Norman Borlaug and M.S. Swaminathan), chemical fertilisers, assured irrigation, pesticides and mechanisation sharply raised wheat and rice output in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
- Institutional support: Minimum Support Prices, procurement and buffer-stocking by the Food Corporation of India, and the public distribution system provided farmers stable price incentives.
- Irrigation and inputs: canals, dams and tubewells expanded assured water, while subsidised fertiliser and power supported intensive cultivation.
- Credit and infrastructure: NABARD, cooperatives, Kisan Credit Cards, rural roads and regulated markets improved farmers' access to finance and outlets.
- Research and allied revolutions: ICAR research and extension, and the White (milk), Blue (fisheries) and Yellow (oilseeds) revolutions diversified and deepened output.
India today exports rice, spices, sugar and buffalo meat and has enshrined food entitlements in the National Food Security Act, 2013. Yet the achievement carries caveats — groundwater depletion, soil degradation, regional imbalance and monoculture — so future growth must pursue a sustainable, climate-resilient “evergreen” revolution.
What an examiner expects to see
- 1960s dependence on PL-480 imports (“ship-to-mouth”); now a net food exporter and top rice exporter.
- Green Revolution: HYV seeds, fertilisers, irrigation, pesticides and mechanisation raised wheat/rice yields (Punjab, Haryana, western UP).
- Institutional support: MSP, FCI procurement, buffer stocks and the PDS stabilised farmer incentives.
- Irrigation expansion (canals, dams, tubewells) and input subsidies enabled intensive cultivation.
- Credit and infrastructure: NABARD, cooperatives, Kisan Credit Cards, rural roads and regulated markets.
- Allied revolutions — White (Operation Flood milk), Blue (fisheries), Yellow (oilseeds) — and ICAR research diversified output.
- Concerns: groundwater depletion, soil degradation, regional imbalance and monoculture sustainability.
Concrete cases, schemes and judgments
- Operation Flood (White Revolution) making India the world's largest milk producer.
- National Food Security Act, 2013, legally guaranteeing subsidised foodgrain to two-thirds of the population.
- M.S. Swaminathan's role in adapting Borlaug's HYV wheat to Indian conditions.
- India emerging as the world's leading exporter of rice in recent years.
Terminology to weave into the answer
Green RevolutionMinimum Support Price and FCIOperation FloodKisan Credit CardNational Food Security Act