Eight decades after Independence, one of the most consequential measures of India’s economic transformation is its ability to produce food. From a country dependent on food aid and imports in the 1950s and 1960s, India has become one of the world’s largest agricultural producers.
The Green Revolution of the late 1960s introduced high-yielding varieties, fertilisers and irrigation that dramatically increased wheat and rice production. Today, India produces record harvests of foodgrains, fruits, vegetables, milk and poultry. The challenge has shifted from production to storage, distribution, farmer incomes and sustainable resource use — but the transformation from scarcity to surplus represents one of independent India’s most significant achievements.
