India’s transition from a colonized country, regularly frequented by mass starvation and famines, to a net food surplus and exporter in less than three decades of independence is one of the remarkable development stories of the twentieth century. It managed to raise food production from less than 50 million MT to 217 million MT between 1950 and 2007 through a unique public private partnership, called the Green Revolution, with millions of individual farmers responding to the government’s initiative to propagate new technologies, seed varieties and cultural practice. India has also till the late 1960s, managed to keep the rate of growth of food grains production well ahead of the rate of population growth.
The Challenges before India now points to developing an understanding and consequently an approach that reconciles the situation of “Plenty” and “Scarcity” in a manner that address the most basic food need for all. Such a Strategy would require a multi- prolonged approach that address multiple aspects such as agricultural and rural development; strengthening of local production base and most importantly a scientifically effective preservation strategy to preserve the produce for longer duration.