About 4oper cent of our people live below the poverty line today.

They face problems of daytooday

existence, with not enough money to buy
simple food items, often not even for the next meal. Still, the situation is
much
better than what it was at many periods before independence and even
during
the 1960s. Todays teenagers would not know about the near famine
conditions
that prevailed in certain regions of the country before independence and
even
after, and particularly about our dependence on American wheat in the
sixties.

The crisis and Indian food security

Prof S.K. Sinha, an eminent Indian agricultural scientist who led the food and
agriculture panel of the Technology Vision is often fond of quoting the
following:
It is also important to recall the experience of C. Subramaniam, the
then Union minister of agriculture during the critical years of 196566
and
196667.
He has stated that we had to import 10 million tones and 11
million tones during these two yearsthat
was a danger signal, you cant be
depending upon imported foodgrains
at that level, particularly when it
came from 12000 miles away. During the second year of that critical
period of drought, President Johnson, because of certain policies he had
adopted, we reached a stage where there were stocks for only two weeks
and there was nothing in transit in the pipeline. *
This crisis gave the countrys leadership an opportunity to resolve to become
selfsufficient
in food grains. This period also coincided with a breakthrough in technology
at international centers for improvement of rice and wheat strains. India took
advantage
of these technologies, experimented with them, and launched largescale
agricultural
extension services, instead of viewing these technologies merely as research
curiositiesAbout 4oper cent of our people live below the poverty line today.
They face problems of daytooday
existence, with not enough money to buy
simple food items, often not even for the next meal. Still, the situation is
much
better than what it was at many periods before independence and even
during

the 1960s. Todays teenagers would not know about the near famine
conditions
that prevailed in certain regions of the country before independence and
even
after, and particularly about our dependence on American wheat in the
sixties.

The crisis and Indian food security

Prof S.K. Sinha, an eminent Indian agricultural scientist who led the food and
agriculture panel of the Technology Vision is often fond of quoting the
following:
It is also important to recall the experience of C. Subramaniam, the
then Union minister of agriculture during the critical years of 196566
and
196667.
He has stated that we had to import 10 million tones and 11
million tones during these two yearsthat
was a danger signal, you cant be
depending upon imported foodgrains
at that level, particularly when it
came from 12000 miles away. During the second year of that critical
period of drought, President Johnson, because of certain policies he had
adopted, we reached a stage where there were stocks for only two weeks
and there was nothing in transit in the pipeline. *
This crisis gave the countrys leadership an opportunity to resolve to become
selfsufficient
in food grains. This period also coincided with a breakthrough in technology
at international centers for improvement of rice and wheat strains. India took
advantage
of these technologies, experimented with them, and launched largescale
agricultural
extension services, instead of viewing these technologies merely as research
curiositiesAbout 4oper cent of our people live below the poverty line today.
They face problems of daytooday
existence, with not enough money to buy
simple food items, often not even for the next meal. Still, the situation is
much
better than what it was at many periods before independence and even
during
the 1960s. Todays teenagers would not know about the near famine
conditions
that prevailed in certain regions of the country before independence and
even
after, and particularly about our dependence on American wheat in the
sixties.

The crisis and Indian food security

Prof S.K. Sinha, an eminent Indian agricultural scientist who led the food and
agriculture panel of the Technology Vision is often fond of quoting the
following:
It is also important to recall the experience of C. Subramaniam, the
then Union minister of agriculture during the critical years of 196566
and
196667.
He has stated that we had to import 10 million tones and 11
million tones during these two yearsthat
was a danger signal, you cant be
depending upon imported foodgrains
at that level, particularly when it
came from 12000 miles away. During the second year of that critical
period of drought, President Johnson, because of certain policies he had
adopted, we reached a stage where there were stocks for only two weeks
and there was nothing in transit in the pipeline. *
This crisis gave the countrys leadership an opportunity to resolve to become
selfsufficient
in food grains. This period also coincided with a breakthrough in technology
at international centers for improvement of rice and wheat strains. India took
advantage
of these technologies, experimented with them, and launched largescale
agricultural
extension services, instead of viewing these technologies merely as research
curiositiesAbout 4oper cent of our people live below the poverty line today.
They face problems of daytooday
existence, with not enough money to buy
simple food items, often not even for the next meal. Still, the situation is
much
better than what it was at many periods before independence and even
during
the 1960s. Todays teenagers would not know about the near famine
conditions
that prevailed in certain regions of the country before independence and
even
after, and particularly about our dependence on American wheat in the
sixties.

The crisis and Indian food security

Prof S.K. Sinha, an eminent Indian agricultural scientist who led the food and
agriculture panel of the Technology Vision is often fond of quoting the
following:
It is also important to recall the experience of C. Subramaniam, the
then Union minister of agriculture during the critical years of 196566
and
196667.
He has stated that we had to import 10 million tones and 11

million tones during these two yearsthat

was a danger signal, you cant be
depending upon imported foodgrains
at that level, particularly when it
came from 12000 miles away. During the second year of that critical
period of drought, President Johnson, because of certain policies he had
adopted, we reached a stage where there were stocks for only two weeks
and there was nothing in transit in the pipeline. *
This crisis gave the countrys leadership an opportunity to resolve to become
selfsufficient
in food grains. This period also coincided with a breakthrough in technology
at international centers for improvement of rice and wheat strains. India took
advantage
of these technologies, experimented with them, and launched largescale
agricultural
extension services, instead of viewing these technologies merely as research
curiosities