Report on India's Food Crisis and Steps to Meet it 1959

Abstract

This is a report on India’s food crisis. It reaches the inescapable conclusion that an immediate and drastic increase in food production is India’s primary problem of the next seven years. It points out that without food enough, India’s hopes for improving human welfare, achieving social justice, and securing democracy will become almost impossible of attainment. The report has been prepared by an American team of agricultural specialists brought to India at the request of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Ministry of Community Development and Cooperation, with the sponsorship of The Ford Foundation. Naturally, many aspects of India’s agricultural problems differ greatly from those of the U.S. But solutions lie in the common experience of world agricultural development. It was in this context, and with full regard for India’s present resources and its potential development, that the1 Team approached its serious assignment. Within the time allotted, the Team made every effort to study Indian food production problems carefully and thoroughly. Members of the Team travelled extensively in all the States of India, interviewed Government officials at all levels, village cultivators and other private citizens, and studied, wherever possible, such relevant statistics, documents and memoranda as were made available. The findings and conclusions of the Team are contained in the three parts of the report which follow. Not only in its travels, but in every step of its inquiries and discussions, the Team had the able assistance of Indian associates deputed to work closely and continuously with the Team. With the help of these associates, apd of discussions wijh Indian leaders, the Team, in studying food production problems, bore constantly in mind the broad range of^ Indian objectives for industry, employment and general economic development and the relationship of agriculture to them. As the report itself repeatedly emphasizes, there are no simple solutions to India’s food production problems. No two or three easy steps can be taken to allay the impending crisis. The facts and analyses which lie behind the Team’s conclusions are found in the body of the report. But as the Team discussed its findings, with its own members, with its Indian associates, and with Indian leaders, certain crucial issues, certain major proposals' stood out above all others for immediate attention and action.