From Food Aid to Farm Surplus: The Political Economy of India’s Farm Policy

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 16. Public Policy

Abstract

India has come a long way since its days of relying on politically conditioned food imports from the United States to feed its population. The government now holds millions of tons of wheat and rice in storage in its warehouses. This paper will use the history of food policy in post-1947 (Independence) India to identify the factors that explain (a) India’s success in fostering production and (b) the building of stocks of millions of tons of rice and wheat in excess of its emergency requirements. What emerges is that while the dominant policy, the Green Revolution, resulted in impressive gains in agricultural production, it also resulted in inequalities along several dimensions. Importantly, it fostered its own constituency of support among large and middle peasants who have organized to ensure that farm support, in the form of subsidies and price support operations, continues. This paper traces the evolution of government policy in the farm sector to understand the political underpinnings of the current farm policy India. At the same time, the government had reduced its distributional commitments in the last two decades, which reduced its ability to deplete the rising food stocks.

Author

• Madhavi Cherian, New York University