Self-sufficiency in food grains

Also called: Food self-sufficiency · Topic: Land Reforms, the Green Revolution and Farm Subsidies · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 2 "Indian Economy 1950-1990"

Meaning

Self-sufficiency in food grains means a country grows enough food grains at home to meet all its own needs, so it does not have to import them. India reached this in the 1970s. Britannica dates it to 1971, after the PL-480 food-aid imports from the USA ended around 1971 [2].

It matters because a country that cannot feed itself depends on other countries. Before the Green Revolution, India needed American food aid. Self-sufficiency meant India "no longer had to be at the mercy of America" for food.

• Simple test: Self-sufficiency ratio = (domestic production ÷ domestic requirement) × 100. When the ratio is 100% or more, the country does not need imports.

Explanation

How India got there: the Green Revolution

• Green Revolution: a large rise in food-grain output, mainly of wheat and rice. It came from high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, which were used together with fertiliser, pesticides and assured irrigation.
• The start:
• In 1966, India imported 18,000 tons of new Mexican wheat seeds [2].

• These seeds changed wheat farming, especially in Punjab and Haryana [2].

• Key people: M.S. Swaminathan is called the "father of the Green Revolution" in India. In the 1960s he worked with the American scientist Norman Borlaug to bring HYV wheat to India [3].

• Output jump: wheat output rose from 12 million tons (1965) to 20 million tons (1970) [2].

• Worked example: (20 − 12) ÷ 12 × 100 = about 67% rise in 5 years.

• Result: the long stagnation (a long period of little or no growth) of colonial farming was "permanently broken" (NCERT). Under colonial rule, output per hectare stayed low because of the zamindari system, forced growing of cash crops and very little spending on irrigation.

Why it came in two phases, and unevenly

• HYV seeds need a package. They give high yields only with regular water and enough fertiliser.
• So the first gains went to areas that already had irrigation.

• They also went to farmers who could pay for inputs.

• Phase I (mid-1960s to mid-1970s): mainly wheat regions, in the better-off states.

• Phase II (mid-1970s to mid-1980s): spread to more states and more crops, mainly rice.
• Left out in both phases: rainfed areas (farms that depend only on rain), eastern India, and pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals (jowar, bajra, ragi and other millets).
• So: India's self-sufficiency was mainly in cereals (wheat and rice). It did not cover every food crop.

Why marketed surplus is the key link

• Higher output helps the country only if the grain reaches the market. If farm families eat most of the extra output, it "will not make much of a difference to the economy as a whole".
• Marketed surplus: the part of output that farmers actually sell.
• Marketable surplus: what farmers could sell. This is total output minus the family's own needs (food, seed, animal feed, wages paid in grain).
• Worked example:
• A farm grows 100 quintals of wheat. The family needs 30 q (25 q for food, 3 q for seed, 2 q for cattle feed).
• Marketable surplus = 100 − 30 = 70 q.
• The farmer sells 60 q and keeps 10 q in store, so the marketed surplus is 60 q.
• Distress sale: a poor farmer who must repay a loan quickly may sell 80 q. Then the marketed surplus (80) is bigger than the marketable surplus (70), and the family eats less.

What self-sufficiency led to

• Food became cheaper compared with other goods:
• A large marketed surplus of rice and wheat reached the market.
• Supply grew faster than demand.

• So the price of food grains fell compared with other goods.

• The poor gained most:

• Low-income families spend a large share of their income on food.

• Cheaper grain raised their real income (what their money can actually buy).

• The State gained food security:

• The government could procure grain (buy it from farmers).
• It built buffer stocks (reserve grain kept for bad years).

In India

• The dating trap: NCERT (Class 11, Indian Economy 1950–1990) says self-sufficiency came "by the late 1960s". That is an error. The standard date is the 1970s: PL-480 imports ended around 1971, and "In 1971 India became self-sufficient in food production" [2]. By the late 1970s India was one of the world's largest farm producers [2].
• Institutions built on it: procurement and buffer stocks became the base of today's MSP–PDS–NFSA system:
• MSP (Minimum Support Price): the price at which the government buys grain from farmers.
• PDS (Public Distribution System): ration shops that sell cheap grain to the poor.

• NFSA (National Food Security Act): the law that gives people a legal right to subsidised grain.

• Fixing the regional gap, BGREI (Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India):

• It is a sub-scheme of the Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), launched in 2010-11 [4].
• It covers 7 states: Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, eastern Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal [4].
• Rice output in these states rose from 45.65 million tonnes (2009-10) to 57.18 million tonnes (2017-18) [4].
• Their share of all-India rice output rose from 48.95% (2010-11) to 53.75% (2013-14) [4].
• The scheme is an official admission that Phases I and II left the east behind.

Don't confuse with

• Food security: self-sufficiency asks whether the country grows enough grain. Food security asks whether every person can get and afford enough food. A country can be self-sufficient while poor families still go hungry.
• Marketed surplus vs marketable surplus: marketed surplus is grain actually sold. Marketable surplus is grain that could be sold (output minus family needs). NCERT's exercise asks about "marketable surplus", but its text defines marketed surplus.
• Self-sufficiency in all food crops: India's self-sufficiency came mainly in wheat and rice. Pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals were left out of both phases of the Green Revolution.
• PL-480 food aid vs normal imports: PL-480 was American food aid that India depended on before self-sufficiency. Ending that dependence is the political meaning of self-sufficiency.

Prelims Hooks

• India became self-sufficient in food grains in the 1970s (around 1971), not in the "late 1960s" as NCERT says [2].
• In 1966, India imported 18,000 tons of Mexican wheat seeds, which began the Green Revolution [2].
• M.S. Swaminathan is the "father of the Green Revolution" in India. He worked with Norman Borlaug (USA) on HYV wheat [3].
• Wheat output rose from 12 million tons (1965) to 20 million tons (1970) [2].
• Phase I gains went mainly to wheat. Phase II added rice. Pulses, oilseeds and coarse cereals were left out of both.
• Marketed surplus = output actually sold. In a distress sale, it can be greater than marketable surplus.

Mains Points

• Self-sufficiency with imbalance:
• The HYV package needed irrigation and money for inputs, so the gains went to Punjab, Haryana and western UP, and to wheat and rice.
• Eastern India, rainfed areas, pulses and oilseeds fell behind.

• BGREI (from 2010-11) is a correction: eastern rice output rose from 45.65 to 57.18 million tonnes between 2009-10 and 2017-18 [4]. Use this for GS-III answers on regional disparity and crop diversification.

• Equity through prices and procurement:

• A large marketed surplus lowered the relative price of food grains, so the poor gained most.
• Procurement and buffer stocks became the base of the MSP–PDS–NFSA system.

• Trade-off: MSP-backed procurement now pushes farmers towards wheat and rice over other crops, which raises subsidy costs.

• Output vs sustainability:

• Self-sufficiency ended India's dependence on foreign food aid.
• But the input-heavy model of the Punjab–Haryana belt now raises concerns about groundwater, soil health and fertiliser subsidies.
• This makes a good GS-III point on how the next stage of farm policy must protect natural resources and not only raise output.

Read more

• Phases, regions and gains of the Green Revolution, and the workforce that stayed on the farm