"India's Green Revolution created a new problem of surplus management." Analyse the role of international financial institutions such as the World Bank in addressing India's post-Green Revolution agricultural infrastructure gaps.

The Green Revolution turned India from a deficit importer into a surplus producer, but institutional capacity lagged behind output. In 1976 the Food Corporation of India — created under the Food Corporations Act, 1964 — declared a "situation of emergency" in storage, inviting World Bank finance to close the gap [1][2].

Surplus management as the new problem

• Production outpaced storage: total grain warehouse capacity in 1975/76 stood at only 18.48 million tonnes (10.48 MT public, 8.0 MT private) against buffer-stock targets of 11–12 MT in the peak July–August season [1][2].
• Simultaneous surplus and imports forced procurement without matching godown capacity — a planning gap, not a production failure.
• Post-harvest losses to moisture, pests and fungi remained high, with harvest-time grain moisture roughly twice the safe limit [3].

Role of the World Bank

• Sectoral development lending: the Bank's Appraisal of Second Foodgrain Storage Project (Report No. 1643a-IN, 1977) financed physical godown and silo infrastructure, not farm technology [2].
• Reform-linked conditionality: aid was tied to storage demonstrably raising food production and PDS sales — embedding a distribution-outcome test, not merely a construction target [1].
• Mandate shift under Robert McNamara: the Bank moved from infrastructure-only lending toward agriculture and social sectors, matching India's need [2].

Limits of the external route

• Capacity creation did not end reliance on Cover and Plinth (CAP) open-air storage — still 122.69 LMT of the 862.45 LMT capacity as recently as 2019 [4].
• External finance eased the capital constraint but left the three-tier FCI–CWC–State coordination problem intact [4].

The episode shows multilateral finance as a useful accelerator rather than a substitute for domestic institutional reform. India's current answer is self-financed and decentralised — the World's Largest Grain Storage Plan in Cooperative Sector (approved 31 May 2023) builds godowns at PACS level through convergence of existing schemes [5]. Aligning procurement, storage and last-mile distribution in this way advances the National Food Security Act's entitlements and SDG-2 on zero hunger.