India's Green Revolution created a new problem of surplus management.

Q. India's Green Revolution created a new problem of surplus management. (15 marks, 250-350 words)

The Green Revolution of the mid-1960s — high-yielding varieties, assured irrigation and price support — turned India from a "ship-to-mouth" importer into a grain-surplus economy. But production outran the capacity to store, finance and distribute grain, making surplus itself the new policy problem.

Anatomy of the surplus problem - Storage gap: procurement expanded faster than godown building. India's total grain warehousing stood at only about 18.48 million tonnes in 1975/76, pushing the FCI to seek World Bank finance for the Second Foodgrain Storage Project [1]. - Post-harvest losses: traditional godowns lose roughly 8% of stock to rodents, insects and fungi against 0.2% in modern silos; better drying and storage alone could save close to 9 million tonnes a year [2]. - Cover and Plinth dependence: of 862.45 LMT capacity (2019), 122.69 LMT was open-air CAP storage, leaving stocks exposed to moisture and pests [3].

Economic and social strain - Buffer stocks held well above norms lock up working capital and swell the food subsidy, while surplus coexists with hunger — the binding constraint shifted from output to offtake. - Procurement concentrated in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh skewed MSP benefits regionally and entrenched a water-intensive paddy–wheat cycle.

Institutional responses - Multilateral financing: the World Bank's 1977 appraisal funded FCI godown expansion, treating storage as food-security infrastructure rather than mere logistics [1]. - Decentralisation today: the World's Largest Grain Storage Plan in the Cooperative Sector (approved 31 May 2023) builds godowns at PACS level to cut post-harvest losses and prevent distress sale [4].

Surplus management is therefore a problem of infrastructure and institutions, not of plenty. Aligning modern silos and village-level PACS godowns with crop diversification and a leak-proof PDS can convert stocks into genuine entitlement — carrying the Green Revolution's promise forward under the National Food Security Act and SDG-2 (Zero Hunger).

(~300 words)

Sources: 1. India: Appraisal of Second Foodgrain Storage Project, Report No. 1643a-IN (World Bank, 1977) — 1975/76 warehousing capacity of 18.48 MT; World Bank financing of FCI godown expansion 2. Overview of grain drying and storage problems in India (FAO) — 8% loss in traditional godowns vs 0.2% in silos; ~9 million tonnes savable annually 3. Storage of Foodgrains (PIB) — 862.45 LMT total capacity, of which 122.69 LMT is CAP storage (as on 31.05.2019) 4. World's Largest Cooperative Foodgrain Storage Scheme (PIB) — plan approved 31 May 2023; PACS-level godowns to cut post-harvest losses and distress sales