How Indian agriculture has been transformed from food scarcity to food surplus level? Explain the various government policies…

India moved from "ship-to-mouth" dependence on PL-480 imports in the 1960s to being a net food exporter through technology and institutional support.

Transformation from Food Scarcity to Surplus

The Green Revolution of the late 1960s combined High Yielding Variety seeds, chemical fertilisers and assured canal and tube-well irrigation to raise wheat and rice yields sharply. Minimum Support Price (MSP) procurement and buffer stocking by the Food Corporation of India protected farmers from price crashes and assured availability. The White Revolution (Operation Flood) made India the largest milk producer, and the Blue Revolution expanded fisheries. Foodgrain output rose from about 51 million tonnes (1950–51) to a record 376.6 million tonnes (2025–26, third advance estimates), and India is now the world's largest rice exporter.

Government Policies for Diversification

To correct the ecological costs of cereal-centric farming and improve nutrition:

• Crop Diversification Programme (under RKVY) helps Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh shift from water-intensive paddy to maize, cotton and pulses.
• NFSM and PM-AASHA provide input support and price assurance for pulses and oilseeds to cut import dependence.
• MIDH, the National Mission on Edible Oils (Oil Palm 2021, Oilseeds 2024), the National Livestock Mission and PM Matsya Sampada Yojana promote high-value and allied sectors.
• Shree Anna: after the International Year of Millets 2023, nutri-cereals are being included in procurement, PDS and school meals.

Aligning MSP, procurement and market infrastructure with ecologically suitable crops will move India from food security to sustainable nutritional security.