“India lives in villages.” Having ~320 wild species related to nearly 166 crop plants originated. Still, we struggled with Famine and even today we have our farmers doing suicides. Here is 🧵to give you a historical context and let you explore more themes around all this.
The Zamindary <holder of land> was the linchpin of India's agrarian system since the Mughal era. They were required to pay land taxes which were broken as Jama<assessment> and Hasil<actual collection>. At the start, they were NOT the landowner, and acted on ~10 commissions.
Soon with the decline of Mughal, they became Raja/Talquadars and involved other as agents <Desai, Reddy, Patel, etc> to collect the taxes from peasants. British continued with this system. But EIC revenue officers also focused on the availability of credit as they focused on ..
Cash Crops <Indigo, Jute, Cotton, etc> as they knew the collection of revenue depended on it. Thus moneylending business <with mainly Marwadis> flourished. The bigger Peasants were also acting as the same, and defaults = Bonded labours. While we had the rule of *Damdupat*.
We had many parasites: Cash Crops, Zamindars, Marwadi Sethjis, Crop traders. Thus, the actual tiller was helpless, and left with no surplus to sustain their family. Then by the days of our Freedom movement, removing Zamindars =panacea. Congress was mainly funded by big Peasants. 
As a political bargain, they asked for the abolition of the Zamindari. ‘Land for Tiller’ was the warcry. And, it was abolished in independent India. But it didn't solve anything since ownership of land was in the hands of bigger Peasants. Enter Vinoba Bhave & Bhoodan movement
Ramchandra Reddy donated 100 acres in the Nalgonda district, where Communists were doing a violent rebellion acts. By 1953, JP <after getting humiliating defeat> will also chip in and movement will gain some traction. But Nehru was not much interested in India= Agricultural state
In his 1949's visit to the US. He was shown the farm advancements <credit, seeds, & chemicals>, unconvinced that these investments were the need of an hour. He didn’t live to see the collapse of his agrarian policy. India was struck by a double drought in 1956/57.
In 1954, part of their Cold War game. Eisenhower signed a Public Law <PL>, where US food was used for overseas aid, PL 480. Nehru was sold to this idea and India was the biggest receiver (>50% of the total outflow). But there were many issues related to this.
The US used to give more wheat and we needed more rice, while the payment was in the form of loans to US MNC in India but then the deal which was for 3 years saw supplies getting exhausted in 21 months. PL480 actually exacerbated the problems it purported to solve.
Relaunched by Kennedy as "Food for Peace", we had another ‘ship-to-mouth’ phase of grain shortage and large grain imports. This is when C. Subramaniam will take a lead and with B. Sivaraman will take the risk of importing the dwarf varieties of wheat and replicating it in India.
Assisted by Indian scientist M.S. Swaminathan & the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) teams and Supported by then PM (Shastriji). The Green revolution <seed–water–fertilizer technology> was kick-started in 1965. Food Corporation of India (FCI) was started for storage
Shastriji did live to see his "Jai Jawaan Jai Kisaan" vision, and there was a Bihar drought of 1966 and Kerala had a rice shortage. I Gandhi will come on AIR to pacify these rioters.
"I pledge not to eat or serve rice until the food situation is normal.” Then Monsoon failed.
"I pledge not to eat or serve rice until the food situation is normal.” Then Monsoon failed.
We were forced to adapted/replicated, and further developed the high-yielding variety(HYV) seeds. More development followed. First “land grant'' university was set up at Pantnagar <Sam Higginbottom did setup AAI in 1910s only>. Food production increased= scope of PDS was expanded
Things did improve for a few years. Then in 1973, students of a college went on strike due to the poor quality of food <esp oilseeds> that was served. What was just a college hostel issue was magnified to a movement and will drag JP again <RSS will play the same script in 2011>
Morarji Desai wanted for an agricultural tax <stopped during WW2> as a finance minister, but when he was the PM, he dropped the plan. As he can't afford to get into a fight with Charan Singh <who championed the cause of the peasants>
By the 1980s, Charan Singh will the new political Zamindar, and we will have two challengers also Sharad Joshi (Maharashtra) and M.S. Tikait (UP). Kanshi Ram <BSP> will mobilize agricultural labourers. Thus, no Govt can ignore agriculture. An era of Populism <esp MSP> will start.
Mostly Govt's will get busy in looking good, chasing Vanity metrics. MSPs will be increased around Election time, without much development in the rural infra. While NDA will do some work, by 2004, we will be back to the same story. APMC lobby will not let private players do much
An era of Corporate linkage did get started. ITC desperately looking for an image makeover will start e-Chaupal (under @S_Sivakumar) from bridging the information and service gap of rural India. Bharti group will do Contract farming.
Still fate of many commodities will remain linked with Govt actions (like Sugar), heavy subsidy in Fertilizers will prevent innovations and then environment groups will oppose new development of Genetically modified organism (GMO)
Then wastage (`14.8%), supply chain and low-income lever for our farmer's (they get 30-35% of the final price) remain one of the biggest issues
Even we are not seeing the afterimpact of the Green revolution. The push for paddy has lowered our water level and excessive use of chemicals have its health issues <Govt have recently banned 27 pesticides, but this is to push exports in EU>
With the govt’s focus <due to political reason> and New Era of Startups are driving some good efforts.
Unfortunately, I never worked in this sector despite opting for an MBA in agribusiness. As a side obversor I can sense an era of huge opportunity. Also, given my biased views around AMUL and ITC <both were my dream company>, I can feel they will lead us again.
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