India’s Agricultural Trade Policy and Sustainable Development

During the last six decades or so Indian agriculture has made remarkable progress with food grain production growing five fold from about 50 MMT in 1950 to more than 250 MMT in 2012. Despite the increase in population from 361 million to 1.2 billion during this period, India has turned from a food deficit to a food surplus country. Ensuring food security for a rapidly increasing population has been the principal goal of India’s food and agricultural policies, and all agri-trade policies have been subservient to this goal. In the quest for self-reliance in basic food (especially key staples like rice and wheat) trade policy has oscillated between export controls and high import duties.