The Green Revolution of the 1960s, which led to new advances that brought millions of people from the brink of starvation, was a direct result of U.S.-India collaboration in agriculture. Those advances, however, failed to reach many areas in eastern India. Moreover, climate change, population pressure, and stagnating agricultural productivity growth threaten to undo the gains achieved in recent decades. India is home to 17 percent of the world’s population, but only three percent of the world's arable land. Sixty percent of the population is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood. A renewed effort to develop agriculture is needed to help improve India’s food security and reduce the number of poor. Moreover, because India’s agricultural purchases on the world market significantly influence world prices and availability, improving agricultural productivity in India will mitigate global food shortages and price fluctuations. India ranks among the top five countries in the world affected by natural disasters. Floods and droughts can greatly reduce agricultural production, affecting fragile food security ecosystems.
USAID'S RESPONSE
In recognition of India’s unique position as an emerging global power – one that is on the forefront of the fight against hunger – USAID is launching a new partnership that brings together the capabilities of the U.S. and India to address poverty and hunger in India and around the world. A radical transformation of the agricultural sector is needed – one that copes with climate change and food security and transitions towards sustainability. As the world renowned Indian scientist Professor M.S. Swaminathan recently said, “novel solutions and technological advances must be married with ecological thinking to drive a truly sustainable agricultural revolution.”
For the production growth needed to ensure food security, USAID will help improve agricultural technologies and innovations that reach smallholder farmers, including those innovations that address climate change. Better focused and more cost-effective interventions that accelerate the development and deployment of new technologies and sustainable food systems will be introduced.
KEY ACCOMPLISHMENTS
Agriculture and Food Security Program (AFSP): The AFSP will support India in developing and delivering results in pursuit of its agriculture and food security objectives through a new model for global collaboration, including transferring agricultural technologies and innovations to African countries in a triangular mode of cooperation. AFSP will focus on four broad areas:
1) Harnessing frontier technologies to address productivity issues for food security and making agriculture climate resilient; 2) conservation agriculture and management of natural resources;
3) agricultural extension and innovation; and
4) human resource development in agriculture and institutional capacity building.
The AFSP includes:
a) The Food, Agriculture, and Rural Markets Systems (FARMS) Project that will address critical constraints to improving agricultural productivity and extending food security. It will focus on increasing crop yields, promoting improved natural resource management practices, addressing the challenges of climate change, linking farmers to value chains, and nutrition improvement at the household level. Interventions in India will generate lessons-learned and spillover benefits outside of India with global and regional public goods to increase global food security.
b) University Linkages will improve the capacity of higher education agricultural institutions for teaching, research, and extension. This will enable U.S., Indian and African institutions to respond to the professional needs of a market-led agricultural system. Agricultural innovation now requires professionals to emphasize the development of skills in accessing and applying available information for solving agricultural development problems with more sustainable institutional arrangements. The program will improve agricultural productivity and market competitiveness through the application of science, technology, and information, provided through effective knowledge and information systems.
c) The Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) is jointly funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID to improve cropping systems by integrating cutting edge innovations (such as genetics and information communications technology) with resource conserving practices that deliver productivity, income and sustainability/ resilience gains for farmers in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, the “breadbasket” of India.
Partnerships for Innovation and Knowledge (PIKA): USAID provides technical assistance to farming families to raise agricultural productivity, increase farmer’s incomes, create employment in rural areas, and improve food security. USAID’s PIKA program partners with the private and public sectors to introduce technological innovations and the latest scientific knowledge in order to raise agricultural productivity and build a more efficient demand-driven and market-led agricultural system. In pursuing a partnership model for agricultural assistance, PIKA drives innovation in rural India, thereby improving farmers’ and rural entrepreneurs’ livelihoods and providing greater opportunities for millions of Indians in rural areas. With USAID assistance, over 140,000 farmers raised their incomes by an average of 25 percent through better access to markets, technology and training.
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