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Ghost of PL-480 Returns as India Avoids the Wheat Trap All over Again

1 points by NoRagrets 4y ago

NoRagrets 4y ago
There is more to the story and here is an in-depth narrative of what transpired..the famine, PL 480 and the green revolution https://theprint.in/past-forward/hungry-india-a-nawabi-us-president-mexican-blood-the-real-story-of-green-revolution/835649/?amp https://theprint.in/past-forward/hungry-india-a-nawabi-us-pr... [..]I don’t ever want us to have to beg for food again, Indira Gandhi said after a call with US President Lyndon Johnson. Science, Swaminathan and Subramanian made sure she didn’t have to.[..] [..]When India was at war with Pakistan in 1965, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked Indians to miss a meal on Mondays. The next year, a minister dug up his five-acre backyard in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi to sow wheat – the same spot where Home Minister Amit Shah now lives. And America, busy with the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement, was plotting a giant Revolution in India.[..] [..]The PL 480 law was described by historian Kristin L. Ahlberg as “Machiavelli with a heart.” It was the first American international food assistance programme of many, and provided both emergency and nonemergency food assistance. Since the end of the Cold War, PL 480 and the Food for Peace have shifted towards providing only emergency food relief and market-based assistance. [..] [..]Years prior to the formulation of the PL 480, the Rockefeller Foundation had been looking to implement its development programmes in India as early as the 1930s, with the goal of finding alternatives to working in China. However, India was only viewed as a feasible location after becoming independent. At this point, the foundation had pivoted from prioritising healthcare to agriculture in response to an internal assessment report on the global problems of hunger and malnutrition. As part of this, the Rockefeller Foundation had developed an agriculture programme in 1943 in Mexico, with Borlaug at the helm and significant participation from Mexican agricultural scientists and technicians.[..] [..]From begging bowl to bread basket No one was prepared for the amount of wheat harvested in 1968. The surplus was so huge that the government had to store it in schools and theatres. Trains ran out of wagons to fill with wheat. The Philippines and Turkey — other benefactors of the seeds and American philanthropy — also had record high yields in 1968. Besides wheat, crops like cotton, tea and jute also had successful harvests. The term “Green Revolution” was coined in 1968 by William Gaud, an administrator in the US Agency for International Development. Speaking at a conference, he talked about the “Green Revolution” spreading across Asia. The term stood in contrast to the Communist “Red” revolutions in Asia at the time.[..] [..]Since the ’90s, the Father of the Green Revolution has been calling for an “evergreen revolution.” Swaminathan, who is now 96, has been advocating the integration of technology and ecology as the way forward. The lessons of the Green Revolution tell us what needs to be addressed: it’s not enough to revisit the role the government plays in the agricultural sector, it’s necessary to underline the role the sector itself plays in India. The Green Revolution took place in an India that had no option but to produce whatever would feed its people quickest. Now that India has attained a level of self-sufficiency, the natural progression is to produce nutritious food to nourish its people. It’s time for India to move beyond producing calorie-heavy carbohydrate-dense foods such as wheat, rice and sugar, said Harish Damodaran, Rural Affairs and Agriculture Editor of The Indian Express and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Instead, Indian agriculture should focus more on foods that are rich in proteins and micronutrients such as pulses, milk, egg, meat, fruits and vegetables. Crops that are sustainable and require less fertiliser should also be prioritised.[..]
- jelliclesfarm 4y ago
  But my favourite bit was [..]“The first Green Revolution was about providing basic food,” said Damodaran. “The next Green Revolution should be about agriculture.”[..]
- jelliclesfarm 4y ago
  On the other side of the globe this article is fascinating as it illustrates the kind of ag surpluses America enjoyed even upto mid 70s. Today we have a 24 day surplus as opposed to what used to be a more recent (than 1975) 3 month wheat surplus: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/08/09/wheat-surplus-spurs-us-plan-to-idle-farmland/b1bd623f-7c72-437c-a0bf-e9644b1a6842/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/08/09/w...

1 points by NoRagrets 4y ago

There is more to the story and here is an in-depth narrative of what transpired..the famine, PL 480 and the green revolution https://theprint.in/past-forward/hungry-india-a-nawabi-us-president-mexican-blood-the-real-story-of-green-revolution/835649/?amp https://theprint.in/past-forward/hungry-india-a-nawabi-us-pr... [..]I don’t ever want us to have to beg for food again, Indira Gandhi said after a call with US President Lyndon Johnson. Science, Swaminathan and Subramanian made sure she didn’t have to.[..] [..]When India was at war with Pakistan in 1965, Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri asked Indians to miss a meal on Mondays. The next year, a minister dug up his five-acre backyard in the heart of Lutyens’ Delhi to sow wheat – the same spot where Home Minister Amit Shah now lives. And America, busy with the Vietnam war and the civil rights movement, was plotting a giant Revolution in India.[..] [..]The PL 480 law was described by historian Kristin L. Ahlberg as “Machiavelli with a heart.” It was the first American international food assistance programme of many, and provided both emergency and nonemergency food assistance. Since the end of the Cold War, PL 480 and the Food for Peace have shifted towards providing only emergency food relief and market-based assistance. [..] [..]Years prior to the formulation of the PL 480, the Rockefeller Foundation had been looking to implement its development programmes in India as early as the 1930s, with the goal of finding alternatives to working in China. However, India was only viewed as a feasible location after becoming independent. At this point, the foundation had pivoted from prioritising healthcare to agriculture in response to an internal assessment report on the global problems of hunger and malnutrition. As part of this, the Rockefeller Foundation had developed an agriculture programme in 1943 in Mexico, with Borlaug at the helm and significant participation from Mexican agricultural scientists and technicians.[..] [..]From begging bowl to bread basket No one was prepared for the amount of wheat harvested in 1968. The surplus was so huge that the government had to store it in schools and theatres. Trains ran out of wagons to fill with wheat. The Philippines and Turkey — other benefactors of the seeds and American philanthropy — also had record high yields in 1968. Besides wheat, crops like cotton, tea and jute also had successful harvests. The term “Green Revolution” was coined in 1968 by William Gaud, an administrator in the US Agency for International Development. Speaking at a conference, he talked about the “Green Revolution” spreading across Asia. The term stood in contrast to the Communist “Red” revolutions in Asia at the time.[..] [..]Since the ’90s, the Father of the Green Revolution has been calling for an “evergreen revolution.” Swaminathan, who is now 96, has been advocating the integration of technology and ecology as the way forward. The lessons of the Green Revolution tell us what needs to be addressed: it’s not enough to revisit the role the government plays in the agricultural sector, it’s necessary to underline the role the sector itself plays in India. The Green Revolution took place in an India that had no option but to produce whatever would feed its people quickest. Now that India has attained a level of self-sufficiency, the natural progression is to produce nutritious food to nourish its people. It’s time for India to move beyond producing calorie-heavy carbohydrate-dense foods such as wheat, rice and sugar, said Harish Damodaran, Rural Affairs and Agriculture Editor of The Indian Express and Senior Fellow at the Centre for Policy Research. Instead, Indian agriculture should focus more on foods that are rich in proteins and micronutrients such as pulses, milk, egg, meat, fruits and vegetables. Crops that are sustainable and require less fertiliser should also be prioritised.[..]

jelliclesfarm 4y ago
But my favourite bit was [..]“The first Green Revolution was about providing basic food,” said Damodaran. “The next Green Revolution should be about agriculture.”[..]
jelliclesfarm 4y ago
On the other side of the globe this article is fascinating as it illustrates the kind of ag surpluses America enjoyed even upto mid 70s. Today we have a 24 day surplus as opposed to what used to be a more recent (than 1975) 3 month wheat surplus: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/08/09/wheat-surplus-spurs-us-plan-to-idle-farmland/b1bd623f-7c72-437c-a0bf-e9644b1a6842/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/08/09/w...