Highlights of recent IFPRI food policy research in India

Abstract

In the wake of the food crises of the early 1970s and the resulting World Food Conference of 1974, a group of innovators realized that food security depends not only on crop production, but also on the policies that affect food systems, from farm to table. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was founded in 1975 and for the past four decades has worked to provide solid research and evidence for policy options to partners in donor and recipient countries. Agriculture is the largest livelihood provider in India—especially in the rural areas—and plays a critical role in alleviating poverty and undernutrition. The Indian government’s Twelfth Five-Year Plan (2012–2017) aims to accelerate the growth of agricultural production and includes food security as a high-priority research area of national relevance. India has begun to implement its 2013 National Food Security Act, which calls for providing highly subsidized food grains to two-thirds of the country’s population. By the end of 2014, five of India’s 29 states were fully implementing the Act and six other states were partially implementing it. However, despite this progress, nutrition remains a persistent challenge.