Innovative Pathways for Food Security in the Developing World: Notes from India

India, like most of the developing countries, inherited a debilitating agriculture and economy of the colonial state. Colonial India suffered from perpetual food insecurity due to extractive revenue policies, and the country reeled under periodic food shortages, floods, and plummeting food production. Unfortunately, India continued to suffer from food deficiency in the post-colonial period. The government adopted various measures like the ‘Grow More Food Programme’ in 1943, the appeal for ‘missing a meal programme,’ and fasting for a day with limited success. The decade of the 1950s and early 1960s witnessed continued struggle on the food front as India remained tethered to the PL 480 shipments from the US. Thanks to the green revolution (1960s and 1970s) that successfully coupled HYVs with abundant irrigation and agrochemicals and bailed the country from the throes of perpetual food crisis. However, in hindsight the environmental trade-off appears to be overwhelming and balancing the production with the ecology seems exigent. Hence, it is crucial to introspect the dominant development models and technological interventions in Indian agriculture to avert the replication of past mistakes and prevent unsustainable practices. In this context, the alternative practices of agriculture offer pathways to a sustainable future of food and farming. This chapter will explore the dimensions of such already-existing methods anchored in agroecology and weigh their constraints as well.