Drought Not a Big Calamity in India Anymore | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary

Drought Not a Big Calamity in India Anymore | Swaminathan S. Anklesaria Aiyar | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Foreign experts opined that India could never feed itself. William and Paul Paddock wrote a best-seller titled Famine 1975, arguing that the world was running out of food and would suffer global famine by 1975. They said aid-givers couldn't possibly meet the food needs of high-population countries like India. So, the limited food surpluses of the West should be conserved for countries capable of being saved."

"How then did the spectre of starvation vanish? Largely because of better distribution. Employment schemes in rain-deficit areas injected purchasing power where it was most needed. The slow but steady expansion of the road network helped grain to flow to scarcity areas. The public distribution system expanded steadily. Hunger remained, but did not escalate into starvation. By the 1990s, hunger diminished too.

Second, the spread of irrigation stemmed crop losses. The share of the irrigated area expanded from roughly one-third to 55% of total acreage."

"in 2009, which witnessed one of the worst monsoon failures for a century, agricultural production actually rose 1%"

"Agriculture accounted for 52% of GDP in 1950, and for 29.5% even in 1990. This is now down to just 14%. Even if one-twentieth of this is lost to drought, it will be less than 1% of GDP."