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Abstract
India’s strategy for reducing poverty and hunger has always placed a great deal of importance on the agricultural sector, reflecting the fact that 70 per cent of the population live in rural areas and the overwhelming majority of them depend upon agriculture as their primary source of income. The focus of attention has of course changed over time. In the 1960s India was deficient in food grain production and dependent on imports of wheat, financed by PL480 assistance from USA. Understandably, the focus of Indian policy in this period was to increase food grain production with a view to ensuring food security. This objective was successfully achieved by the spread of the Green Revolution in the 1970s, beginning with wheat and then expanding to rice. This achievement must count as one of the major success stories in development,