1. India’s Reform Wave in Agri-Food System
India’s agri-food landscape is undergoing a remarkable transformation. In recent years, there has been a wave of national initiatives—each aimed at improving productivity, sustainability, farmer incomes, and nutritional security. From dietary diversification to digital agriculture, ecological transitions to institutional strengthening, the country is laying down the building blocks of a more modern and resilient food system.
One of the most visible shifts has been the renewed emphasis on nutrition-sensitive crops. The International Year of Millets in 2023 catalysed unprecedented global and domestic attention, with states launching dedicated millet missions, investing in value-chain development, and integrating millets into anganwadi meals, public distribution systems, and school meals. Alongside this, the ongoing national focus on pulses — including MSP support, cluster development, procurement expansion and launch of National Mission on Pulses — marks a significant step toward improving protein security and addressing India’s long-standing pulse deficit.
India is also witnessing a quiet but powerful agro-ecological transition. Government schemes like the Bhartiya Prakritik Krishi Paddhati (BPKP), alongside grassroots models such as Andhra Pradesh’s community-led natural farming, are gaining ground. These approaches aim to reduce input costs, restore soil health, revive biodiversity, and help farmers adapt to growing climate risks—all while aligning with regenerative principles.
Institutional innovations are reshaping rural economies. The establishment of a dedicated Ministry of Cooperation and efforts to modernise Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) signal a new emphasis on collective action. From dairy and horticulture to tribal and women-led cooperatives, these structures are being positioned as engines of aggregation, processing, and market access. Complementing this, the government’s flagship initiative to promote 10,000 Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) is building farmer-led institutions that can access credit, adopt technology, and participate more meaningfully in processing and value addition.
Meanwhile, the digital transformation of Indian agriculture is accelerating at an unprecedented pace. Innovations such as drone-based crop monitoring, AI/ML-powered forecasting, real-time market advisories, and emerging Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) are rapidly reshaping how farmers plan, irrigate, protect, store, and market their produce. State-level pilots on AgriStack are creating new possibilities for personalised services and data-informed decision-making at scale.
These shifts are further supported by a growing focus on water-use efficiency and climate resilience. Programmes such as the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY), expansion of micro-irrigation, solar-powered pump schemes, watershed development, and distribution of soil health cards are gradually making India’s agriculture more climate-smart. Investments in resilient seeds, carbon-neutral practices, and ecosystem-based approaches indicate a long-term vision for sustainable food production.
Taken together, these developments represent not just incremental reforms but a meaningful shift in India’s approach. India is no longer tinkering at the margins—it is reimagining how food is grown, processed, distributed, and consumed.
2. Why Linkages Matter: The Hidden Power of Convergence
The ongoing initiatives are promising, diverse, and individually impactful. Yet their transformative potential will remain limited unless they are better aligned with one another. The real promise of these efforts lies not in their scale alone, but in their synergy—the ways in which one initiative reinforces another to unlock outcomes far greater than what any single scheme can deliver.
For instance, the success of millets and pulses in enhancing nutritional security and climate resilience depends on much more than increasing production. Without stable market linkages, accessible processing infrastructure, and institutional procurement that drives consumption—through ICDS, PM-POSHAN, or public food systems—their adoption by farmers and uptake by consumers will remain constrained.
At the same time, India’s flagship nutrition programmes—like ICDS and school meals—are most effective when closely linked to local agriculture, livestock, horticulture, and food safety systems. When supply chains and production systems are aligned with dietary needs, these programmes can nourish communities while revitalising rural livelihoods.
Natural farming offers another compelling example. Its expansion hinges on multiple support systems: water management for ecological balance, timely climate advisories to reduce risks, and downstream value-chain investments to ensure that farmers can command a fair price. Without these connections, natural farming risks becoming an underfunded aspiration.
The momentum around FPOs and cooperatives is similarly contingent on convergence. These institutions can transform the rural economy, but only when backed by complementary interventions—credit flows, digital tools, logistics, branding, and decentralised governance mechanisms that help them scale and sustain operations.
These examples, and many more point to a broader insight: India’s food-system outcomes—nutritious diets, climate-resilient production, water stewardship, safe markets, and thriving rural incomes—lie at the intersection of multiple sectors.
3. From Parallel Pathways to Purposeful Integration: The Food Systems Lens
Food systems, by their very nature, span multiple domains—agriculture, nutrition, health, water, environment, logistics, food safety, education, rural development, and markets. Yet, these are managed through distinct ministries, departments, and delivery structures, each operating with separate mandates and priorities. While this sectoral fragmentation is administratively convenient, it can result in five predictable governance failures:
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Contradictory policies: For example, crop incentives that promote water-intensive staples may conflict with groundwater conservation efforts.
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Inconsistent implementation: Programme delivery may vary widely across States and districts, depending on administrative capacity, political priorities, and coordination.
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Overloaded local institutions: Panchayats and municipal bodies often receive multiple schemes through separate channels, with little guidance on how to align or prioritise them.
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Siloed data systems: Disparate information streams make it difficult to forecast risks, track outcomes, or design integrated solutions that respond to real-world complexity.
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Limited stakeholder voice: Farmers, youth, vendors, processors, and civil society rarely have structured opportunities to participate in shaping policy or evaluating what works.
These issues are not simply administrative—they have real-world consequences. A nutrition intervention that doesn't align with local agricultural supply may rely on costly, centralised procurement. A climate-smart farming programme without water coordination can aggravate local scarcity. A food safety initiative launched without market infrastructure support may falter at the first step of implementation.
In short, India’s current governance architecture is not designed to deliver coherent, cross-cutting food system outcomes. It excels at managing schemes in silos but struggles to resolve interdependencies and trade-offs. The result is duplication, inefficiency, and missed opportunities.
Recognising and correcting this fragmentation is now the next frontier of India’s agri-food transition. The building blocks are in place. The challenge is to organise them into a coherent, resilient, and inclusive architecture.
4. Riding the Global Wave: India’s Moment to Lead
India is not alone in confronting the complexity of food system transformation. In the aftermath of the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) 2021, countries across the world have begun to rethink how they govern food and agriculture—not just as sectoral domains, but as integrated systems that touch health, environment, equity, and economic development.
Since the Summit, at least 17 countries have created or strengthened national food system coordination mechanisms, and 34 now operate with multi-sectoral structures. Countries as diverse as the UAE, Japan, Mexico, Rwanda, Brazil, and members of the European Union have adopted integrated governance approaches to align production, nutrition, environmental sustainability, and market access.
These are not cosmetic changes. They represent a fundamental recognition: that food systems are central to achieving national development goals, climate commitments, and public health outcomes—and that fragmented governance is a structural bottleneck.
India is uniquely placed to build one of the world’s most impactful food system coordination models. Its vast federal structure, institutional depth, and ambitious reform agenda offer both scale and experience. More importantly, India is already demonstrating global leadership in areas like millets revival, digital public infrastructure, and climate-smart agriculture.
What is now needed is a governance architecture that ties these innovations together—not just for internal coherence, but also to signal to the world that India is ready to lead by example.
If India moves decisively now, it will not only improve outcomes for its own citizens—it will become a reference point for other nations navigating similar transitions. The moment is ripe. The direction is clear. What remains is the political will to make coordination a national priority.
Conclusion: Coherence Is the Next Frontier
India already has what many countries are still striving to build: a robust agricultural foundation, a vibrant rural economy, a growing base of farmer institutions, and a strong reform agenda. However, the outcomes we seek—nutritious diets, sustainable water use, resilient agriculture, rural prosperity—depend on how well the efforts are aligned across the system.
The challenge is no longer about launching more programmes. What India needs now is a systems perspective and governance mechanism that can connect the dots.
By embracing a food systems governance perspective, India has the chance not just to improve outcomes at home, but to become a global leader in sustainable, equitable, and resilient food systems. The moment is right. The world is watching. It is time to lead with clarity, coordination, and conviction.
