Agriculture and Food Security

Over the past four decades, India’s intensive focus on agricultural development, through the adoption of new cost effective technologies and production methods, led to an increase in agricultural production. Today, it is one of the world’s biggest producers of staple crops, fruits and horticulture. Many of these proven agricultural innovations can significantly help India overcome the challenges of low agricultural productivity and chronic poverty, as well as offer cost-effective development solutions to other countries facing food insecurity.

In November 2010, Prime Minister Singh and President Obama agreed to work together to develop, test, and replicate transformative technologies to extend food security in India as part of a new “Evergreen Revolution.” These efforts build on the historic legacy of cooperation between the United States and India during the Green Revolution of the 1960s, and will extend food security and benefit farmers and consumers. This new U.S.-India partnership will adapt technological advances and innovative solutions to address agriculture and food security concerns in India and around the globe.  It will do this through a new model for collaboration that includes creating sustainable partnerships between private and public entities.

The Agricultural Innovations Partnership (AIP)

AIP aims to reduce poverty and hunger in India and in other developing countries by improving farmers’ access to the latest agricultural knowledge that will lead to increased productivity and strengthen food security. It seeks to do this by modernizing agricultural curriculum and extension services in select agricultural universities in India. By assisting agriculture universities to provide their graduates with practical exposure to modern farming technologies and management practices, the partnership will strengthen the skills of the graduates to meet the demands of the 21st century. This five-year project, led by Cornell University in the United States, is comprised of a consortium of Indian state agriculture universities, U.S. land-grant universities and private-sector partners.

Cereal Systems Initiative For South Asia (CSISA)

CSISA is jointly funded project of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and USAID to improve cropping systems by integrating cutting-edge innovations (such as genetics and information-communications technology) with resource-conserving practices that deliver productivity, income and sustainability gains for farmers in eastern India.

Partnerships for Innovation and Knowledge (PIKA)

USAID provided technical assistance to increase farmer’s incomes through the promotion of resource-efficient, demand-driven and market-led agricultural systems. The program collaborated with a variety of private and public partners, which enabled some 240,000 farmers to increase yields 15-to-20 percent and contributed to the uptake of new technologies beyond project areas, while helping dairy, fruit and vegetable producers’ access markets that offered higher returns. Additionally, detailed market research helped agribusinesses tailor their products and services to fit the needs of smallholder farmers and to expand businesses by harnessing untapped market opportunities.

Disaster Management Project

USAID is partnering with the Government of India to address the challenges of disaster mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery.  This partnership has helped the U.S. and India work together to share experiences and expertise and identify the requirements for establishing a successful and integrated disaster management system in India. The partnership draws on a range of U.S. Government partners such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the U.S. Geological Survey to provide expertise and exchange information with Indian counterparts.