AGRICULTURE IN INDIA

India gained independence against the backdrop of the great Bengal famine of 1942-43. As early as in 1948 the country's first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, said, "Everything else can wait but not agriculture." Thanks to the packages of technology, services, and public policies introduced since the beginning of the First Five-Year Plan in 1950, the country has transformed its image from one of a country with a "begging-bowl" to one which is leading in terms of area of production and output in several major crops. Over the years, India has built substantial buffer stocks of food grain. India is also the second-largest milk producing country in the world.