Dr G Baiju, Director of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)-Central Tuber Crops Research Institute (CTCRI), said that the country had depended on food imports in the 1950s but has later achieved self-sufficiency in food production.
He was speaking after inaugurating the ‘Varta’ workshop organised here for regional media professionals by the Press Information Bureau (PIB), Thiruvananthapuram, under the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, in collaboration with CTCRI.
Baiju pointed out that agriculture continues to be one of the most important driving forces of the Indian economy, contributing 16.3 per cent to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP), according to a PIB release.
Explaining five major achievements of the Indian agricultural sector, he said the first was the remarkable increase in productivity.
Foodgrain production, which stood at 50.8 million tonnes in 1950-51, has risen to 376.5 million tonnes in 2025-26, despite only a marginal increase in cultivated area. Horticulture production has also crossed 370 million tonnes, the CTCRI director said.
He further said that India has emerged as one of the world’s leading agricultural exporting nations, with agri exports increasing from Rs 55,000 crore in 2001 to Rs 4.3 lakh crore in 2024-25.”With rice exports worth Rs 1.05 lakh crore, India has become the world’s largest exporter of rice,” Baiju said in the release.
He also pointed out that the agricultural sector has maintained an average annual growth rate of 4.4 per cent over the past seven years, demonstrating India’s resilience to climate change by consistently increasing foodgrain production despite recurring adverse weather conditions.
He said that the country was also making significant progress towards sustainable agricultural development.
Baiju said that all this was possible as the central government has placed agriculture at the centre of national development efforts.
“Budgetary allocation for the sector has increased from Rs 27,662 crore before 2014 to Rs 1.40 lakh crore at present,” he stated.
He said that ICAR was at the heart of these transformations, as during the period from 2014 to 2025, it released 3,821 high-yielding crop varieties, equivalent to nearly one new crop variety reaching farmers every day.
The CTCRI director said that as India’s population is projected to exceed 1.6 billion by 2047, agriculture must become increasingly technology-driven to meet the growing demand for food.
Baiju said that only through the combined efforts of scientists, farmers, policymakers, and the media can India build a sustainable, prosperous, and globally competitive agricultural future.