India, June 7 -- South Asia stands at a remarkable agricultural advantage, blessed with deep agro-biodiversity, a vast production base, and the capacity to grow an extraordinary range of food for the world. The region's farms are a foundation of immense strength, producing at scale and feeding hundreds of millions. The opportunity ahead is to build on this foundation: to close the distance between what the region grows and what it processes, turning that agricultural abundance into greater income, nutrition, and prosperity for all.

India's own journey shows what this shift means. Foodgrain output rose from about 51 million tonnes in 1950-51 to over 330 million tonnes in recent years. According to the FAO, India is among the world's large...