New Delhi, Sept. 10 -- India's farms have delivered another impressive headline number. Foodgrain production is estimated at a record 376.56 million tonnes in 2025-26, with rice, wheat and maize contributing to a strong harvest. Yet record output should not obscure a persistent structural weakness: India still produces too little from too much land. The comparison with China is instructive. Chinese farms produce substantially more grain per hectare, underlining the productivity gap India must confront. India achieved food security through improved seeds, irrigation, fertilisers, procurement support and the efforts of millions of farmers. The next leap cannot simply repeat that formula. Cultivable land is finite, groundwater is being depleted across major agricultural belts, input costs are rising and climate change is making farming increasingly uncertain. Producing ever larger harvests by consuming more land, water and chemicals is neither economically nor environmentally sustainable.
The monsoon underlines this vulnerability. Rainfall deficits can quickly threaten pulses, oilseeds and other crops because substantial parts of Indian agriculture remain rain-dependent. Even when overall seasonal rainfall appears adequate, its distribution can be dangerously uneven. Long dry spells followed by intense downpours can damage crops, erode soil and leave water systems under pressure. Agricultural success must therefore be measured differently. The important questions are not merely how many tonnes India produces or how many hectares are cultivated, but how much each hectare yields, how efficiently water is used and how much income reaches the farmer. Producing more grain by exhausting aquifers cannot be considered an unqualified achievement. The Green Revolution answered the urgent problem of scarcity. Its successor must address efficiency, sustainability and resilience.
That requires sustained investment in agricultural science rather than short-term responses whenever prices rise or rainfall disappoints. India needs faster development and adoption of high-yielding, heat-resistant, drought-tolerant and pest-resistant varieties suited to different regions. Agricultural universities and research institutions must be connected more effectively with farms because scientific advances mean little if extension systems cannot deliver them to cultivators. Micro-irrigation should become central to policy in water-stressed regions, while incentives encouraging indiscriminate groundwater extraction need correction. Mechanisation also requires an Indian approach. Small farmers may not be able to purchase expensive machinery individually, but custom-hiring centres, cooperatives and farmer collectives can make technology accessible without imposing additional debt. Better weather forecasting and precision agriculture can similarly help farmers use seeds, fertilisers and water more efficiently.
Higher productivity must ultimately translate into higher incomes. Farmers need reliable markets, storage, processing facilities and predictable trade policies so that a bumper crop does not become a financial setback when prices collapse. India's journey from food shortages to record harvests is an extraordinary achievement, but past success cannot become an excuse for complacency. With shrinking holdings, stressed water resources and increasingly erratic weather, the country has little room for an input-intensive pursuit of bigger harvests. India need not replicate China's agricultural system, but it must recognise what the productivity gap reveals. The next farm revolution must be about producing more value from every acre and every drop of water while ensuring that farmers receive a fairer share of the gains.
Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.