New Delhi has chance to repay Green Revolution debt: Why doing so is in India’s interest

This development, he said, had the makings of a new revolution: “It is not a violent Red Revolution like that of the Soviets…I call it the Green Revolution”.

It’s the same USAID that has been shut down by the Donald Trump administration from July 1. Among the institutions impacted by the closure of the agency — that oversaw civilian foreign aid and development assistance from the US government — is the Mexico-headquartered International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center or CIMMYT.

Synonymous with the renowned agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, CIMMYT bred the semi-dwarf varieties Lerma Rojo 64A, Sonora 63, Sonora 64 and Mayo 64 that Indian farmers first sowed in 1964-65. Over the next few years, these varieties spread to more countries, heralding Gaud’s “Green Revolution.”

While CIMMYT originated from a Mexican government and Rockefeller Foundation-sponsored programme in the 1940s and 50s, USAID became its main funder. It accounted for about $83 million out of CIMMYT’s total $211 million grant revenues received in 2024. With the USAID’s dismantling, CIMMYT is now looking at India — one of its major beneficiaries — as a potentially significant benefactor.

Cold War institutions

CIMMYT is to wheat what the Philippines-based International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) — established by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations in 1960 — has been to the other big cereal grain crop.

Both were key to the US cultivating soft power and projecting a positive global image, more so during the Cold War. That was the time the US saw the Soviet Union as a threat, and believed that the deteriorating food situation in developing countries could foment political instability and eventual communist takeovers. Increasing cereal grain production in these countries, then, became a geopolitical imperative as part of US foreign policy.

With Borlaug’s varieties, Indian farmers could harvest 4-4.5 tonnes per hectare of wheat, as against 1-1.5 tonnes from the traditional tall cultivars prone to lodging (bending or falling over) when their earheads were heavy with well-filled grains.

IRRI’s semi-dwarf varieties, such as IR 8, IR 36 and IR 64, similarly boosted paddy (rice with husk) yields from 1-3 tonnes to 4.5-5 tonnes per hectare with minimal fertilisers, and 9-10 tonnes with higher application. Moreover, they matured in 110-130 days, compared with the 160-180 days (from seed to grain) for the traditional tall varieties.

Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1970. And it was fittingly for Peace.

How India benefited

The Green Revolution was seeded in India by CIMMYT and IRRI. Even the blockbuster wheat varieties Kalyan Sona and Sonalika, released for commercial cultivation by Indian scientists in 1967-68, were developed through selections from the progeny of advanced breeding material supplied by CIMMYT.

Over time, Indian scientists, led by VS Mathur at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi, came out with their own varieties, particularly HD 2285 in 1982 and HD 2329 in 1985. These raised wheat yields to 5-6 tonnes per hectare. It went up further to 7 tonnes-plus with HD 2967, which IARI scientists — mainly BS Malik, Rajbir Yadav and AP Sethi — unveiled in 2011.

In rice, likewise, V Ramachandra Rao and MV Reddy at the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University developed the mega varieties Swarna (MTU 7029) and Samba Mahsuri (BPT 5204), released in 1982 and 1986 respectively. IARI scientists like EA Siddiq, VP Singh and AK Singh also bred improved high-yielding basmati varieties, including Pusa Basmati 1 (released in 1989), 1121 (2003) and 1509 (2013).

India exported 6.1 million tonnes of basmati rice valued at $5.94 billion (Rs 50,311.89 crore) in 2024-25. More than 90% of that was from IARI-bred varieties.

Borlaug was once asked why the Green Revolution succeeded in India and not in most other developing countries, specifically Africa. He is said to have replied that it was because “they didn’t have institutions like IARI and scientists like MS Swaminathan”. The latter was instrumental in devising the overall strategy and implementation plan for the Green Revolution, with the full support of the then political leadership — from agriculture minister C Subramaniam to Prime Ministers Lal Bahadur Shastri and Indira Gandhi.

Significantly, IRRI’s chief breeder Gurdev Singh Khush — his IR 36 and IR 64 varieties were planted in 10-11 million hectares (mh) each worldwide during the 1980s and 1990s respectively — was an Indian.

So was Sanjaya Rajaram, appointed by Borlaug as head of CIMMYT’s wheat breeding programme when he was just 29. The major varieties released during the 1990s in India — PBW 343, WH 542, Raj 3765 and PBW 373 — were all under his leadership.

Why India still needs them

The accompanying table shows that six out of the top 10 wheat varieties, accounting for over 20 mh out of the roughly 32 mh area sown by Indian farmers in 2024-25, were directly released from CIMMYT material.

The only notable indigenously bred wheat variety in recent times has been HD 2967, which covered a record area of 12-14 mh at its peak in 2017-18 and 2018-19. But the varieties released since then are predominantly based on CIMMYT germplasm.

CIMMYT and IRRI, to that extent, remain relevant to India, which has a vital stake in both institutions. With the US under Trump adopting a more transactional, if not coercive, approach to foreign policy, India has both scope and reason to step up funding of the global breeding research and development programme. In 2024, India contributed a mere $0.8 million to CIMMYT and $18.3 million to IRRI.

“We should give more, but it must be for basic and strategic research in areas such as identification of new genetic resources for heat and drought tolerance, nitrogen use efficiency traits, gene editing and use of artificial intelligence tools. And it should be collaborative, not at the expense of funding for our own national agricultural research system,” said Rajendra Singh Paroda, former director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.