India’s experience provides a cautionary tale for developing countries. In India and elsewhere, it is becoming increasingly clear that adopting agroecological practices based on smallholder farming is the most effective way to develop food systems that are both sustainable and nutritionally rich. But this requires moving away from the predatory commercialization of agriculture, which primarily serves the interests of large agribusinesses, toward a model that benefits the actual producers and consumers of food.
Jayati Ghosh’s new article in Project Syndicate “The Toxic Legacy of the Green Revolution” underscores how the introduction of high-yielding seed varieties has diminished the nutritional quality and increased the toxicity of staple grains in India and that, to establish a sustainable and nutritiously rich food system, countries should adopt agroecological practices based on smallholder farming:
