The simple yet profound theme, “Innovate today, nourish tomorrow”, for World Food Day 2026, observed on October 16, reminds us that the future cannot be built with the tools of the past alone. The need to scale up innovation is urgent, as 645 million people still face hunger, while one-third of the world’s population cannot afford a healthy diet.
Three interconnected factors continue to push these numbers. Climate-related risks are reducing yields and disrupting growing seasons. Economic shocks and stubborn food-price inflation are eroding purchasing power. Conflict, war and civil strife tear up harvests, displace farmers, disrupt supply chains and destroy the very institutions that protect people from hunger.
From scarcity to surplus and nutrition
Over the decades, India has emerged as a food-surplus nation and one of the world’s largest producers of foodgrains, milk, pulses, fruits and vegetables. One of the decisive factors in this transformation from scarcity was the ‘Green Revolution’. The introduction of high-yielding varieties, backed by expanded irrigation and assured prices, increased cereal production, which became the basis for India’s public distribution and nutrition schemes.
India’s abundance in food production has become the foundation of the world’s largest food safety net. Under the National Food Security Act, 2013, India provides a legal entitlement to subsidised foodgrains to up to 75% of its rural population and 50% of its urban population, reaching approximately 81 crore people. Since January 2024, the government has provided these foodgrains free of cost under the Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, a guarantee that has been extended until 2028.
This architecture rests on the Targeted Public Distribution System, strengthened by digitised ration cards, Aadhaar seeding and the One Nation One Ration Card portability scheme, which lets migrant workers draw their foodgrain entitlements anywhere in the country.
India’s transformation in food security and nutrition is being driven by innovation. The government is focusing on technology, data and finance to make farming more resilient, resource-efficient and viable, while improving access to and the efficiency of food safety nets.
Complementing efforts
It is at this intersection that the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the World Food Programme (WFP) are complementing India’s efforts by providing technical expertise, developing solutions and strengthening institutional capacities.
On the farm, the FAO is supporting digital agriculture by developing advisory road maps and building the capacities of frontline extension workers. In livestock and dairy, FAO’s Clean Milk Scorecard gives farmers a digital tool to assess cattle management, hygiene and milk production practices and provides actionable feedback. These tools translate technical knowledge into actionable advice, supporting better farm-level decisions and improved productivity. The FAO is also working to address food loss, a challenge with implications for nutrition, resource efficiency, climate action and farmers’ incomes. Its work includes measuring losses, assessing their environmental impacts and identifying pathways to valorise them through composting, bioenergy and recycling.
On financing and investment, the IFAD focuses on the first mile of food systems, where risks are highest and private investment is thinnest. Its “financing plus” approach integrates support across the value chain — from production and market access to finance and small-scale infrastructure — and is designed to crowd in domestic public and private capital, rather than substitute for it. Every dollar IFAD has invested in India has leveraged more than three dollars in total investment. Across IFAD’s global portfolio, projects with strong private-sector participation have delivered income gains of 64%, four times higher than those without such participation. IFAD is now beginning to lend directly to the private sector to bridge this gap, and India has one of its largest pipelines of such operations in Asia and the Pacific.
On access and availability, the WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian organisation and the winner of the 2020 Nobel Peace Prize, has worked in India for over 63 years. It now focuses on enhancing the efficiency of the public food distribution system through innovations such as Grain ATMs, supply chain optimisation and the incubation of solutions through the Public Services Lab at the Indian Institute of Technology Delhi. The WFP also works to improve the nutritional effectiveness of food assistance, particularly for children and pregnant women. This includes assessing food baskets, recommending dietary diversity and integrating nutrition considerations, including the incorporation of nutrient-rich millets and other nutri-cereals.
India’s blueprint
India’s experience is increasingly relevant beyond its borders. Its innovations have been shaped by constraints, including fragmented landholdings, monsoon-fed agriculture, multilingual populations and limited resources. As nations across the Global South face climate change, conflict and economic uncertainty, India offers principles to adapt.
The future requires us to look beyond sufficiency towards better nutrition, scalable innovations and equitable food systems built around climate-resilient and biofortified crops, nutritionally diverse diets and value chains that reward smallholders. Innovation must remain pro-smallholder and pro-woman, drawing deeply on traditional knowledge even as it embraces scientific advances.
On this World Food Day, we reaffirm our shared resolve with India: to innovate today, and in doing so, to nourish tomorrow.
Konda Reddy Chavva is Officer-in-Charge, Food Agriculture Organisation (FAO) Representation in India. James Marc de Sousa-Shields is Country Director and Representative, International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). Elisabeth Faure is Representative and Country Director, the World Food Programme (WFP) in India