Public Policy Dialogues

About Public Policy Dialogues

India’s food system—the intricate network that feeds 1.4 billion people—is a remarkable story of achievement, yet it stands today at a critical inflection point. For decades, our approach has been characterized by linear, siloed policy interventions that prioritized production volume and immediate food security. This strategy was not without success, ensuring high and sustained food production and significantly reducing chronic malnutrition and seasonal hunger through vital levers like the Public Distribution System (PDS) and Supplementary Nutrition Programmes.

However, a retrospective social audit reveals a massive and growing set of unintended consequences. The current policy architecture, while necessary in the past, now imposes staggering financial costs, creates deep environmental liabilities, and faces existential threats from a changing climate. The challenge is clear: we can no longer afford to treat production, distribution, and consumption as separate entities. This national dialogue is founded on the imperative to move beyond the linear "farm to plate" narrative and embrace the reality that the food system is an adaptive, complex organism where every action creates predictable shifts and unpredictable surprises. 

This three-day dialogue will bring together India’s leading experts to collectively define a new, integrated approach, one that looks at the entire system simultaneously and understands that optimizing only one part often means compromising the whole.

Part I: The Indian Food System—Triumphs and Invisible Costs

Our success in food security, achieved through sustained investment and policy adaptation over six decades, is undeniable. We are the world’s largest producer of milk, and our ability to diversify production towards nutrient-dense foods (fruits, vegetables, and animal-sourced foods) is improving. These triumphs are testament to the power of public policy in action. However, this success has come at a significant, often invisible, price. 

Fiscal Burden and Opportunity Cost

The current policy regime relies on massive, yearly subsidies (measured in lakhs of crores) that sustain the system but also weigh heavily on the exchequer. The crucial question is the opportunity cost: how could this capital be better deployed to foster long-term sustainability, climate adaptation, or market efficiencies within the food system?

Environmental Degradation

Our current production model is actively consuming our resource base. We are facing a non-renewable depletion of freshwater resources. Particularly in Northwest India (Punjab, Haryana, parts of Rajasthan & Madhya Pradesh), the unsustainable draw on both surface and groundwater for major crops has triggered a decades-long alarm. Similarly, the excessive, and often improper, use of chemical inputs like urea has mined nutrients from the land as if these were mineral resources. Soil is not easily replenished, and the long-term cost to primary production is becoming acute, despite a new policy emphasis on natural and sustainable farming.

Climate and Emission Liability

The entire food system contributes significantly to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions: methane from rice cultivation, nitrous oxide from fertilizer misuse, and carbon emissions from long supply chains and post-consumer waste. While a contributor, the food system is simultaneously one of the sectors most vulnerable to climate change impacts over the next two decades. This conference seeks to move past acknowledging these costs to actively design multi-pronged solutions.

Part II: Deconstructing Complexity—The Three Interconnected Subsystems

The complexity of the food system can be analytically—but never practically—separated into three dynamic and mutually dependent subsystems:

Production

The traditional domain of agriculture, land-use, inputs, and farmer incentives. It is the beginning of the chain, yet its direction is increasingly determined by the demands and constraints flowing from the other two subsystems.

Consumption

The domain of public health and nutrition, dietary choices, and household food management. Every human inhabits this system. It is shaped continuously by a three-way tug-of-war between culture, markets, and policy. 

Distribution

This is the nexus, often the most complicated and least understood, spanning the gap between 'farm' and 'plate.' It encompasses storage, processing, logistics, and the vast, fragmented informal markets that make food accessible and affordable, particularly for the urban poor. 

The conference will specifically tackle the linkages: How does water depletion in the Production subsystem influence the long-term affordability of food for the Consumption subsystem? How do inefficiencies in the Distribution chain exacerbate climate vulnerability in Production? Discussions will focus on interventions that address leakages and inefficiencies across all three domains simultaneously.

Part III: The Tripartite Engine of Change—Policy, Markets, and Culture

The Food System is both driven and held together by a synergistic (and sometimes contradictory) combination of three fundamental elements: Policy, Markets, and Culture. A successful intervention requires calibrating all three levers. 

Policy

This is the government’s direct tool — a plethora of mandates, regulations, incentives, and welfare instruments. Policy provides assurance and structure, as demonstrated by the complex supply chain of subsidized rice from the Godavari basin to consumers across the country, involving multiple government agencies and private actors.

Markets

Markets, especially the highly fragmented, decentralized, and informal, are the primary mechanism through which almost all Indians access diverse food items beyond basic cereals. Functioning markets ensure availability and affordability, fundamentally shaping the food choices of the urban and rural poor. Ignoring market dynamics — the profit motive, inherent volatility, and fragmented supply chains — renders any policy ineffective.

Culture

Culture is the deep-seated set of beliefs that determine what we eat, when we eat, how we eat, and with whom we eat. It governs consumer preferences, dietary habits, and the civilizational importance of food, such as during festivals. As we seek to diversify diets toward nutrient-dense foods, cultural preferences must be integrated into market and policy design; any top-down policy that clashes with deeply held cultural food beliefs is destined to fail.

The synergy is the critical focus: When a new policy (Policy) is introduced, how will private actors respond (Markets), and how will consumers' inherent beliefs and practices shift (Culture)? Understanding this dynamic interaction is paramount for predicting outcomes

Part IV: Cross-Cutting Themes—Designing for the Future

A systems perspective is incomplete without acknowledging the four major cross-cutting themes that will define the future of food in India:

Technology

Technology is not an end in itself but a force multiplier across the entire system. We need to assess how it can be deployed to mitigate the invisible costs of the present. This includes everything from precision agriculture and digital soil mapping in Production, to cold chain management, real-time demand forecasting, and inventory optimization in Distribution, and traceability, labeling, and personalized nutrition tracking in Consumption. The digital public infrastructure of India offers an unprecedented opportunity to create intelligent food systems, but this requires policy foresight and market adoption.

Gender

Women are central to the Indian food system—as farmers, agricultural labourers, market intermediaries, food processors, and managers of household nutrition and consumption. Yet, they remain largely invisible in policy design and market access structures. This conference will examine how gender dynamics influence resource allocation, vulnerability to climate shocks, and the ultimate nutritional outcomes for families. Designing a resilient food system is impossible without empowering women's agency and economic control at every step.

Climate Change

As mentioned, the food system is deeply implicated in and impacted by climate change. We must simultaneously consider adaptation strategies for production (drought-resistant crops, new irrigation technology), resilience strategies for distribution (protecting supply chains from extreme weather events), and mitigation measures for consumption (reducing food waste). Climate-smart agriculture is not merely a technical fix; it is a profound socio-economic pivot requiring synchronized action through actions integrated across Policy, Markets, and Culture.

Geopolitics

The Indian food system is increasingly exposed to global forces. Geopolitical conflicts and land-use teleconnections impact the cost and availability of critical inputs (fertilizers, energy), influence global commodity prices of staples, and affect India’s macroeconomic stability. A meaningful dialogue must address how domestic food security can be insulated from, or strategically adapted to, these global supply chain shocks, ensuring stable and accessible food supplies irrespective of international volatility.

A Call to Action for India’s Leading Minds

This conference is not a platform for recounting disciplinary silos, but a unique convening to forge an integrated narrative. We invite you to join the dialogues, recognising the food system as complex, adaptive, and interconnected — where the levers of Policy, Markets, and Culture must be thoughtfully coordinated, and where critical cross-cutting themes like Technology, Gender, Climate, and Geopolitics must form the foundation of our design.