Self-sufficiency in foodgrain shows India can reduce imports: PM Modi

Government encourages farmers to diversify crops, but doing away with imported oilseeds and pulses challenging

Indian self-sufficiency in foodgrain shows that it can reduce its dependence on other imports, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday in a speech to mark the 75th anniversary of independence.

“When our country needed food we didn’t outsource it to someone else but instead our countrymen decided that we will grow food for our own people and we have managed to achieve the same,” he said. The success achieved in growing its own food shows that once India decides to do something is no force can stop it.

Modi’s speech called for achieving self-sufficiency but achieving that in