Agriculture has been the foremost engagement of human beings since their existence and will continue to be imperative given the fact that food is necessary for survival. The shift in lifestyle of humans from their nomadic way of life to the settled way of life has become possible due to development and adoption of early agriculture practices. In this journey of transformation from famine to food sufciency, certain individuals and institutions played critical roles.
Still there is a long way to go in making the planet free from hunger and malnutrition. Developing and underdeveloped nations in order to boost food production, need cooperation, collaboration and learning of global experiences. There are individuals and institutions, governments and corporates, and scientists and policy makers, who have played transformational roles in making the planet food and nutrition secure through policies, technologies, business and development interventions. Such outstanding contributors and role models need to be recognised and felicitated at the global level.
India has come a long way from the pre-Green Revolution days of ‘ship to mouth’ to a situation now, where self- sufficiency has been achieved in almost all areas of agriculture production. Over the years, India has taken leadership position in the world agriculture and is now is in a position to benefit the developing world with its experiences and diversity of learning through Green Revolution in food production, White Revolution in milk, Blue Revolution in fisheries and Pink Revolution in horticulture production. With this vision to recognize the individuals, who have served the humanity through agriculture, Indian Council of Food and Agriculture instituted the World Agriculture Prize in 2018 to be presented to an individual or institution or the Government, who played seminal role in transforming agriculture and saving the humanity from the curse of hunger. The World Agriculture Prize has now been taken over by the World Agriculture Forum. A high level global selection committee is constituted to decide the names of World Agriculture Prize Laureate. The 1st World Agriculture Prize was presented to the Pioneer of India’s Green Revolution, Prof. MS Swaminathan on Oct 26, 2018 in New Delhi by the Hon’ble Vice President of India.
The 2nd World Agriculture Prize will be presented on August 25, 2024 at Washington D.C. The award presentation will be preceded by a special session, named “Norman Borlaug Global Dialogue on Climate Change and Food Security”. This award as well as global dialogue on climate change and food security provides the unique platform for global leaders to discuss the futuristic agenda and the advances made in agriculture at the global level. This also opens more avenues for the key stakeholders to learn from experiences and success stories of the developing and developed nations and replicate them to deal with the challenge of climate extremes and ensure sustainable global food and nutrition security.