In a convocation of global consequence and moral urgency, leading minds from the spheres of agriculture, nutrition, policy, and innovation converged in New Delhi to confront a defining challenge of our age: the imperative to reimagine and restructure agri-food systems to be not merely productive, but equitable, nutritious, and ecologically sustainable. The symposium, far from a perfunctory exercise in rhetoric, served as an unambiguous call to arms—demanding systemic transformation in how humanity grows, consumes, governs, and values food.

At the heart of the dialogue resounded the timeless warning of Prof. M.S. Swaminathan: “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else can go right.” This foundational ethos served as the intellectual lodestar for the deliberations, with speakers drawing upon Prof. Swaminathan’s legacy—not simply as the father of the Green Revolution but as the moral architect of what must now become an Evergreen Revolution, one suffused with nutrition, climate resilience, and human dignity.

Shobha Shetty, Global Director at the World Bank, emphasized that the prevailing architecture of food systems—predicated upon extraction, distortionary subsidies, and ultra-processed consumption—has exhausted its moral and functional utility. Advocating a paradigm shift towards climate-smart agriculture and digital innovation, she proposed a new triadic metric for agricultural success: one where people, planet, and profit are not isolated silos but intimately entwined priorities. With the World Bank spearheading initiatives across 15 nations, she underscored that development must no longer be measured solely in yields, but in human health, ecological renewal, and economic equity.

From the furrows of India’s heartland, Dr. Mangi Lal Jat, Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research & Secretary, DARE, Government of India offered a deeply grounded yet philosophically profound proposition: to view the agri-food system as a living organism—interdependent, sensitive, and holistic. He lamented the erosion of traditional food systems, displaced by a tsunami of nutrient-poor, convenience-based consumption. Jat’s vision, anchored in systemic awareness, was a clarion call to invest in human capital, revive indigenous knowledge, and dismantle bureaucratic silos that inhibit intersectoral synergy.

Dr. Simeon Kacou Ehui, Regional Director, Continental Africa, CGIAR, and DG (IITA), Nigeria, brought global gravitas to the proceedings, articulating a refreshed vision of the Evergreen Revolution—no longer defined solely by caloric sufficiency but by dignity, diversity, and decentralisation. Whether reviving millets, mainstreaming oilseeds, or deploying solar-irrigated vegetable chains, Dr. Ehui’s revolution is one that “lets nutrition and climate resilience grow together,” powered not by extractive models but by regenerative ones.

The disconcerting dichotomy of India’s nutritional landscape was laid bare by Dr. Rajiv Bahl, Secretary, Department of Health Research & Director General, DHR & ICMR, New Delhi. Even as undernutrition persists—with 20 per cent of the population still food-insecure and 40 per cent of children anaemic—a parallel epidemic of obesity and metabolic disease is surging, fueled by an insidious rise in ultra-processed food. Dr. Bahl warned that “nutrition transition” had metastasized into a “nutrition crisis.” Inverting this imbalance requires policy instruments that incentivize nutrient-dense foods—millets, pulses, vegetables—while disincentivizing cheap, calorie-rich, nutrient-poor alternatives.

Dr. Purnima Menon, Senior Director, Food and Nutrition Policy Acting Senior Director, Transformation Strategies, IFPRI, USA , distilled this dynamic eloquently: “Policy lands on our plate every time we eat.” She championed fiscal reforms that tax harmful foods, rebalance government spending, and embed nutritional equity into the DNA of public policy. Research, she insisted, must no longer be peripheral to budgeting—it must guide it.

Ajay Vir Jakhar, Chairperson of Bharat Krishak Samaj, advanced the principle of nutrition sovereignty—a vision where India’s food systems serve its people first, not market forces or donor agendas. He argued for dismantling antiquated, yield-obsessed paradigms in favour of models that privilege transparency, human development, and beneficiary-led evaluation. He warned, with prescient caution, against the growing influence of private philanthropies in public decision-making, a phenomenon that risks subverting democratic accountability.

From the western hemisphere, Dr. George Smith, Director of AgBio Research and Senior Associate Dean of Research College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, MI, USA reflected upon the ravages of climate change on U.S. agriculture, revealing that nearly 40 per cent of Americans now suffer from diet-related disorders. His call was clear: the agri-food transformation must win the hearts and minds not just of farmers and policymakers, but of the end-consumer. Preventive nutrition, robust credit markets, and climate adaptation must cease to be aspirational buzzwords—they must become institutional imperatives.

Dr. Shalander Kumar, Deputy Global Research Program Director, Enabling Systems Transformation Program, International Crop Research Institute for Semi- Arid Tropics (ICRSAT) brought a pragmatic lens to the proceedings, spotlighting India’s transition from food scarcity to food surplus. However, surplus alone, he warned, is not salvation. India’s next leap must be toward bundled value chains, regenerative practices, and startup ecosystems that serve both productivity and planetary health. Agricultural subsidies must be repurposed—recalibrated not for yield alone, but for ecological integrity and nutritional value.

Bringing the proceedings to a hopeful crescendo, Sudarshan Suchi, Chief Development Officer, Reliance Foundation, Mumbai, articulated the vision of Viksit Bharat—a developed India—as contingent upon the realisation of Poshit Bharat—a nourished India. In his view, nutrition cannot be divorced from social development. Private sector participation, research funding, and hyper-local innovations will be the bedrock upon which a just, resilient food system must be built.

Throughout the Summit, the spirit of Prof. Swaminathan was invoked not as a nostalgic reference but as a lodestar for future action. His call for “environmental sustainability with social equity” resounded with renewed urgency. The Green Revolution he helped ignite must now evolve into a biohappiness revolution—one that marries scientific ingenuity with human empathy, ecological prudence with economic inclusivity.

From Delhi to Dakar to Detroit, the message was unequivocal: the time for marginal tinkering has long passed. What is required now is not incremental reform, but systemic reimagination. This is not merely a sectoral transformation; it is an ethical awakening—linking soil to soul, crop to climate, and farmer to future.

The seeds of the Evergreen Revolution are not just planted—they are germinating. But only if we choose to nourish them—with courage, with compassion, and with collective resolve. headlines