The Genesis
Launched in 1943, in the wake of the Bengal famine, the Grow More Food Campaign
. (GMFC) was India's first organised effort to increase food production. The campaign
'lhad a two-pronged approach. First, to bring idle but potentially productive land under
the plough, and second, to stimulate cultivator interest in increasing crop yield per
hectare. In 1948, the GMFC was reviewed by the Thakurdass Committee and following
its recommendations, the campaign was reoriented in 1950-51. In the following year,
the GMFC became part of the First Five Year Plan. In 1952, the Government of India
(Goi) appointed the Grow More Food Inquiry Committee· under the chairmanship of
Sir V.T. Krishnamachari to evaluate the campaign. The Committee found, inter alia, that
(a) all aspects of village life are interrelated and no lasting results can be achieved if
individual aspects of it were dealt with in isolation; and (b) the movement touched only
a fringe of the population and did not arouse widespread enthusiasm and, hence, did
not become in any sense a national programme. The Committee also made a number of
recommendations regarding the future policy of the GMFC. One of the recommendations
was that an extension agency should be set up for rural work, which would reach every
farmer in the country and assist in the coordinated development of rural life. It was out
of this background and experience that the CDP was designed and launched.