Peasant Against Famine

Food is the overwhelming problem of India. Many an Indian cabinet minister has staked his reputation on solving the food problem, and has lost. But bouncing, brawny Sadashiv Kanoji Patil, 59, is a maverick among the elite who have largely staffed the echelons of India's government since independence.

Patil is a peasant's son who has seen hunger himself. After an apprenticeship as a reporter, he plunged into the rough-and-tumble of Bombay politics, was the city's undisputed political boss for years before he ran for mayor and won. He had nothing in common with Brahmin aristocrats such as Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Three years ago, when Nehru finally named Patil to the cabinet, it was with reluctance. But within weeks of taking over the Food and Agriculture Ministry last August, Patil devised a daring solution to India's chronic food crisis. Nehru was half-hearted about the plan, Patil's colleagues were apathetic, but Patil pressed on.

Last week Patil could be proud of his stubbornness. In the office of Dwight Eisenhower, he scratched his signature to a $1.3 billion grain deal that promises to move 16 million tons of U.S. wheat and 1,000,000 tons of rice into Indian warehouses over the next four years. It was the biggest single U.S. aid project since the Marshall Plan. India will pay in rupees, but 85% of the proceeds will be handed back as loans and grants for Indian economic development. Reflecting the rise in U.S. prestige in a country once suspicious of American motives, the Times of India declared: "No government has ever been more generous."

Ultimately, India's long-term survival depends on learning how to feed itself, which is the object of the $100 million project announced fortnight ago by India's partner in the scheme, the Ford Foundation (TIME, May 9). Until it begins to pay off with massively greater crop yields, S. K. Patil's stockpile will provide insurance against famine and a massive weapon against the speculators who year after year have been able to manipulate India's grain prices to the disadvantage of the largely helpless, hungry consumers.

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