India had to import food several times in the 1980s to feed the population. Why isn’t that just done by private companies like here? The government is not a supermarket, is it?

Answer

Bye Martin

I don’t know the political system in India, but I can tell you the following:

1) Food, unlike other things, is a strategic good.
Governments are doing everything they can to secure it.
Just look at the EU, where agricultural policy has long been one of the most important pillars in the EU.

2) In the 1980s, the neoliberal model was not yet fully applicable, at that time this paradigm was only introduced through Thatcher and Reagan. The government was therefore even more important than now, and also had greater power to intervene in their country. There was no real talk of privatization yet.

3) If food has to be imported (due to crop failure, or simply due to low production compared to population growth), wealthy citizens with sufficient purchasing power will manage themselves through the supermarkets. However, the poorer layers of the population will be threatened with hunger. This group will also not be able to buy their food through the supermarket. The state will have to intervene in order to achieve their goal: to give everyone enough food.
Certainly if this concerns a failed harvest, many poor farmers have lost their food, and at the same time do not have enough money (no production, no income) to buy food.

Kind regards

Bart