For them, competing with American farmers on vast fields with high-tech machines, high-quality seed and high-value subsidies is like attacking a battleship with a machete.

ECONOMIST: The problems of plugging a square economy into a round world

Many use poor-quality seed kept from previous harvests.

ECONOMIST: Insuring crops with a mobile phone

Whatever the controversy over the seed, most people considered him a trustworthy minister, a quality not always evident in Indian politicians.

ECONOMIST: Chidambaram Subramaniam