Indian wheat harvest: U.S. assistance to India's agriculture

Indian wheat harvest: U.S. assistance to India's agriculture is helping this heavily populated country reach a point where it will have a chance of feeding its own people. This year's bumper wheat crop is an example of the payoff. The U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) encouraged use of high-yield wheat seed developed in Mexico by the Rockefeller Foundation together with intensive applications of new fertilizers, pesticides and adequate and timely applications of irrigation water. India's wheat crop topped 16.6 million metric tons this year, making a dramatic comparison to last year's 11.53 million metric tons. AID loans totaling $128 million financed the import of over half the fertilizers used on the now-harvested crop. Tube wells are used to irrigate land for growing wheat.