This stamp was issued on 16th October in commemoration of World Food Day in 1981. World Food Day has been celebrated annually on the 16th of October since 1981 to commemorate the date of the founding of the Food Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in 1945. World Food Day in 1981, which thus was the first World Food Day, was celebrated under the theme "Food Comes First".

To mobilise renewed support for overcoming hunger and malnutrition, the 147 nations present at the Conference of the FAO in 1979 decided to establish World Food Day on the anniversary of the founding of FAO, on 16th October 1945.

It was then decided that this day was to be observed for the first time in 1981 and annually thereafter, with the aim of heightening public awareness of the nature and dimensions of world food problems, and to develop further the sense of national and international solidarity in the struggle against hunger, malnutrition and poverty.

Apart from issuing a stamp, a commemorative 10-paise coin was also issued, featuring a man holding a bundle of grain and a woman holding a bowl of fruit, alongside bilingual legends "World Food Day 1981" and the FAO logo.