Green Revolution

MRS. NITA MALIK

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR

DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

HANS RAJ MAHILA MAHA VIDYALAYA, JALANDHAR

Punjab : Food Basket of India

• Punjab produces 1% of rice, 2% of wheat and 2% of cotton of the world, leading all the states in per hectare yield of all these crops.
• Its per capita income (2006) at Rs. 28.605 is way above the national average of just Rs. 6.929.
• Punjab also claims a 100% rural electrification as well as almost 99% connectivity of villages by road against the national average of just over 40%

Real GDP growth of Punjab

• The real GDP growth of Punjab from 2007-08 to 200-09 has been about 14% as comapred to its neighbour Haryana that grew at about 18% during the same period.
• This is an indicator of the growth stagnation for Punjab’s economy that’s highly dependent upon agriculture to an extent of 65%.

History of Green Revolution

• The beginnings of the Green Revolution are often attributed to Norman Borlayg, an American Scientist intersted in agriculture.
• Dr. Norman E. Borlaug receives the Congressional Gold Medal in 2007. Burlaug, a 1970 Nobel Laureate, was honored for his work in the Green Revolution, saving millions of lives from famine in India, Mexico and the Middle East.

What was the green revolution

• A movement starting post will to address food shortages in developing countries.
• International relief organizations invested in research to breed more productive rice and wheat crops.
• New agricultural technologies were brought to India fertilizer, agrochemicals, new types of irrigation.

Methods used in Green Revolution

• Double /Multiple cropping system.
• Seeds with superior genetics
• Proper irrigation system
• HYV seed
• Use of pesticides and fertilizers
• Ue of modern machinery (tractor, harvestor etc.)

High Yielding Varieties

• Seeds are highly responsive to certain key inputs such as fertilizers and irrgation water.
• In the absence of additional inputs of fertilizers and water, the new seeds perform worse than indigenous varieties.
• The gain in output is insignificant compared to the increase in inputs.

Why was a revolution needed

• Famine had ripped though parts of India in the past and many economists and agricultural scientists predicted worse famine in the future is a new plan was not put in place.
• Over population was stretching India’s food resources.
• Government inability to ensure proper movement of good to areas that were in need.

Achievements of the Green Revolution

• As a result of the Green Revolution our country has become self-sufficient in food grains.
• As a result of the Green Revolution we have been able to create buffer stocks of food grains which can be used in the event of natural calamities such as droughts and floods which result in fall in crop production.

Effects of Green Revolution

• The Green Revolution has changes the life style of our farmers. Due to higher crop yields, they are able to earn more money and hence can lead a better life.
• As a result of the Green Revolution, the demand for various agricultural inputs has increased tremendously. This has created a large number of employment opportunities.

Impact of Green Revolution in India

• The GREEN Foundation is working to slow the rate of farmer suicides in India and improve conditions for farmers—especially women—whose traditional agricultural methods were stripped away by the Green Revolution.
• A 20th-century push by Western agronomists to decrease hunger in developing nations, the Green Revolution led to the introduction of higher-yield crops and technologies and caused rice and wheat production in India to jump significantly.

Views of Green Foundation

• According to GREEN Foundation founding trustee Dr. Vanaja Ramprasad, the Green Revolution is “a misnomer to begin with,” because it came at the expense of time-honored farming techniques and farmers’ economic security, which the GREEN Foundation has been working since the 1990s to address through community seed banks and educational outreach programs.

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Basis of Green Revolution

• “[The Green Revolution] was based on high chemical input to realise higher yields, and promoted monocultures to feed the growing populations,” Ramprasad says. “The Green Revolution focused on two crops—rice and wheat—thereby destroying all diversity of food crops. All diversity needed for sustainable farming also disappeared, with more and more chemical use.”

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Role of Agriculture

• India holds the second-largest agricultural land in the world, with 20 agro-climatic regions and 157.35 million hectares of land under cultivation [1]. Thus, agriculture plays a vital role with 58% of rural households depending on it even though India is no longer an agrarian economy. A report by the Department of Agriculture, Cooperation and Farmers Welfare estimates that the food grain production in India will be 279.51 million tonnes during the 2017–2018 crop year. Although India is self-sufficient in food production, its food production between 1947 and 1960 was so bad that there were risks for the occurrence of famine. Therefore, the Green Revolution was initiated in the 1960s in order to increase food production, alleviate extreme poverty and malnourishment in the country, and to feed millions.

Major Crops

• The major crops cultivated in the era preceding the Green Revolution were rice, millets, sorghum, wheat, maize, and barley [4, 5], and the production of rice and millets were higher than the production of wheat, barley, and maize combined all together. But the production of millets has gone down, and the crops that were once consumed in every household became a fodder crop in just a few decades after the Green Revolution. Meanwhile, a number of traditional rice varieties consumed prior to the Green Revolution have become non-existent, and the availability of local rice varieties have decreased to 7000 and not all of these varieties are under cultivation.

Measures taken by the govt. to increase the production of crops

• The measures initiated by the government increased the production of rice, wheat, pulses, and other crops leading to the self-sufficiency of food in the country. But it also destroyed the diversified gene pool available. The productivity of the crops was increased by the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and groundwater resources. However, mismanagement and overuse of chemical fertilizers, pesticide, and lack of crop rotation caused the land to become infertile, and loss of groundwater became a common occurrence in agricultural areas.

Success of Green Revolution

• The success of the Green Revolution in India in terms of crop yield is attributed to the government of India, international agricultural research institutions (IRRI and CIMMYT), multilateral and bilateral donor agencies (Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, and USAID), and the farmers. The Ministry of Food and Agriculture and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) meticulously executed the smooth transmission and distribution of new technology. 

Aspects of Green Revolution in India

• High Yielding Varieties (HYV)
• Mechanization of Agriculture
• Use of Chemical Fertilizers and Pesticides
• Irrigation

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Process of Increasing Agricultural

• The Green Revolution is referred to as the process of increasing agricultural production by incorporating modern tools and techniques. Green Revolution is associated with agricultural production. It is the period when agriculture of the country was converted into an industrial system due to the adoption of modern methods and techniques like the use of high yielding variety seeds, tractors, irrigation facilities, pesticides, and fertilizers. Until 1967, the government majorly concentrated on expanding the farming areas. 

Three Basic Elements

• The method of green revolution focused on three basic elements, that are:
• Using seeds with improved genetics (High Yielding Variety seeds).
• Double cropping in the existing farmland and,
• The continuing expansion of farming areas

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Scheme Under Green Revolution

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Umbrella Scheme Green Revolution – ‘Krishonnati Yojana’ in the agriculture sector for the period of three years from 2017 to 2020 with the Central Share of Rs. 33,269.976 crore.The Umbrella scheme Green revolution- Krishonnati Yojana comprises 11 Schemes under it and all these schemes look to develop the agriculture and allied sector in a scientific and holistic manner so as to increase the income of farmers by increasing productivity, production, and better returns on produce, strengthening production infrastructure, reducing the cost of production and marketing of agriculture and allied produce. 

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11 schemes that are part of the Umbrella Schemes under the Green revolution are:

• MIDH – Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture – It aims to promote the comprehensive growth of the horticulture sector, enhance the production of the sector, improve nutritional security, and increase income support to household farms.
• NFSM – National Food Security Mission – This includes NMOOP – National Mission on Oil Seeds and Oil Palm. The aim of this scheme is to increase the production of wheat pulses, rice, coarse cereals and commercial crops, productivity enhancement, and area expansion in a suitable manner, enhancing farm level economy, restoring soil fertility and productivity at the individual farm level. 

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• NMSA – National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture – the aim is to promote sustainable agriculture practices that are best suitable to the specific agro-ecology focusing on integrated farming, appropriate soil health management, and synergizing resource conservation technology.
• SMAE – Submission on Agriculture Extension – this scheme aims to strengthen the ongoing extension mechanism of State Governments, local bodies, etc. 

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• SMSP – Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material – This aims to increase the production of quality seed, upgrade the quality of farm-saved seeds and increase SRR, strengthen the seed multiplication chain, and promote new methods and technologies in seed production, processing, testing, etc., to strengthen and modernize infrastructure for seed production, storage, quality, and certification, etc.

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• SMAM – Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanisation – aims to increase the reach of farm mechanization to small and marginal farmers and to the regions where availability of farm power is low, to promote ‘Custom Hiring Centres’ to offset the adverse economies of scale arising due to small landholding and high cost of individual ownership, to create hubs for hi-tech and high-value farm equipment, to create awareness among stakeholders through demonstration and capacity building activities, and to ensure performance testing and certification at designated testing centres located all over the country.

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• SMPPQ – Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plan Quarantine – the aim of this scheme is to minimize loss to quality and yield of agricultural crops from insects, pests, weeds, etc., to shield our agricultural bio-security from the incursions and spread of alien species, to facilitate exports of Indian agricultural commodities to global markets, and to promote good agricultural practices, particularly with respect to plant protection strategies and strategies.

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• ISACES – Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics, and Statistics – this aims to undertake the agriculture census, undertake research studies on agro-economic problems of the country, study the cost of cultivation of principal crops, fund conferences, workshops, and seminars involving eminent agricultural scientists, economists, experts so as to bring out papers to conduct short term studies, improve agricultural statistics methodology and to create a hierarchical information system on crop condition and crop production from sowing to harvest.

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• ISAC – Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation aims to provide financial assistance for improving the economic conditions of cooperatives, remove regional imbalances, to speed up cooperative development in agricultural processing, storage, marketing, computerization, and weaker section programs; ensuring the supply of quality yarn at reasonable rates to the decentralized weavers and help cotton growers fetch a remunerative price for their produce through value addition.

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• ISAM – Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing – this scheme aims to develop agricultural marketing infrastructure; to promote innovative technologies and competitive alternatives in agriculture marketing infrastructure; to provide infrastructure facilities for grading, standardization, and quality certification of agricultural produce; to establish a nation­wide marketing information network; to integrate markets through a common online market platform to facilitate pan-India trade in agricultural commodities, etc.

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• NeGP-A – National e-Governance Plan aims to bring farmer-centric & service-oriented programs; to improve access of farmers to information and services throughout the crop-cycle and enhance the reach and impact of extension services; to build upon, enhance and integrate the existing ICT initiatives of the Centre and States; to enhance efficiency and effectiveness of programs through providing timely and relevant information to the farmers for increasing their agriculture productivity.