Green Revolution

Present Status of Agriculture in India

Contribute around 15 percent of GDP but more
than half of the population is dependent on it.
Erratic monsoon, lack of proper credit facility,
market conditions etc make the life of an
average farmer very miserable.
Swaminathan Commision report in 2006 lists the
following as causes for agrarian distress:
unfinished agenda in land reform, quantity and
quality of water, technology fatigue, access,
adequacy and timeliness of institutional credit,
and opportunities for
assured and remunerative marketing. Adverse
meteorological factors add to these problems.
Rainfed agriculture contributes to 60 per cent of
the gross cropped area and 45 per cent of the
total agricultural
Output.
As a result, the per unit area productivity of
Indian
agriculture is much lower than other major crop
producing countries.
 What is Green Revolution?
 With the intent to produce more from less
land.The key is modernisation of
 traditional agriculture and this calls for
 : high-yielding varieties, improved farm
equipment, substantial inputs of chemical
fertilisers and
 insecticides, which in turn require the
 assured supplies of water
 at specified intervals. Further capital, stable
prices and constant institutional support.
 In 1961 India was at the brink of mass famine.
In 60s rice yield was two tonnes per hectare.
By mid 90s it became 6 tonnes per hectare by
using high yielding variety such as IR8 to be
used with certain fertilisers and irrigation.
 Similar revolution occurred in wheat production
too.
This general increase in crop yields, which
occurred in our country during the period
between 1960 and 1980, is referred to as the
Golden Era or the Green Revolution.

The Green Revolution marked on turning point in

the Indian agriculture. As a result of the Green
Revolution, we have become self-sufficient in
food and able to maintain a buffer stock.
Prior to 1960, farmers in the country used to
cultivate desi or traditional varieties of wheat
and rice. These varieties had very low yield per
hectare.
Between 1950 to 1960 attempts were made to
introduce irrigation and fertilisers but did not
have much impact on indigenous varieities.
In the 1960’s a great event occurred which
revolutionised the agricultural production in our
country. In this period, a team of agricultural
scientists led by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug
introduced successfully some new yield
varieties of wheat in Mexico. These high
yielding varieties of wheat known as Mexican
varieties were introduced in our country, on
experimental basis, in a few selected districts.
Later on, our scientists developed new high
yielding varieties that were better suited to our
climate and soil conditions, and hence yielded
a record production of wheat. This marked
beginning of the Green Revolution. Thus,
introduction of the improved high yielding
varieties of wheat was the major factor, which
led to the Green Revolution.
The high yielding varieties need better inputs
such as water, fertilizers, frequent weeding and
continuous use of pesticides.
The improved white and rice varieties
responsible for 50 million tons of grain annually
sufficient to feed 500 million people.
But the new methods were adopted only by
those who can afford or have access to
irrigation and fertilisers.
As per a report in 1987 if 36% of grain producing
lands in Asia and Middle East grow high
yielding varieties, the figure is 22% in Latin
America and just 1% in Africa. Further, rice and
wheat are not important crops in most of Africa
 Difficulties

(1)As a result of the Green Revolution, the soil

has become fertilizer-dependent. Since the
nutrient requirements of high yielding varieties
are very high, the nutrient content of the soil
has to be replenished after each cultivation.

(2). The excessive use of fertilizers makes the

soil alkaline or acidic depending upon the
nature of the fertilizer used.
3. As a result of the Green Revolution, the pesticides and
weedicides are being used extensively. This is due to the
reason that high yielding varieties of crops are more
prone to disease. Excessive use of these chemicals has
adverse effect on the soil fertility and also on the health of
human beings and animals.
4. The high yielding varieties of crops, which have resulted
in the Green Revolution, need more water. In order to
meet the water requirements of such crops the existing
natural sources of water are artificially altered. This also
results in ecological imbalances.
New strategies required to tackle them
Can we combine biotechnolgy with insights of
traditional farming?
Intercropping, agroforestry, shifting cultivation etc
use resources more efficiently than modern
techniques
A study even shows that combination of organic
fertilisers with a small amount of chemical
fertiliser produces far more yield than either
treatment alone.
Recently, CGIAR (Consultative Group on
International Agricultural Research) adopted a
resolution stating that in future agricultural
research will be judged not only by contribution
to improving yield but also by sustainability and
enviormental protection.
 Criticism: Vandana Shiva
The Green Revolution has been a failure. It has led to
reduced genetic diversity, increased vulnerability to pests,
soil erosion, water shortages, reduced soil fertility,
micronutrient deficiencies, soil contamination, reduced
availability of nutritious food crops for the local population,
the displacement of vast numbers of small farmers from
their land, rural impoverishment and increased tensions
and conflicts. The beneficiaries have been the
agrochemical industry, large petrochemical companies,
manufacturers of agricultural machinery, dam builders and
large landowners.
 Criticism
Yet, until the 1960s, India was successfully pursuing an
agricultural development policy based on strengthening the
ecological base of agriculture and the self-reliance of
peasants. Land reform was viewed as a political necessity and,
following independence, most states initiated measures to
secure tenure for tenant cultivators, to fix reasonable rents and
to abolish the zamindari (landlord) system. Ceilings on land
holdings were also introduced. In 1951, at a seminar organized
by the Ministry of Agriculture, a detailed farming strategy—the
"land transformation" programme — was put forward. The
strategy recognized the need to plan from the bottom, to
consider every individual village and sometimes every
individual field. The programme achieved major successes.
 Criticism:contd..
However, while Indian scientists and policy makers were working
out self-reliant and ecologically sound alternatives for the
regeneration of agriculture in India, another vision of
agricultural development was taking shape within the
international aid agencies and large US foundations. Alarmed
by growing peasant unrest in the newly independent countries
of Asia, agencies like the World Bank, the Rockefeller and Ford
Foundations, the US Agency for International Development
and others looked towards the intensification of agriculture as
a means of 'stabilizing' the countryside - and in particular of
defusing the call for a wider redistribution of land and other
resources.
 Criticism: contd..
Above all, the US wished to avoid other Asian
countries' following in the revolutionary
footsteps of China.
In 1961, the Ford Foundation thus launched its
Intensive Agricultural Development Programme
in India, intended to "release" Indian agriculture
from "the shackles of the past" through the
introduction of modern intensive chemical
farming.
 Criticism:contd..
Adding to the perceived geopolitical need to
intensify agriculture was pressure from western
agrochemical companies anxious to ensure
higher fertilizer consumption overseas. Since
the early 1950s, the Ford Foundation had been
pushing for increased fertilizer use by Indian
farmers, as had the World Bank and USAID -
with some success. Whilst the government's
First Five Year Plan viewed artificial fertilizers
as supplementary to organic manures, the
second and subsequent plans gave a direct
and crucial role to fertilizers
 Criticism:contd..
. But native varieties of wheat tend to "lodge", or
fall over, when subject to intensive fertilizer
applications. The new ‘dwarf' varieties
developed by Borlaug, however, were
specifically designed to overcome this problem:
shorter and stiffer stemmed, they could absorb
chemical fertilizer, to which they were highly
receptive, without lodging.
 Criticism:contd...
The term "high-yielding varieties" is a misnomer,
because it implies that the new seeds are high
yielding of themselves. The distinguishing
feature of the seeds, however, is that they are
highly responsive to certain key inputs such as
fertilizers and irrigation water. The term "high
responsive varieties" is thus more appropriate.
 Critique of green revolution: MS
Swaminathan
Warned of greed even in 1968 and stands for
ever-green revolution,
which meant increasing productivity in
perpetuity without the associated eco-
logical harm, through green agriculture,
organic farming and other methods.
Organic farming is good if there are enough
farm animals with the farmer. A
majority of small farmers don’t have
farm animals, and will have to purchase
compost, or grow a green manure crop.
Six oranges or one 200 mg tablet to have vitamin
C?
Integrated pest management to use fertilisers in
moderation.
Both lab to land and land to lab are equally
important to ensure soil health and crop health
The rapid replacement of numerous locally
adapted varieties with one or two high yielding
strains in large contiguous
areas would result in the spread of serious
diseases capable of wiping out
entire crops, as happened prior to the Irish
potato famine of 1845 and the
Bengal rice famine of 1942.
Therefore, the initiation of exploitative agriculture
without a proper understanding of the various
consequences of every one of
the changes introduced into traditional
agriculture and without first building up
a proper scientific and training base to sustain it,
may only lead us into an
era of agricultural disaster in the long run, rather
than to an era of agricultural
prosperity.”
If green revolution was based on commodity
centered and laboratory research, evergreen
revolution requires integrated natural resources
management centered and participatory
research with farm families.
Harmonising organic farming and the new
genetics a must for ever green revolution
 Principles of Organic farming
In the simplest terms, organic growing or farming is
based on maintaining a living soil with a diverse
population of micro and macro soil organisms. A
common phrase used to characterize organic
growing is “feeding
the soil, not the plant”.
Organic matter is
maintained in the soil through the addition of
compost, animal manure, and green manures and the
avoidance of excess tillage and nitrogen
applications
Operating within the web of life as opposed to controlling the
system
Thus using locally available material emphasised.
Eliminating exposure to poisons intended to kill
things is common sense. Recognizing that you can’t
kill one part of a tightly coupled cycle and
interdependent food chain without causing problems
somewhere else in the food chain is also common sense.
Eating the most nutritious and freshest food is
common sense.
But soil
organisms are also essential to the long term
physical structure of the soil. Organic matter
provides the organic compounds that help provide
structure to the soil, which supports water
absorption and retention. Organic matter feeds
organisms, organisms convert organic matter, soil
structure is maintained, etc. This interrelated,
natural process has recently been referred to as the
“soil food web”
If soil is only provided nutrients in the form of
fertilizer, and the crops are harvested from the
land
each year, eventually there is no organic matter
and
the “soil food web” starts to fall apart.
we can grow plants with no soil at all,
this is called hydroponics or feeding the plant. What
we can’t do over the long term is treat field soil like
hydroponics and just keep adding synthetic fertilizer
without organic matter. The soil will eventually die,
compact, and or blow away. This is a main point of
organic and sustainable agriculture. Organic and
sustainable agriculture are about feeding the soil for
the very long term health and quality of the soil as
opposed to feeding the plant.