Green Revolution

The Green Revolution

The Green Revolution refers to the sharp rise in foodgrain production, particularly wheat and rice, achieved in India from the mid-1960s onward through a package of high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilisers, assured irrigation, pesticides and improved farm practices. It is conventionally dated from around 1966–67, when HYV seeds developed with the help of international agricultural research were introduced on a significant scale in India, and it is one of the most frequently asked topics in Andhra Pradesh Intermediate Economics papers.

Components of the Green Revolution package

• High-yielding variety (HYV) seeds for wheat and rice, capable of giving substantially higher output per hectare than traditional varieties, provided the accompanying inputs are also used.
• Assured irrigation, since HYV seeds require controlled and adequate water supply to realise their yield potential.
• Chemical fertilisers and plant-protection chemicals, used in larger quantities than under traditional cultivation.
• Multiple cropping, made possible where irrigation allowed more than one crop to be grown on the same land in a year.
• Mechanisation and improved farm practices, including the wider use of tractors, pump-sets and better agronomic techniques in the areas covered.

Achievements

• India moved from a food-deficit country reliant on imports (including under the PL-480 arrangement) to a food-surplus country broadly self-sufficient in foodgrains, and later a net exporter of items such as rice.
• Substantial rise in yields per hectare of wheat and rice in the regions where the package was adopted, notably Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
• Comfortable buffer stocks of foodgrains, strengthening food security and the public distribution system.
• A general rise in farm incomes in the areas that adopted the technology, and stronger backward linkages to the fertiliser and farm-machinery industries.

Limitations and criticisms

• Regional imbalance. The benefits were concentrated in irrigated, resource-rich states; rain-fed and less-developed regions gained far less, widening regional disparities.
• Crop imbalance. The package worked best for wheat and rice, so it strengthened these two crops relative to coarse cereals, pulses and oilseeds, contributing to a decline in the relative area under the latter. …