Q.One of the negative outcomes of the Green Revolution strategy was the worsening of regional inequalities. Give two reasons for your answer.

The Green Revolution is one of the most important turning points in modern Indian history, especially for a commerce or humanities student trying to understand how India went from a food-deficient nation to a self-sufficient one. Let’s start with an everyday intuition.

Imagine a farmer in the 1950s. He plants the same wheat his grandfather planted, uses the same wooden plough, and prays for the same monsoon rains. If the rains fail, his family goes hungry. If the rains are good, he still barely grows enough to feed his own family, let alone sell in a market. The country as a whole depends on shipments of grain from the United States under a program called PL-480. That is the world India lived in: a nation perpetually on the edge of famine, dependent on foreign charity for its most basic need — food.

Now imagine that same farmer in the late 1960s. He plants a new kind of wheat seed — short, sturdy, and heavy with grain. He uses chemical fertiliser and a controlled supply of water from a tube well. His harvest is not double or triple, but four or five times what it was before. That is the Green Revolution.

Why did it happen when it did?

India faced a severe food crisis in the early 1960s. Two consecutive droughts in 1965 and 1966 pushed the country to the brink. The government realised that depending on food aid from other nations was politically and economically unsustainable. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and the agricultural scientist Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, India decided to adopt a new agricultural strategy. The new seeds — developed by Dr. Norman Borlaug in Mexico — were brought in, and the government focused resources on regions that could give the quickest results: Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.

What actually changed on the ground?

• Seeds: Traditional wheat varieties were tall and would fall over (lodge) when heavy with grain. The new dwarf wheat varieties could hold more grain without falling. This single change multiplied yields.
• Water: The new seeds needed precise amounts of water at specific times. This led to a massive expansion of tube wells and canal irrigation, reducing dependence on erratic rainfall.
• Chemicals: The new varieties responded strongly to chemical fertilisers (nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium) and required pesticides to protect the dense crop from pests.
• Credit and price support: The government provided cheap credit to farmers to buy these inputs and guaranteed a minimum price for their produce. This gave farmers the confidence to invest.

What were the immediate results?

India’s wheat production nearly doubled between 1965 and 1970. By the early 1970s, the country had built large buffer stocks of grain and stopped depending on food imports. The spectre of famine receded. For a commerce student, this is a classic case of a supply-side revolution: a technological shock that shifted the entire agricultural production function upward.

Why does it matter for a commerce/humanities student? …