The Green Revolution in India Changing Agricultural Traditions

DEFINITIONS• J.G. HARRAR, “The Green Revolution is the phrase generally used to describe the

spectacular increase that took place during 1967-1968 and is continuing in the production of food grains in India.

• The Green revolution is a process of technological development of agricultural techniques that began in Mexico in 1944 and has since spread throughout the world. The goal of the Green revolution was to increase the efficiency of agricultural processes so that the productivity of the crops was increased and could help developing countries to face their growing populations needs.

What was the green revolution?• A movement starting post WWII 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

NEED FOR GREEN

REVOLUTION

POPULATION GROWTH

LOW IRRIGATION

FACILITY

CONVENTIONAL AND

TRADITIONAL APPROACH FREQUENT

OCCURRENCE OF FAMINES

LACK OF FINANCE

SELF-SUFICIENCY

MARKETISING AGRICULTURE

• The initial stimulus for the Green Revolution was Mexico’s desire to become self-sufficient in wheat production.

• The beginnings of the Green Revolution are often attributed to Norman Borlaug, an American scientist interested in agriculture. In the 1940s, he began conducting research in Mexico and developed new disease resistance high-yield varieties of wheat.

History

• By combining Borlaug's wheat varieties with new mechanized agricultural technologies, Mexico was able to produce more wheat than was needed by its own citizens, leading to its becoming an exporter of wheat by the 1960s.

• Rockefeller Foundation funding helped establish the CIMMYT(the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in 1963.

• In 1960, the Rockefeller Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the United States Department of Agriculture worked together to create the IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute in Philippines.

• IRRI produced IR8 rice variety , which was quickly adopted with spectacular increases in yield throughout Asia and dubbed the "Miracle Rice".

• In the first eleven countries where farmers adopted the new rice varieties, the average yields for rice increased by 52% between 1965 and 1983. In countries where the new varieties were not adopted, rice yields declined 4% during the same period.

• Countries all over the world in turn benefited from the Green Revolution work conducted by Borlaug and this research institution.

• In recognition of his pioneering work, Borlaug was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize and is known as the Father of the Green Revolution.

And so the green revolution moved to India.

Green Revolution In

India

• The world's worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated four million people died of hunger that year alone in eastern India.

• When the British left India four years later in 1947, India continued to be haunted by memories of the Bengal Famine. It was therefore natural that food security was a paramount item on free India's agenda

• In 1961, India was on the brink of mass famine. Norman Borlaug was invited to India by the adviser to the Indian minister of agriculture C. Subramaniam. The government decided to import wheat seed from the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT).

• Punjab was selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success.

INTRODUCTION

• On the other hand MS Swaminathan also introduced Japanese-Mexican wheat hybrid which made Indian wheat production rise from 10 million tons a year to 18 million tons in 1969.

• India soon adopted IR8 – a semi-dwarf rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). In 1968, IR8 rice yielded about 5 tons per hectare.

• In the 1960s, rice yields in India were about two tons per hectare; by the mid-1990s, they had risen to six tons per hectare. In the 1970s, rice cost about $550 a ton; in 2001, it cost under $200 a ton. India became one of the world's most successful rice producers, and is now a major rice exporter, shipping nearly 4.5 million tons in 2006.

• MS Swaminathan (born 7 August 1925) is an Indian geneticist and international administrator, renowned for his leading role in India's Green Revolution.

• Swaminathan is known as "Indian Father of Green Revolution" for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder and chairman of the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.

THE FATHER OF GREEN REVOLUTION

• He first became director of the division in July of 1966 of IARI (Indian Agricultural Research Institute).

• The core of his investigation focused on a collection of wheat plants at the IARI. He experimented with cross-breeding native Indian varieties with Japanese strains and with a dwarf wheat plant developed in Mexico by Norman Borlaug.

• Within two years of the introduction of Swaminathan's Japanese-Mexican wheat hybrid, Indian wheat production rose from 10 million tons a year to 18 million tons. He made similar breakthroughs with rice. Swaminathan concurred, "It became a wheat revolution”.

• In the 1970s Swaminathan was aided in his efforts to improve Indian farming by the country's Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, who gave him free rein to reform India's agricultural bureaucracy and in 1979 named him principal secretary of India's Ministry of Agriculture and Irrigation.

• In 1982 he became the director general of the International Rice Research Institute. He returned to India in 1989 and founded the Center for Research on Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development in Madras, having served as honorary vice president of the World Wildlife Fund from 1985 to 1987.

• Currently, he is the chairman of the National Commission on Farmers.

MEASURES ADOPTED IN GREEN REVOLUTION

GREENREVOLUTION

Use of High Yielding Varieties

(HYV) of seeds

Irrigation

Increasing farm sizeGovernme

nt Support

Double cropping

Use of fertilizers and

pesticides

Farm mechanizatio

n

DOUBLE-CROPPING AND CONTINUING EXPANSION OF FARMING AREAS

• Double cropping was a primary feature of the Green Revolution. Instead of one crop season per year, the decision was made to have two crop seasons per year. The one-season-per-year practice was based on the fact that there is only one rainy season annually. Water for the second phase now came from huge irrigation projects. Dams were built and other simple irrigation techniques were also adopted.• The area of land under cultivation was being increased from 1947 itself. But this was not enough to meet the rising demand. Though other methods were required, the expansion of cultivable land also had to continue. So, the Green Revolution continued with this quantitative expansion of farmlands.

USING SEEDS WITH IMPROVED GENETICS.• Using seeds with superior genetics, choosing

appropriate seeds (IR-8,IR-20,IR-22) was the scientific aspect of the Green Revolution. These seeds were

1. Better in quality2. Pest resistant

• With proper inputs (fertilizer, chemicals) could produce up to 5x more grain per hectare

• Semi dwarf varieties developed– More plant mass found in grain– Resistant to high winds– controlled water supply – improved moisture utilization

IRRIGATION• New irrigation methods began to arise which

lowered the effects of droughts and protected crops while yielding a higher crop production.

• Drip irrigation, a new system, focused on saving water as well as fertilizer by allowing water to drip at a slow and steady pace to the roots of plants. It minimized weed growth and soil erosion while reducing energy costs.

• Other modernizing irrigation techniques, such as sprinkler, center pivot, lateral move, and sub-irrigation, also provided advances in cultivating crops during the winter as it seemed to “reduce the impact of low rainfall on yield”

FERTILIZERS• During the Green Revolution era, the use

of synthetic nitrogen-based fertilizers became very popular and commonly used in new agricultural methods. This helped to adjust the soil pH balance and achieve the right levels of all the important chemical compounds needed for the plant to grow.

• It was concluded that “Nitrogen is the most important mineral nutrient for cereal production, and an adequate supply is essential for high yields, especially with modern cultivars”

• “Worldwide fertilizer use increased rapidly from 14 million tons in 1950 to 140 million tons in 1990.

PESTICIDES• Pesticides became commonly used in

order to prevent the high levels of pest and disease damage that occur during vast crop production on farming lands.

• Common : insecticides and fungicides.

• These pesticides in addition to fertilizers boosted crop production and improved both the quality and yield tremendously as they acted as growth regulators, desiccants, and harvest aids.

• New technology controlled the time of maturity or ripening, aided mechanical harvesting, defoliated plants before harvest, and altered other plant functions.

FARM MECHANIZATION• Green revolution allowed a drastic reduction

in the input of human labor to agriculture by extending the use of machinery to automate every possible agricultural process like tractors, mechanized harvesters , threshers etc. This helped in :

• Increasing the farmer’s productivity • Having a shorter growing season• Making double or treble cropping.

GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

Government provides : Subsidies: pesticides, seeds Commercial banks Finance houses

RESULTS OF

GREEN REVOLUTION

STATISTICAL RESULTS

The Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 million tons in 1978-79. This established India as an exporter and one of the world's biggest agricultural producers.

Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30 per cent between 1947 (when India gained political independence) and 1979 when the Green Revolution was considered to have delivered its goods.

The crop area under HYV varieties grew from seven per cent to 22 per cent of the total cultivated area during the 10 years of the Green Revolution.

More than 70 per cent of the wheat crop area, 35 per cent of the rice crop area and 20 per cent of the millet and corn crop area, used the HYV seeds.

No other country in the world which attempted the Green Revolution recorded such level of success.

ECONOMIC RESULTS

Crop areas under HYVs needed more water, fertilizer, pesticides, fungicides and certain other chemicals. This spurred the growth of the local manufacturing sector which created new jobs and contributed to the country's GDP.

The increase in irrigation created need for new dams to harness monsoon water. The water stored was used to create hydro-electric power. This in turn boosted industrial growth, created jobs and improved the quality of life of the people in villages.

India paid back all loans it had taken from the World Bank for the purpose of the Green Revolution. This improved India's creditworthiness in the eyes of the lending agencies.

Some developed countries, especially Canada, which were facing a shortage in agricultural labour, were so impressed by the results of India's Green Revolution that they asked the Indian government to supply them with farmers experienced in the methods of the Green Revolution.

POLITICAL RESULTS

India transformed itself from a starving nation to an exporter of food. This earned admiration for India in the comity of nations, especially in the Third World.

The Green Revolution was one factor that made Mrs. Indira Gandhi (1917-84) and her party, the Indian National Congress, a very powerful political force in India.

1. LOSS OF BIO-DIVERSITY

• The Green Revolution package has reduced genetic diversity at two levels.

• First, it replaced mixtures and rotations of crops like wheat, maize, millets, pulses and oil seeds with monocultures of wheat and rice.

• Secondly, of the thousands of dwarf varieties bred by Borlaug, only three were eventually used in the Green Revolution. On this narrow and alien genetic base the food supplies of millions are precariously perched.

Failures of the Green Revolution

2. INCREASING PESTICIDE USE

• Because of their narrow genetic base, HYVs are inherently vulnerable to major pests and diseases.

• Large-scale monoculture provides a large and often permanent niche for pests, turning minor diseases into epidemics. The result has been a massive increase in the use of pesticides, in itself creating still further pest problems due to the emergence of pesticide-resistant pests.

• Pesticides travel through food chain and accumulate in higher organisms while some persist in soil, air, surface water and ground water and continue to poison them for a long time.

• Long term exposure to pesticides causes cancer and tumor in animals. Long term exposure to pesticides such as organochlorines and sulfate have been correlated with higher cancer rates such as lung cancer, ovarian cancer etc.

3. SOIL EROSION

• Marginal land or forests have been cleared to make way for the expansion of agriculture; rotations have been abandoned; and cropland is now used to grow soil depleting crops year-in, year-out.

• The removal of legumes from cropping patterns, for example, has removed a major source of free nitrogen from the soil. In addition, the new HYVs reduce the supply of fodder and organic fertilizer available to farmers.

• High-yielding varieties rapidly deplete micronutrients from soils and chemical fertilizers cannot compensate for the loss. Micronutrient deficiencies of zinc, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium and boron are thus common.

4. WATER SHORTAGES

• Traditionally, irrigation was only used in the Punjab as an insurance against crop failure in times of severe drought. Although high-yielding varieties of wheat may yield over 40 per cent more than traditional varieties, they need about three times as much water.

• One result of the Green Revolution has therefore been to create conflicts over diminishing water resources. Where crops are dependent on groundwater for irrigation, the water table is declining at an estimated rate of one-third to half a metre per year.

• Intensive irrigation has led to the need for large-scale storage systems, centralizing control over water supplies and leading to both local and inter-state water conflicts.

• Despite a succession of water-sharing agreements between the Punjab, Rajasthan and Haryana, there is increasing conflict over both the availability of water and its quality.

5. SOCIAL IMPACT

• The initial financial rewards to many farmers could not be continued indefinitely and farmers in the Punjab are now facing increasing indebtedness.

• The increased capital intensity of farming has generated new inequalities between those who could use the new technology profitably, and those for whom it turned into an instrument of dispossession.

• The commercialization of seeds has been actively encouraged by the World Bank, despite widespread resistance from farmers who prefer to retain and exchange seeds among themselves, outside the market framework.

• The worsening lot of the peasantry in the Punjab, which is largely made up of Sikhs, has undoubtedly contributed to the development of Punjab nationalism. Many complain that the Punjab is being treated like a colony in order to provide cheap food for urban elites elsewhere in India.

CRISIS IN PUNJAB

Crisis in Punjab

-violence-

resentment

Nature of green

revolution:-conflict over

resources -class conflict-declines of profitability

-environmental degradation

SECOND GREEN REVOLUTION• Dr MS Swaminathan is the present chairman of National Commission on Farmers. He

gives a new call for “Evergreen Revolution” for doubling the present production of the food grains by adopting some best techniques and promotion of organic farming .

• The 11th five year plan has targeted 4% growth in agriculture sector. However, the growth has not been achieved.

• The approach paper to the 11th five year plan had highlighted a framework which envisaged improvements such as doubling the rate of growth of irrigated area, improvement of water management, rainwater harvesting, reclamation of degraded land, focusing on soil quality, bridging the knowledge gap, diversification into high value outputs etc

CONCLUSION • GREEN REVOLUTION has done a lot of positive things, saving the lives

of millions people and exponentially increasing the yield of food crops.

• But environmental degradation makes the Green Revolution an overall inefficient, short-term solution to the problem of food insecurity.

• So, more sustainable and environmental friendly system of cultivation needs to be practice call as Organic Farming. The world is on the brink of a ‘Green Revolution 2.0’ which promises to both feed a growing population to do so sustainably-without compromising the needs of

the future generation to feed themselves.