Did green revolution is consider two times in Indian planning when and how it is
Answers
The Green Revolution in India began in the mid-1960s marking a transition from traditional agriculture in India and the introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds and the associated agricultural techniques. The need for introducing the Green Revolution in India arose due to a shortage of food-grains in part due to the legacy of colonial regime. The government of India post-independence wanted to make India self-dependent in terms of food-grain production and these efforts coincided with the development of high-yielding varieties of seeds of wheat developed by Norman Borlung and his associates in Mexico. These seeds also necessitated changes in farming techniques such as the addition of fertilizers and pesticides and greater use of irrigation. High yielding varieties of seeds were first introduced in India in the states of Punjab, Haryana and parts of western Uttar Pradesh.
The green revolution did effectively solve India’s problem of food-grain shortage after it was introduced in India, although in the second wave of the Green Revolution in the 1980s, there was however, a slight reduction in production as compared to the first wave. Although many scholars are in favour of the Green Revolution as a boon to India’s agricultural production, some scholars also take opposing views against the Green Revolution. These scholars often cite the adverse ecological effects of the resources employed in growing high-yielding varieties of seeds such as fertilizers and pesticides for instance as well as criticise certain socio-economic effects of the Green Revolution in India such as social conflict due to a growing socio-economic divide. Although the Green Revolution in India started with great promise and made immense contributions in boosting agricultural productivity with high-yielding seeds and the introduction of new methods of agriculture in India, its aura is somewhat disappearing in contemporary times.
The strongest argument in favour of the green revolution in India thus is that the green revolution effectively solved the problems of food shortages in India. Many would however, argue that there were many negative impacts of implementing the green revolution in India as well. They mostly argue for example that the imposition of modern methods of agriculture have impacted traditional agriculture in India, socio-economic inequalities in India have increased as a result of the green revolution in India, agricultural practices are shifting towards favouring principally high-yielding varieties of crops, the toxic effects of introducing chemicals such as pesticides on the environment, depletion of soil nutrients due to planting of high-yielding crop varieties, and so on.
To come to some clarity on the impacts of the green revolution in India, we must engage in a discussion on the sites where the green revolution in India was implemented and note the impacts thereby in these sites. We will thus also attempt to bring about a more contemporary perspective on the impacts of the green revolution in India that was introduced with the objective of bringing the country out of the problem of food shortages.
Negative Impacts of the Green Revolution in India:
The green revolution thereby was intended to overcome food shortages in India by increasing the yields of agricultural produce with the help of better irrigation systems, pesticides, fertilizers, agricultural machinery, etc but also principally with the help of crop intensification focused on more resistant high-yielding crop varieties. This was supplemented with socio-economic policies that made credit available to farmers more readily and developmental extension officers were to disseminate knowledge to farmers in employing the new technologies. Among the Indian states that is said to have benefitted most from the green revolution in India is the state of Punjab, where food-grains production increased from 5.37 million tonnes in 1965-66 to 32 million tonnes in 1995-96. Food-grains production in Punjab in 1995-96 accounted for 21 per cent of total food-grains produced in India (Singh, 2016). However, although yields have substantially increased in Punjab, this is not the complete story.