Question

Explain the merits and demerits of the Green Revolution.

Answer 1

heya. dear this is so long I hope this u

The following points may help you:

✴✴a. Green revolution is associated with  brought about dramatic changes in  India's agricultural sector by the introduction of new technology.
✴b. Introduced in the late 1960's the revolution brought about the introduction of HYV of seeds for wheat and rice production, use of fertilizers and pesticides.

✴Positive aspects:

a✴. It provided opportunity to farmers to use modern methods of production.
b. To use HYV of seeds for the production of wheat and rice that enhanced the productivity.
c. It allowed them to produce more quantity of food grain in the same piece of land.
d. It provided opportunities to farmers to use modern techniques, machinery like tractors, threshers.
.eFood grain production increased from 82.0 million tonnes to 201..6 million tonnes.
f. States like Punjab, Haryana excessively benefited it.
g.  It has ensured that the minimum food grains are available with  the Centre to meet the requirement of public distribution system and other welfare measures Increase in the production added on our buffer stock .
 

Negative aspects:
i. Questions have been raised with regard to sustainability of development , as Green Revolution has turned out to be partial revolution and has benefited some states and only large farmers. There are problems associated with it.
ii. Small farmers with small and fragmented land holdings could not really avail the benefits of  green revolution as using HYV of seeds and latest technology requires huge amount of capital.
iii. HYV of seeds demands the usage of chemical fertilizers, pesticides which gain requires huge sum of capital, however its excessive use impacts the fertility of the soil leading to land degradation.
iv. Similarly good irrigation facility to meet the water needs reduces the ground water level due to continuous and over exploitation of  ground water.
v. Double cropping is also an essential feature of green revolution which requires excessive water and good irrigation facility, since most of the farmers in India are dependent on monsoons to meet their irrigational requirements not everybody could avail its benefit.
vi. Corresponding to the fact that it requires huge capital investment farmers are compelled to borrow huge amount of loans and become victims of indebtedness.
vii. It requires sophisticated tools, latest technology and equipment's thus replacing manual labour with capital intensive or machinery leading to unemployment and increased migration from rural to urban areas.
viii. Because of multiple cropping or crop rotation the quality of land has gone down and yield has suffered.
ix Excessive flood or drought like situation creates a problem destroys the production or severely affects it, as cultivation of crops require a certain amount of water for good production.