what where the positive and negative effect of Green revolution
Answers
Positive impacts of Green Revolution
It increased significantly the production, to almost 2.5 times in wheat between 1960 and 2010. GR has been able to save the lives of millions of people and exponentially increase the yield of food crops. It improved the economic lot of farmers, and their standard of living greatly improved. It reduced the import of food grains.
Negative impacts of Green Revolution
The revolution increased the use of fertilizers. Generally speaking a fertilizer has the chance to soak into the soil and spread to other areas if it rains. It diminishes soil quality due to increased reliance on synthetic fertilizers rather than natural fertilizer, which allow replenishing of nutrients. The increase in mono cropping has decreased soil quality. Nutrients could not be replaced in the soil due to mono cropping. The use of heavy machine causes soil compaction. The pesticides travel through the food chain and are accumulated in higher organisms. Some of them persist in soil, air surface water and ground water and continue to poison them for a long time. The long term exposure to pesticide causes cancer. The environmental degradation makes the GR an overall inefficient, short-term solution to the problem of food insecurity. It decreases the “biodiversity” of crops in the world today. Before the revolution, there were 30,000 different variants of rice. Today there are used only ten modified rice variants. As a result, if climate change, disease, or a rise in pestilence attacked the crops, the system would be weakened. With lower food grain prices in effect farmers have become indebted and are now being found to commit suicide because of it
1 - Increase in Production / yield.
2 - Advantage to farmers: this includes their economic situation improving, even small and marginal farmers (although they were late in joining) getting better yield, control on many insects and pests, mechanizing improved working conditions.
3- Better land use by employing two and three crop pattern.
4 - better scientific methods applied as per requirement of farms.
5- New seeds have been developed with better yield and disease fighting capability.
Negative:
1- Degradation of land: Due to change in land use pattern and employing two and three crop rotation every year land quality has gone down and yield has sufferred.
2- Degradation of land part 2: Due to heavy chemical fertilizer inputs land has become hard and carbon material has gone down.
3- Weeds have increased: Due to heavy crop rotation pattern we do not give rest to land nor we have time to employ proper weed removal system which has increased weeds.
4- Pest infestation has gone up: Pests which we used to control by bio degradable methods have become resistant to many pesticides and now these chemical pesticides have become non effective.
5- Loss of bio diversity: Due to heavy use of chemical pesticides, insecticides and fertilizers we have lost many birds and friendly insects and this is a big loss in long term.
6- Chemicals in water: These chemicals which we have been using in our farms go down and contiminate ground water which effect our and our children health.
7: Water table has gone down: Water table has gone down due to lack of water harvesting systems and now we have to pull water from 300 to 400 ft. depth which was 40 to 50 feet earlier.
8: Loss of old seeds: We have started using new seeds and lost old once since new once give better yield but due to this we have lost many important geens in these seeds.