Green Revolution in India

William Gaud and Norman Borlaug are the fathers of the Green revolution as the term was given by them whereas the father of the Green Revolution in India is the famous Geneticist, MS. Swaminathan. Green revolution in India refers to a certain interval of time when people started using HYV (high yield variety) seeds, pesticides, tractors, and other types of equipment in agriculture. Under the leadership of Former Prime Minister Indra Gandhi, the green revolution within India commenced in 1666 which resulted in the increase in production of food grains especially in areas like Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh. However, this is a great step towards producing a sufficient amount of food grains in India for feeding Indians and not to rely on any other foreign nation for food import.

The Main Aspects of Green Revolution in India are:

• High Yielding Varieties
• Mechanization of Agriculture
• Chemical fertilizers and pesticide use
• Irrigation

The Green Revolution is mainly the process of using modern technology tools and machines for agricultural activities to enhance production. This period converted the agriculture of India into the Industrial system with the adoption of modern techniques like HYV (High Yielding Varieties, use of machines, fertilizers and pesticides, and irrigation. Till the year 1967, the government was trying to overcome the production shortage by increasing the land areas of farmers. The rapid increase in population and demand failed all the steps taken by the government and demanded immediate action, this is the time when the government decided to start the green revolution.

The Green Revolution in India focused on the following areas:

1. Using the HYV (High Yielding Variety) seed.
2. Double amount of cropping in the existing land areas.
3. Expansion of farming areas.

Features of Green Revolution in India

1. To introduce HYV seeds to the Indian farmers. These seeds are highly effective in the regions having good irrigation facilities. So, the green revolution was more in areas like Punjab. It was more successful on wheat.
2. Prior wheat was the only introduced in HYV seeds and after sometimes other HYV seeds are also introduced.
3. As we all know HYV seeds need proper irrigation, so farmers cannot fully rely on monsoon so the green revolution also improved the inland irrigation system.
4. The introduction of the Green revolution was mainly for crops like wheat, rice, and other food grains. It does not focus on Crops like Jute, cotton, etc.
5. It also introduced the use of pesticides, weedicides, and other chemicals for the betterment of the crop. All these chemicals were made easily available for the farmers which also saved the crops from getting damaged.
6. It also introduced the use of tractors, drills, threshers to promote commercial farming in India.

Schemes under the Green Revolution in India

In the year 2017, Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved the Umbrella Green Revolution Scheme named ‘Krishonnati Yojana’ for 3 years i.e. 2017 to 2020 and the central shared Rs. 33,269.976 crores for this scheme. Krishonnati Yojana is a group of 11 schemes which overlooks the agriculture development and allied sector. Its aim is to increase the income of the farmers by increasing the productivity, production, and returns on the produce, improving the infrastructure for farmers, cutting down the production expenses, and the strong marketing of the produce.

Top 11 Schemes under Krishonnati Yojana

1. MIDH – Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture : It aims to make the horticulture sector better by enhancing the nutritional security, production, and increasing the income of household farms.
2. NFSM – National Food Security Mission : It aims at increasing the productivity of grains like wheat, pulses, rice, etc. it also aims at restoring the soil fertility and productivity of these crops. It also includes NMOOP – National Mission on Oilseeds and Oil Palm under it. It also overlooks the area expansion, expansion of the farm-level economy, to reduce import and increase the availability of the produce in the country.
3. NMSA – National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture : This scheme aims at promoting sustainable agriculture practices suitable for the particular agro-ecology while focusing on integrated farming, appropriate soil health management, and synergizing resource conservation technology.
4. SMAE – Submission on Agriculture Extension : It aims to make the ongoing extensions of government or local bodies more powerful to promote socio-economic empowerment to farmers, support HRD inventions, ICT tools, etc. It also focuses on forge linkage among stake-holders, the institutionalization of program planning, and mechanism implementation. It promotes the innovative use of electronic and print media.
5. SMSP – Sub-Mission on Seeds and Planting Material : This scheme aims to increase the production of quality seeds and farms-saved seeds and enhance SRR. To make the seed multiplication chain more powerful, to promote new methods and technologies of seed production, testing, etc., and to increase the modern infrastructure for seed production, quality, storage, and certification, etc.
6. SMAM – Sub-Mission on Agricultural Mechanization : It aims to give the farming machines to the areas where the availability of farm power is low or the farmers do farming at a very small scale. To develop Custom Hiring centers, to create a hub for high technology farm equipment, to carry out demonstrations and capacity building activities for creating awareness among stakeholders, and to test the performance and quality of the designated testing centers all over the country.
7. SMPPQ – Sub Mission on Plant Protection and Plan Quarantine : It aims at preventing crop damage due to insects, weeds, or other foreign material. To safeguard the agriculture bio-security from the invasion of alien species, to support the export of Indian produce to the global market, to promote better agriculture practices and plant protection strategies.
8. ISACES – Integrated Scheme on Agriculture Census, Economics, and Statistics : It mainly aims to undertake agriculture census and studies on agro-economic problems of India, and to study the cultivation expanses of main crops, conference funding, workshops seminars, etc. with agricultural scientists and experts in order to release papers of short term studies.
9. ISAC – Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Cooperation : This scheme aims to give financial help to make the condition of cooperatives better, removing regional imbalances, to increase agricultural processing, storage, marketing, and computerization. To ensure the supply of quality yarn at reasonable rates to the decentralized weavers, and help cotton growers fetch a remunerative price for their produce through value addition.
10. ISAM – Integrated Scheme on Agricultural Marketing : To develop agricultural marketing infrastructure, to promote innovative technologies for upgraded marketing infrastructure for agriculture, To provide infrastructure for grading, quality certification of agricultural production. To create a common online platform to facilitate pan-India trade.
11. NeGP-A – National e-Governance Plan : It aims to improve the farmer’s condition with respect to accessing the information of their use, enhance and integrate the existing ICT initiatives of the Centre and States, to provide relevant and time to time information to farmers to have good production. This scheme is farmer-centric and service-oriented.

Total Central Share in Green Revolution

Check below the total central share in the Green Revolution Krishonnati Yojana Schemes:

Impacts of Green Revolution in India

1. It increased agricultural production and the food grains has increased remarkably. Wheat grains production has risen the most. It increased to 55 million tonnes during the starting of the revolution in India.
2. It also increased the per hectare yield along with the increase in agricultural output from 850kg/hectare to 2281 kg/hectare in the case of wheat during the initial stages.
3. India no more depends on the import of agricultural produce and became self-sufficient. After the introduction of the green revolution, India started meeting the increasing demand of the population and even started maintaining stock for emergencies. India also started exporting its produce.
4. It removed the fear from the people that commercial farming can lead to unemployment and farmers are no longer jobless. It created jobs for many other sectors like transportation, communication, irrigation, etc.
5. It majorly benefited the farmers of India. It increased their income remarkably and risen their living standard. They shifted from sustenance farming to commercial farming.
6. We can see a rapid increase in the production of food grains because of this revolution.

There is always a negative side to everything, the same as in the case of the Green Revolution.

Let’s look at the negative impacts of the Green Revolution:

1. The agriculture Growth retarded due to insufficient irrigation, farm size shrinkage, technology failure, improper plan layout, and slow credit transfer system.
2. There was no regional equality as the revolution worked better in the areas tech-savvy areas, the revolution worked better for wheat grains, so, the farmers growing wheat got the most benefit.
3. The large farmers made more profit by growing more and they started purchasing the lands of small farmers which eventually lead to the loss of small farmers.

Frequently Asked Questions about the Green Revolution in India

Q1. When was the green revolution started?
Ans. The Green revolution was started in the 1970s.

Q2. Who used the term ‘Green revolution’ to increase agriculture production in India?
Ans. M.S. Swaminathan

Q3. Who was known as the father of the green revolution in the world?
Ans. Norman Borlaug

Q4. Which state was the first chosen for the green revolution?
Ans. Punjab

Q5. What are the main aspects of the Green Revolution in India?
Ans. High Yielding Varieties, Mechanization of Agriculture, Chemical fertilizers and pesticide use and Irrigation.

Q6. Was the Green Revolution really beneficial for the country?
Ans. Yes, the Green revolution has benefited the country a lot. Although there were some negative impacts of this revolution, if we look at the positive impacts, we can understand it has more positive impacts than negative impacts.