Population & Associated Issues

Green Revolution literally means a spurt in crop production. It included the introduction of HYV ( High yielding variety) seeds , chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other toolkits to farmers for increasing production of crops. It was done during the leadership

Successes :

• Self Sufficiency- Before Green Revolution, India had to import grains from other countries like US to fulfill the needs of the people of India. This also influenced the foreign decisions of the country in one or the other way. After the revolution, the country became self sufficient in the production of major crops and also even started exporting some.
• Technology – Green Revolution made the farmers familiar with technological methods which help in more yield. Earlier they relied on only traditional methods of crop production.
• Irrigation system – Prior to this revolution, farmers relied heavily on rainfall for irrigation, but after this many projects were taken up to provide irrigation through canals , dams etc.
• Rise in income of farmers- As crop production increased dramatically, the profit of farmers also increased and many became rich and powerful.

Limitations –

• Unequal regional benefits – Green Revolution only helped certain parts of the country like parts of Rajasthan, Western UP , Punjab and Haryana mainly to become prosperous. Rest of the country’s agriculture was not much benefitted. This created a regional gap in prosperity.
• Small and marginal farmers not benefitted – only those farmers who could afford the new technology were benefitted and many small and marginal farmers were outside the benefits of the programme.
• Environmental degradation – the use of immense chemical fertilizers, pesticides and other tools led to a decline in soil fertility and impacted the environment.

The Green Revolution was an important part of Indian agriculture. It made the country self sufficient and gave to new horizons to farming. Yet, there are limitations of it which are experienced today also . Only some farmers are prosperous and mostly are poor and needy. The injection of chemicals into crops has degraded its quality and nutritional values . As a result now people actually want to move towards traditional methods through ways like organic farming.