Green Revolution in India
Encyclopedia
The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds
Hybrid seed
In agriculture and gardening, hybrid seed is seed produced by cross-pollinated plants. In hybrid seed production, the crosses are specific and controlled. The advantage of growing hybrid seed compared to inbred lines comes from heterosis...

 and the increased use of fertilizers and irrigation
Irrigation
Irrigation may be defined as the science of artificial application of water to the land or soil. It is used to assist in the growing of agricultural crops, maintenance of landscapes, and revegetation of disturbed soils in dry areas and during periods of inadequate rainfall...

 are known collectively as the Green Revolution
Green Revolution
Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s, that increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s....

, which provided the increase in production needed to make India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...

self-sufficient in food grains, thus improving agriculture in India
Agriculture in India
Agriculture in India has a significant history. Today, India ranks second worldwide in farm output. Agriculture and allied sectors like forestry and logging accounted for 16.6% of the GDP in 2007, % of the total workforce and despite a steady decline of its share in the GDP, is still the largest...

. Famine in India
Famine in India
Famine has been a recurrent feature of life in the Indian sub-continental countries of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, and reached its numerically deadliest peak in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Historical and legendary evidence names some 90 famines in 2,500 years of history. There...

, once accepted as inevitable, has not returned since the introduction of Green Revolution crops. Genetically modified high-yielding wheat was first introduced to India in 1963 by Dr. Norman Borlaug. Borlaug has been hailed as the Father of the Green Revolution.

Results

The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds after 1965 and the increased use of fertilizers and irrigation are known collectively as the Green Revolution, which provided the increase in production needed to make India self-sufficient in food grains, thus improving agriculture in India. Famine in India, once accepted as inevitable, has not returned since the introduction of Green Revolution crops.

Of the high-yielding seeds, wheat produced the best results. All India Radio (AIR) played a vital role in creating awareness for these methods. Along with high yielding seeds and irrigation facilities, the enthusiasm of farmers mobilized the idea of agricultural revolution and is also credited to All India Radio.
M. S. Swaminathan
M. S. Swaminathan
Maankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan is an Indian agriculture scientist in Kuttanad, kerala. He was the second of four sons of a doctor.He is known as the "Father of the Green Revolution in India", for his leadership and success in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in...

 and his team had contributed towards the success of green revolution. green revolution has had its share of bad and good things. Due to the rise in use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers there were many negative effects on the soil and the land. This method of the soil getting polluted by the overuse of chemicals is known as land degradation.

Environmental impact

The environmental impact of excessive use to chemical fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...

s and pesticides was only revealed as years passed by. Punjab
Punjab (India)
Punjab ) is a state in the northwest of the Republic of India, forming part of the larger Punjab region. The state is bordered by the Indian states of Himachal Pradesh to the east, Haryana to the south and southeast and Rajasthan to the southwest as well as the Pakistani province of Punjab to the...

 had been selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success. In 2009, under a Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...

 Research Laboratories investigation, Dr Reyes Tirado, from the University of Exeter
University of Exeter
The University of Exeter is a public university in South West England. It belongs to the 1994 Group, an association of 19 of the United Kingdom's smaller research-intensive universities....

, UK, conducted a study in 50 villages in Muktsar
Muktsar
Sri Muktsar Sahib is a city and a municipal council in Sri Muktsar Sahib district in the Indian state of Punjab. Sri Muktsar Sahib's historical name was Khidrane dee dhab .-Demographics: India census, Sri Muktsar Sahib has a population of 3,96,030...

, Bathinda and Ludhiana district
Ludhiana District
-Rainfall:The rainfall in the district increases from the southwest toward the northeast. About 70% of the rainfall is received during the period of July through September...

s of Punjab that revealed chemical, radiation and biological toxicity there was rampant. About 20% of the sampled wells showed nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg/l, established by WHO
Who
Who may refer to:* Who , an English-language pronoun* who , a Unix command* Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism- Art and entertainment :* Who? , a 1958 novel by Algis Budrys...

. The study connected this finding with high use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizer
Fertilizer
Fertilizer is any organic or inorganic material of natural or synthetic origin that is added to a soil to supply one or more plant nutrients essential to the growth of plants. A recent assessment found that about 40 to 60% of crop yields are attributable to commercial fertilizer use...

s. With increasing poisoning of the soil, the region once hailed as the home to the Green Revolution
Green Revolution
Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s, that increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s....

, now due to excessive use of chemical fertilizer, is being termed by one columnist as the "Other Bhopal". For example, Buddha Nullah
Buddha Nullah
Buddha Nullah or Buddha Nala is a seasonal water stream, which runs through the Malwa region of Punjab, India, and after passing through highly populated Ludhiana district, Punjab, India, it drains into Sutlej River, a tributary of the Indus river...

, a rivulet which run through Malwa
Malwa (Punjab)
Malwa is a region of Punjab and parts of Haryana between the Sutlej and Yamuna rivers. This Malwa should not be confused with the Malwa Plateau region of Madhya Pradesh, Central India...

 region of Punjab, India, and after passing through highly populated Ludhiana district
Ludhiana District
-Rainfall:The rainfall in the district increases from the southwest toward the northeast. About 70% of the rainfall is received during the period of July through September...

, before draining into Sutlej River, a tributary of the Indus river
Indus River
The Indus River is a major river which flows through Pakistan. It also has courses through China and India.Originating in the Tibetan plateau of western China in the vicinity of Lake Mansarovar in Tibet Autonomous Region, the river runs a course through the Ladakh district of Jammu and Kashmir and...

, is today an important case point in the recent studies, which suggest this as another Bhopal in making. A joint study by PGIMER and Punjab Pollution Control Board in 2008, revealed that in villages along the Nullah, calcium, magnesium, fluoride, mercury, beta-endosulphan and heptachlor
Heptachlor
Heptachlor is an organochlorine compound that was used as an insecticide. Usually sold as a white or tan powder, heptachlor is one of the cyclodiene insecticides. In 1962, Rachel Carson's Silent Spring questioned the safety of heptachlor and other chlorinated insecticides. Due to its highly...

 pesticide were more than permissible limit (MPL) in ground and tap waters. Plus the water had high concentration of COD and BOD (chemical and biochemical oxygen demand), ammonia, phosphate, chloride, chromium, arsenic and chlorpyrifos
Chlorpyrifos
Chlorpyrifos is a crystalline organophosphate insecticide that inhibits acetylcholinesterase and is used to control insect pests. It is known by many trade names...

pesticide. The ground water also contains nickel and selenium, while the tap water has high concentration of lead, nickel and cadmium.

In addition to large inputs of fertilizers and pesticides, the Green Revolution in India was made possible in large part by a dramatic increase in irrigation, particularly from deep groundwater sources. The exploitation of groundwater resources allowed farmers to double-crop (grow crops even during the dry season) and to grow water-intensive crops such as rice in areas that were traditionally unsuited for rice production.

This growth in irrigation has led to an alarming drop in the water table in a number of key agricultural Indian states, such as Punjab, where the water table is reportedly falling by about 1 meter per year. In other states, the problem is worse; in Gujarat, the water table is falling by as much as 3-5 meters per year.
What this means is that without a dramatic change in agricultural practice, groundwater resources could be depleted within a few years. In the case of Gujarat and other coastal areas, intrusion of seawater could render underground aquifers useless for human consumption or agriculture.
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