Green Revolution : Facts

What is the Green Revolution?

Ever since early man began cultivating land, he has been trying to improve the quality of seeds and yields. The ‘Green Revolution’ was initiated by Norman Ernest Borlaug an American agronomist who is considered as the “Father of Green Revolution’. It was his initiative to encourage the use of high yielding varieties of grains, better irrigation facilities etc.

Motive behind the Green Revolution

This revolution began as a measure to improve and increase the production of food globally by using better and improved irrigation facilities, pesticides and fertilizers, use of high yielding grains etc.

The successful use of various agricultural experiments refers to the ‘Green Revolution’ that took place in various developing countries. India is one of the countries where the Green Revolution had an excellent success rate.

Success of Green Revolution

1. The widespread shortage of food after the Second World War led to the need for better and improved systems of agriculture to provide food for the world.
2. The revolution is believed to have begun in Northwest Mexico after improved varieties of wheat increased the yield due to all the technological factors.
3. These new and improved practices replaced the traditional methods of farming in most developing countries. Rice, wheat and corn were the crops that found new life.

Green Revolution in India

• India was facing a massive famine situation in the 1960’s. This lead to India joining the Green Revolution.
• Our government chose the state of Punjab as the first place to try the new crop due to the availability of water for agriculture.
• India wanted to be self – sufficient in providing food for the large growing nation.
• To improve the yield, the green revolution adopted high yielding seeds, use of pesticides, various land reforms, new and improved infrastructure in rural areas, use of good fertilizers, easy and effective credit facilities to farmers and the establishment of good agricultural institutes and colleges.
• India grew one crop a year due to its rainfall season, the primary aspect of the green revolution was double cropping that was to grow two crops per season instead of the earlier practice of one crop. Large irrigation projects were set up to ensure the second crop farming every year.
• India produced new high quality yields of rice, wheat, corn and millet which lead to the increase of grains by millions of tonnes every year.