Green Revolution and its impact on Indian Agriculture (original) (raw)
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Indian agriculture after the Green Revolution
2017
The Green Revolution turned India from a country plagued with chronic food shortages into a food grain self-sufficient nation within the decade of 1968-1978. By contrast, the decade of 1995-2005 witnessed a spate of suicides among farmers in many parts of the country. These tragic incidents were symptomatic of the severe stress and strain that the agriculture sector had meanwhile accumulated. The book recounts how the high achievements of the Green Revolution had overgrown to a state of 'agrarian crisis'. In the process, the book also brings to fore the underlying resilience and innovativeness in the sector which enabled it not just to survive through the crisis but to evolve and revive out of it. The need of the hour is to create an environment that will enable the agricultural sector to acquire the robustness to contend with the challenges of lifting levels of farm income and with climate change. To this end, a multi-pronged intervention strategy has been suggested. Reviving public investment in irrigation, tuning agrarian institutions to the changed context, strengthening market institutions for better farm-to-market linkage and financial access of farmers, and preparing the ground for ushering in technological innovations should form the major components of this policy paradigm.
A good comprehensive book that covers all major issues of Indian agriculture, over time and space, has been missing for a while, and here is one such book by Akina Venkateswerlu which can fill that void. With broad objective to cover all issues and give a political economy analysis at one place, the book becomes little bulky, with about 22 chapters, divided into seven parts. These essentially cover a long list of issues like colonial impact, land reforms, Green Revolution, Neoliberal reforms, credit, marketing, extension, PDS, procurement, WTO obligations, GM seeds, SEZs, post-globalization agrarian crisis, and mode of production, blending critical review, data and policy issues, covering seventy years. The breadth of issues covered at one place has its advantages. The book has an implicit framework of political economy, state policy being seen as an outcome of promoting interests of contending class forces. The book purports the efforts of the state to promote growth determined by the capital accumulation, the speed and the social character of the accumulating class. The standard narrative of this approach presents the policy failures and achievements as progressive and constrained process of aiding the capitalist development. The book in its part gives precisely these aspects, locating them since colonial times to the post-independent development. Chapter 1 discusses the impact of colonial policy on Indian agriculture, its forcible commercializing, taxation policies, creating complex semi-feudal structures in land, labour, credit and output markets and the resultant long-term stagnation and misery. The book also takes us at a great length through the failures of making progressive land redistribution (chapters 4 and 5) and resorting to technological options to increase the market surplus. The book puts the assessment of green revolution, including India, as of precarious dependence on US imports under PL 480 and its influence on our policy choices of technology. In spite of criticism, green revolution is hailed for boosting area under new seeds, productivity and output and in enabling the country to overcome acute food shortage, become self-sufficient, reduce rural poverty, increased modernization, per capital availability and an agrarian change. The book takes us through the achievements, growth from mid-seventies and eighties, increasing yields, expanded area and production. Chapters 7, 8 and 9 elaborately document
India’s Agricultural Growth Propellers
Amber Waves, 2016
Since the 1980s, Indian agriculture has undergone a shift in production as farmers have planted less area to food grains and more to high-value crops. This shift coincides with strong economic growth, which has boosted incomes and, in turn, expanded consumer demand for higher valued foods, such as fruit, vegetables, milk, and some meat products. Yet, India's agricultural policies continue to follow a Green Revolution strategy developed to achieve grain self-sufficiency in the 1960s. That strategy focuses on investments in agricultural research, irrigation, transportation, and market infrastructure, and on output and PRINT PDF EMAIL
Indian Agriculture: Before and After Economic Reforms
Agriculture once known as the backbone of Indian Economy is at present at its worst, thanks to the anti farmer, pro-Industry policy of the various Indian Governments since 1991. India is once considered as the "Ann Data" of the entire world is struggling even to manage the own demand-supply problem of various agricultural commodities. The farmers are committing suicides, are celebrating "Crop Holidays" and are fighting with Govt. for illegal acquisition of land for developing Real estate or other commercially viable projects at the cost of Agriculture. The aim of this paper is to bring out the present scenario in the field of agriculture that leads to the minimum contribution of Agriculture in the Indian GDP, once the main contributor. This paper will discuss the various issues like less technical support to farmers, poor quality seeds, inappropriate storage, Minimum Support Price, irrigation, the problem of credit availability and above all the impact of Liberal...
Impact of green revolution in India
International Journal of Health Sciences (IJHS), 2022
Ever since from classical times, the Indian economy is totally dependent on agriculture. During the1950s, India experience a terrible food crisis that is identified as the Bengal Famine. Agricultural planning has also resulted in a relative increase in crop yield. This advancement is known as the "Green Revolution," a modern phase of agricultural growth. The green revolution denotes an increase in agricultural output through the use of high-yielding seed varieties (HYVS), water management, chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides, and high technological assistance, among other things. The Green Revolution had a significant positive influence on the state's agricultural industry. Despite a huge positive impacts, the majority of people in India suffer from over usage of fertilisers, malnutrition and poor health. This study attempts to analyse the positive and negative impacts of Green Revolution.
In the Shadow of the Green Revolution: How India's Farms Have Changed over Time
Agricultural Growth With Sustainability: An Indian Perspective, 2023
This paper summarises how India’s Green Revolution has grown to become a detriment for the modern society. It outlines the progress of the country’s agriculture and emphasizes the impact of the agricultural practices adopted just after independence - one of the most challenging times in the country’s economic history. Through the adoption of industrialised farming practices, the country benefitted early on, yet the continual usage of such practices has proven to be heavily detrimental in the long run, which is also mentioned in this work. This paper also shares a few recommendations on sustainable farming practices. Keywords: Green Revolution, Farming Practices, Fertilizer Use, Sustainable Agriculture
Agricultural Growth in India: Examining the Post-Green Revolution Transition
India has enjoyed rapid economic growth over the past forty years, GDP per capita (PPP$) accelerating from less than 1% in the 1970s to over 5.8% in the 2000s. As incomes have risen, consumer demand has shifted from staple grains toward higher valued foods, such as horticultural and livestock products. Indian farmers appear to be meeting these new growth opportunities. But as production shifts, questions are being raised about agriculture's ability to meet the basic food needs of India's 1.24 billion citizens. Central to these questions has been the waning impact of cereal grain technologies typified by the Green Revolution. Our purpose is to examine the productivity growth implications of farmers' decisions to diversify production and to assess new sources of growth in Indian agriculture. In doing so, we construct new production and productivity accounts and evaluate total factor productivity (TFP) growth, from 1980 to 2008, at the national, regional, and state levels. Results suggest renewed growth in aggregate TFP growth despite a slowdown in cereal grain yield growth. TFP growth appears to have shifted to the Indian South and West, led by growth in horticultural and livestock products.