GREEN REVOLUTION

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.

The major benefits of the Green Revolution were experienced mainly in northern and northwestern India between 1965 and the early 1980s; the program resulted in a substantial increase in the production of food grains, mainly wheat and rice. Food-grain yields continued to increase throughout the 1980s, but the dramatic changes in the years between 1965 and 1980 were not duplicated. By FY 1980, almost 75 percent of the total cropped area under wheat was sown with high-yielding varieties. For rice the comparable figure was 45 percent. In the 1980s, the area under high-yielding varieties continued to increase, but the rate of growth overall was slower. The eighth plan aimed at making high-yielding varieties available to the whole country and developing more productive strains of other crops

In 2006, Dr Norman Borlaug, widely known as the 'Father of India's Green Revolution', was presented India's second highest civilian honour, the Padma Vibhushan, by India's ambassador in Mexico City.

The environmental impact of excessive use to chemical fertilizers and pesticides was only revealed as years passed by. In 2009, under a GreenpeaceResearch Laboratories investigation, Dr Reyes Tirado, from the University of Exeter, UK, conducted a study in 50 villages in Muktsar, Bathinda and Ludhiana districts that revealed chemical, radiation and biological toxicity was rampant in Punjab. 20% of the sampled wells showed nitrate levels above the safety limit of 50 mg/l, established by WHO. The study connected this finding with high use of synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.^[3] With increasing poisoning of the soil, the region once hailed as the home to the Green Revolution, now due to excessive use of chemical fertilizer, is being termed by one columnist as the "OtherBhopal".^[4] For example, Buddha Nullah, a rivulet which run through Malwa region of Punjab, India, and after passing through highly populated Ludhiana district, before draining into Sutlej River, a tributary of the Indus river, 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 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 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.