The Green Revolution has solved many problems and, at the same time, has posed many short comings.
1. Inter-Crop Imbalances: The effect of the Green Revolution is primarily felt on food-grains. Although all food-grains, including wheat, rice, jowar, bajra and maize, have gained from the Green Revolution, it is wheat which has benefited the most. It has wrested areas from coarse cereals, pulses and oil-seeds. The HYV seeds in the latter crops have either not been developed so far at all, or they are not good enough for the farmers to risk their adoption.
2. Regional Disparities: The Green Revolution technology has given birth to growing disparities in economic development at interred and intra-regional levels. It has so far affected only 40 per cent of the total cropped area and 60 per cent is still untouched by it. The most affected areas are Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh in the north, and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the south.
3. Increase in Inter-Personal Inequalities: It has been observed that it is the big farmer, having 10 hectares or more land, who is benefited the most from the Green Revolution, because he has the financial resources to purchase farm implements, better seeds, fertilizers and can arrange for regular supply of irrigation water for the crops.
4. Homogeneity of crop types made the crops more susceptible to infections:
One of the greatest problems of the Green Revolution is the fact that it reduced the genetic biodiversity of crops. Everyone was cropping the same type of crops in an area and this eliminated some of the local varieties from the crop map.
India registered significant increase in the agricultural production in the 1960s, consequent upon the adoption of new agricultural strategy and use of High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds and chemical fertilizers. The key pillars of the Green Revolution were High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and promoted irrigation facilities.
Prof. M.S. Swaminathan ushered in the Green Revolution and laid a firm foundation for India’s food security. Prof. Swaminathan has pioneered the introduction of High-Yielding Varieties of wheat and rice seedlings in the fields of poor farmers, which led to steep increase in the food production in the country and paved the way to feed millions of people.
The first World Agriculture Prize, instituted by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture, was conferred to Prof. M.S. Swaminathan.
The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) and private companies are already engaged in the development of hybrids and High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) seeds of different crops suitable for the varied agro-climatic conditions of the country for increasing yield of various crops. During last five years, more than 100 hybrids (maize-44, pearl millet-13, sorghum-5, rice-3, sunflower-9, castor-7, sesame-2 and cotton 23) have been released under different All India Coordinated Research Projects (AICRPs) of respective crops by ICAR Institutes and State Agricultural Universities.
