The impact of the Green Revolution in India was mainly for food crops such as rice and wheat. The High Yield Variety (HYV) seeds in agriculture and tested with better and more efficient irrigation and correct use of fertilizers to increase crop productivity. It makes it self-sufficient and independent in food grains.
Due to lack of irrigation systems, the grain productivity was more challenging still it depends upon the monsoons.
In this blog, we will discuss the impacts of the Green Revolution on indigenous crop production, its effects on society, the environment, per capita nutritional intake and food availability.
Benefits of Green Revolution:
- All crops grown from seeds need water several times during their growth.
- The Green Revolution improved the indoor irrigation capacities around farms in India, which is the Green Revolution’s biggest impact on agriculture.
- Cash crops like cotton, jute and oilseeds were not part of the plan.
- Increased availability of food grains and the use of fertilizers to improve farm productivity.
- Use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers to overcome any loss or damage to crops.
Impacts of Green Revolution:
The Green Revolution has influenced the economic way of life in India to a large extent, in the following are:
Increase in agricultural production:
Wheat production has increased its cultivation in India. While the overall increase in cereal production has been only twice. Because of this, the Green Revolution in India is said to be largely the Wheat Revolution. The application of the new agricultural strategy results in substantially increased food grains and pulses.
Reduction of food grain imports:
The main thing about the Green Revolution could increase the production of food grains, which led to a drastic reduction in their imports. India was finally on the road to self-sufficiency after the Green Revolution. Agriculture was able to feed by everyone and its a sufficient food production for the population.
Culture Pattern Change:
There are some major changes in the cultivation pattern, and it is important. First, the amount of grain in food grains has increased and the amount of legumes has decreased. Second, the amount of wheat grains has increased while that of coarse grains has decreased.
Benefit for farmers:
The green revolution has benefited large-scale farmers. Their income has shown a significant increase. Not only did they survive, but they also made it prosper for others. This enabled and made them able to switch to commercial farming from survival farming alone.
Changing the farmer’s mindset:
A healthy contribution of the green revolution is the change in the mindset of farmers. Farmers began to believe that they could change their woes by adopting modern technology to increase farming. The farmer had remained illiterate, backward and traditional and had used conventional cultivation methods from the earliest times. But the green revolution brought about a fundamental change in his attitude towards agriculture. Easily adopted Green Revolution technology blew up the myth that the farmer is fundamentally tied to tradition and does not use new methods and techniques.
Industrial growth:
The Green Revolution encouraged large-scale agricultural mechanization which created a demand for different types of machines such as tractors, combines, threshers, diesel engines, electric motors, pump sets etc. In addition to the demand for chemical fertilizers, pesticides, insecticides and weedkillers have also increased significantly. Therefore, the industries producing these items have grown by leaps and bounds. In addition, several agricultural products are used as raw materials in various industries. These industries are known as agro-industries. Textiles, sugar, vanaspati, etc. are some outstanding examples of agro-food industries.
Conclusion:
The desire for better farming methods and the standard of living is growing not only to the relatively small number of wealthy farmers using the new technology but also among the countless farmers who have always come from outside. However, given the continuous growth of modern technologies and the extensive use of natural resources, many of them felt that agriculture cannot be sustainable in the future.
The non-degradable environmental nature of agricultural development and its ecological balance has been studied in relation to the modern Indian agricultural system by experts who show the exploitation of land and water for agriculture and the excessive use of chemicals.
