Green Revolution

Due to food shortage and famine, institutional reforms in land and agriculture were carried out to increase the food production and making agriculture a profitable proposition in the country in late fifties and sixties. Further technological advances and assured benefits led the country towards Green Revolution. The areas with assured irrigation and other natural and institutional advantages were provided with critical inputs like High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. Farmers in these areas were also given agricultural machinery like tractors, pumps sets and tubewells at convenient terms. Facility of soil testing, agricultural credits and guidance from agricultural universities were provided. Apart from providing these facilities to the farmers the government also set up an Agricultural Prices Commission in 1965 to set the price of food products that is commonly known as Minimum Support Price. In this way the package of public investment, institutional credit, remunerative prices and easy availability of technological help made agriculture a profitable proposition. This New Agricultural Strategy or the Green Revolution led to phenomenal growth in agricultural production. Between 1968 to 1971 food grain production rose by 35 per cent. Very soon India emerged as a country not only with buffer food stock but also as a food supplier. There has been a criticism of the Green Revolution that it further accentuated regional inequalities by focusing on areas that already had some advantages. But in later, development in transport infrastructure, all areas of the country is benefited from Green Revolution. Farmers with minor holding of land also benefited by producing cash crop rather than the conventional crops.