Green Revolution

What is the Green Revolution?

In the 1960s, there was concern from the Indian government that the country would not be able to grow enough food to support the ever increasing population.
They put into place what was called the 'Green Revolution'. 

What is the purpose of 'Green Revolution'?

The purpose of the 'Green Revolution' was to use technology to increase food output.
 

As a result, over the last 50 years a, series of changes have taken place in farming in India with the introduction of more 'Western-type' farming techniques.

History

The agricultural development that began in Mexico by Norman Borlaug in 1943 (based on Nazareno Strampelli's studies) had been judged as a success and the Rockefeller Foundation sought to spread it to other nations. The Office of Special Studies in Mexico became an informal international research institution in 1959, and in 1963 it formally became CIMMYT, The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

In 1961 India was on the brink of mass famine.Borlaug was invited to India by the adviser to the Indian minister of agriculture M. S. Swaminathan. Despite bureaucratic hurdles imposed by India's grain monopolies, the Ford Foundation and Indian government collaborated to import wheat seed from CIMMYT. Punjab was selected by the Indian government to be the first site to try the new crops because of its reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success. India began its own Green Revolution program of plant breeding, irrigation development, and financing of agrochemicals.

India soon adopted IR8 – a semi-dwarf rice variety developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) that could produce more grains of rice per plant when grown with certain fertilizers and irrigation. In 1968, Indian agronomist S.K. De Datta published his findings that IR8 rice yielded about 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer, and almost 10 tons per hectare under optimal conditions. This was 10 times the yield of traditional rice. IR8 was a success throughout Asia, and dubbed the "Miracle Rice". IR8 was also developed into Semi-dwarf IR36.

Wheat yields in developing countries, 1950 to 2004, kg/HA baseline 500. The steep rise in crop yields in the U.S. began in the 1940s. The percentage of growth was fastest in the early rapid growth stage. In developing countries maize yields are still rapidly rising.

In the 1960s, rice yields in India were about two tons per hectare; by the mid-1990s, they had risen to six tons per hectare. In the 1970s, rice cost about $550 a ton; in 2001, it cost under $200 a ton.India became one of the world's most successful rice producers, and is now a major rice exporter, shipping nearly 4.5 million tons in 2006.

Agricultural production

Technologies

The Green Revolution spread technologies that had already existed before, but had not been widely used outside industrialized nations. These technologies included modern irrigation projects, pesticides, synthetic nitrogen fertilizer and improved crop varieties developed through the conventional, science-based methods available at the time.

The novel technological development of the Green Revolution was the production of novel wheat cultivars. Agronomists bred cultivars of maize, wheat, and rice that are generally referred to as HYVs or “high-yielding varieties”. HYVs have higher nitrogen-absorbing potential than other varieties. Since cereals that absorbed extra nitrogen would typically lodge, or fall over before harvest, semi-dwarfing genes were bred into their genomes. A Japanese dwarf wheat cultivar (Norin 10 wheat), which was sent to Washington, D.C. by Cecil Salmon, was instrumental in developing Green Revolution wheat cultivars. IR8, the first widely implemented HYV rice to be developed by IRRI, was created through a cross between an Indonesian variety named “Peta” and a Chinese variety named “Dee-geo-woo-gen.”

With advances in molecular genetics, the mutant genes responsible for Arabidopsis thaliana genes (GA 20-oxidase, ga1, ga1-3, wheat reduced-height genes (Rht) and a rice semidwarf gene were cloned. These were identified as gibberellin biosynthesis genes or cellular signaling component genes. Stem growth in the mutant background is significantly reduced leading to the dwarf phenotype. Photosynthetic investment in the stem is reduced dramatically as the shorter plants are inherently more stable mechanically. Assimilates become redirected to grain production, amplifying in particular the effect of chemical fertilizers on commercial yield.

Production increases

Cereal production more than doubled in developing nations between the years 1961–1985.Yields of rice, maize, and wheat increased steadily during that period.The production increases can be attributed roughly equally to irrigation, fertilizer, and seed development, at least in the case of Asian rice.

While agricultural output increased as a result of the Green Revolution, the energy input to produce a crop has increased faster, so that the ratio of crops produced to energy input has decreased over time. Green Revolution techniques also heavily rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides and herbicides, some of which must be developed from fossil fuels, making agriculture increasingly reliant on petroleum products. Proponents of the Peak Oil theory fear that a future decline in oil and gas production would lead to a decline in food production or even a Malthusian catastrophe.

Success Of Green Revolution

The President of India in his address to the nation on the 50th year of India’s independence mentioned of few landmark scientific achievements. The near self-sufficiency in food and the agricultural transformation was one amongst them. Slow growth in total wheat production up to 1965 necessitated a large-scale food grain import by India under the soft (Public Law) PL480 system. The series of agricultural changes that happened after 1965 in cereal production was called “Green Revolution”. Many underestimated the impact of change and rated green revolution as just an increase in the food grain production. But it was the decision of the scientists, extension functionaries, policy makers, political system and above all the Indian farmer to go in for major changes, alterations and improvements in his way of farming. By 1970 the impact of the green revolution made many visionaries predict that India will become self sufficient in food grain production. The 80s made us believe that India will be able to construct adequate buffer stock to thwart the adverse weather and other calamities. The 1990s made us dream that we must be able to export some quantity of wheat. During crop year 2000, India harvested 76 million tonnes (MT) of wheat, an unsurpassed record. India continues to remain the second largest producer of wheat in the world. Despite the last few years of drought and terminal heat stress, the total annual wheat production remained at 70 MT. There is a need to keep the wheat price and supply affordable for the 240 million people below the poverty line. That apart, India will have 1.4 billion people to be cared and protected against food shortages by 2025. The last few years of decline in total production and the concern about the factor of productivity has necessitated an examination of the present stalemate. Wheat (Triticum spp.) is the most important winter cereal of India and is grown during November to mid-April. Wheat is grown during the non-monsoon months, demands less water and it is less vulnerable to yield variation. Since the monsoon season crop remains at the mercy of rainfall, and that for having a reliable and robust food security system, winter season crop of wheat was chosen.