Here is your brief on Paragraph Green Revolution!
During the sixties, Indian agriculture experienced a spectacular increase in production, especially in that of wheat and rice crops. It was mainly through an increase in productivity per hectare of these crops.
The jump in the rate of increase in productivity of these crops was so sudden and conspicuous that some economists termed the new change as ‘Green Revolution’.
The term ‘Green Revolution’ denotes the well-marked improvement in the agricultural production in a short period and the sustenance of a high level of agricultural production over a fairly long period of time.
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Collins Dictionary of Sociology defines green revolution as “the introduction of new species of crops and new techniques leading to greater crop yields. This began in Mexico in the 1950s, and from the mid 1960s new high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat were introduced in many Third World Countries. The most noticeable applications were in the Indian subcontinent.”
The genesis of Green Revolution is associated with the name of Prof. Normal Boriaug of Mexico who could develop a new high yielding variety of wheat during mid-sixties. Indian Agricultural Scientists developed a number of new high yielding varieties of wheat by processing wheat seeds imported from Mexico.
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These varieties were having production potentialities of 60-65 quintals per hectare. A similar improvement in the variety of rice was also observed during mid-sixties.
The “New Agricultural Strategy” involving use of high yielding varieties (HYVs) was put into practice for the first time in India in the Kharif season of 1966 and was termed High Yielding Varieties Programme (HYVP). The highest level of the production of wheat earlier was 12.3 million tonnes in the country. In the year 1967-68, it increased to 16.6 million tonnes.
This quantum-jump in wheat production as well as the promise of a similar leap in rice opened up by the semi-draft rice varieties prompted the American Scientist Dr. William Gande to say that what is happening is a revolution in farmer’s fields in the tropics and sub-tropics. Dr. Gande termed the spectacular success of Indian agriculture in the field of wheat production as “Green Revolution”. The credit for it goes not only to Noble Laureate Dr. Norman Boriaug but also to Dr. M.S. Swaminathan, the noted Indian Scientist.