Paragraph on Green Revolution in India!
Green Revolution owes its origin in the findings of new dwarf variety of wheat seed by Dr. Norman Earnest Borlaug.
He was incharge of Wheat Development Programme in Mexico in the 1950s and was the genetic architect of the dwarf wheat.
Earlier, he and Dr. Hassar had conducted, in the late 1940s, most relentless breeding programme choosing the best of wheat genes in the world. His efforts at breeding a suitable dwarf variety was crowned with success by 1951 in Mexico and that country became self sufficient in food by 1956.
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Later on, the Japanese wheat variety NORIN-IO was crossed with the Mexican improved varieties and the first break through came in 1961 when the Mexican farmers could obtain yields as high as 7000 kg per hectare which was about 2½ times the previous varieties.
Green Revolution in rice was triggered off by intense upsurge in rice research resulting from the establishment of International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) at Manila. Some work on rice had been done in Taiwan also.
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Although seeds of the Green Revolution were sown in early 1950s in Mexico, the term Green Revolution was first used by the then Administrator of the U.S. AID, William S. Gadd on 8 March, 1968 in Washington D.C. when he addressed the Society for International Development on the subject Green Revolution – Accomplishments and Apprehensions.
In India, the seeds of Green Revolution were first field tested in the drought year of 1964-65. They were introduced to the Indian scientists by Dr. Borlaug in 1963. He had predicted in 1961 that India could double her wheat production in one decade. India received 100 kg seeds each of four dwarf and semi dwarf varieties. These seeds were planted in different soils in Delhi, Ludhiana, Pusa and Kanpur.
The yield was over 4,000 kg per hectare which was about four times the yield of local varieties. These varieties were released for general cultivation after experimentation, multiplication and demonstrations by Indian scientists in about 100 different farmers’ fields. In 1966, about 16,000 tonnes of seeds were imported for cultivating about 4 lakh hectares of land.
High Yielding Varieties Programme (HYVP) was introduced in the kharif season of 1966. The production of food grains in 1967-68 was 25 per cent higher than that of 1966-67. This increase was more than the increase recorded in the preceding 16 years of plan period.
This unprecedented increase in production was nothing less than a revolution and it was termed as Green Revolution. In the words of Dr. Hassar, The Green Revolution is the phrase generally used to describe the spectacular increase that took place during 1968 and is continuing in the production of food-grains in India.
Unfortunately, Green Revolution left its impact only in Punjab, Haryana and Western U.P. in respect of wheat production and Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in respect of rice production. There seems to be no valid reason why other states cannot follow suit and get the benefit of Green Revolution.
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Sudhir Sen was quite justified when he said, The Green Revolution is not a misnomer nor is it a fancy phrase; it is already much a reality. It has not only solved the food problem of India and other developing countries but it has brought the solid assurance that the problem can be solved. It has given them a breathing space in a period of spiralling population, to come to grips with the problem and set their economic house in order.