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Agriculture in Five Year Plans and Agricultural Revolutions

Agriculture plays a significant role in India's economy. According to the 2011 census, 54.6%
of the population is directly or indirectly engaged in agriculture and the allied activities.
Agriculture has contributed 16.5% to the country's Gross Value Added for the year 2019-20.
Let us have a look into the initiatives regarding the agricultural sector from the perspective
of various FYPs.

1st Five-year plan The agriculture sector was the top-most priority in the first plan
period.
The plan mainly focussed on increasing food production as there
was a food shortage in India.
About one-third (31%) of the allocation within the plan was
provided to the agriculture sector.
Major Agriculture reforms were taken such as the abolition of the
zamindari system
2nd Five-year plan During the second five-year plan period, priority was given to the
industrial sector.
The plan outlay for the agriculture sector was only 20%.
There was a shortage in the production of almost all the crops.
Food grains were imported to meet the demand.
3rd Five-year plan The main objective of the plan was to achieve self-sufficiency in
the food grain.
At the time of the 3rd five-year plan, India faced two wars, one
with China and another one with Pakistan. Due to wars, India
wanted self-sufficiency to reduce the import bill.
Programs like the Intensive Agricultural District Program and High
Yielding Varieties were introduced.
4th Five-year plan This was the time of the Green Revolution in agriculture.
Two-fold objectives relating to the agricultural sector were set
during the plan.
The first was providing the conditions necessary for a sustained
increase in the food production by about 5% per annum over the
decade of 1969-78.
Secondly, it was enabling a large section of the rural population,
including small farmers in the dry areas and agricultural laborers,
to participate in the process of agricultural development and share
its benefit.
5th Five-year plan The fifth five-year plan was introduced under a severe economic
crisis.
6th Five-year plan The agriculture sector grew at an annual rate of 4.3%, and food
grain production increased to 152 million tons, and this was
named as the second green revolution.
7th Five-year plan The plan emphasized on policies and programs for rapid growth in
food grains production.
This plan gave more emphasis on specific projects like Special Rice
Production Programme in the Eastern Region, National Watershed
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Programme for Rain Fed Agriculture, National Oilseeds

Development Project, and Social Forestry etc.
8th Five-year plan The eighth five-year plan was introduced in the changing economic
environment.
New Economic Policy (NEP) was introduced with stabilization and
structural adjustment measures.
The public sector outlay in eighth plan related to agriculture was
Rs. 22467 crores.
9th Five-year plan The much-awaited National Agricultural Policy 2000 was
announced during the ninth plan period.
National Seed Policy of 2002 and National Agricultural Insurance
Scheme was also introduced in this Five-year Plan.
The performance of the agriculture sector during this plan period
was not encouraging. The average growth was 2.06% through the
targeted growth was 3.9%.
10th Five-year plan Several programs such as National Horticulture Mission, Micro
Irrigation Programme, National Gender Resource Centre in
Agriculture, Jute Technology Mission, National Agricultural
Innovation Project, National Fisheries Development Board,
National Mission on Bamboo Technology and Trade Development
were started.
Most of the programmes were aimed at the diversification of
agriculture.
Government decided to set up a Krishi Vigyan Kendra (KVK) in each
rural district (578) in the country.
11th Five-year plan This plan emphasized inclusive growth to achieve a target growth
of 4% per annum in GDP from agricultural and allied services.

Several programs like National Food Security Mission (NFSM),

Rashtriya Krishi Vikas Yojana (RKVY), Macro Management of
Agriculture (MMA), Integrated Scheme of Oil Seeds, Pulses, Oil
Palm, and Maize (ISOPOM), National Mission for Sustainable
Agriculture (NMSA), National Project on Management of Soil
Health and Fertility (NPMSHF) were introduced.
12th Five-year plan This plan emphasized on 'faster, sustainable and more inclusive
growth.'
It set the target to achieve a growth of 4% in the agricultural
sector.
It also proposed a modified accelerated irrigation benefits
program and expanded watershed management project.
Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchai Yojana, PM Fasal Bima yojana, Soil
Health Card were also introduced.

The Five-year plan focuses on complete agriculture. On the other hand, there are some
revolutions that focussed on one crop or the same type of crops.
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Agricultural Revolutions
Agriculture revolution means a significant change in agricultural output when there are
inventions, discoveries, or new technology devised and implemented.

Name of the revolution Subject Personality Associated

Yellow Revolution Oilseeds Sam Pitroda
Blue revolution Fish Prof. Hiralal Chowdhury
Brown revolution Leather, Cocoa
Golden fibre Revolution Jute
Golden revolution Fruits/honey/horticulture
Grey revolution Fertilizer
Pink revolution Prawns, Onion Durgesh Patel
Evergreen revolution Overall production of M.S. Swaminathan
agriculture
Silver revolution Egg production Indira Gandhi
Silver Fibre Revolution Cotton
Round revolution Potato
Red Revolution Meat/Tomato production Vishal Tiwari
Green Revolution Food Grains Norman Borlaug, M S
Swaminathan
White Revolution Milk Verghese Kurien

Green Revolution
Green Revolution refers to the phenomenon of rapid increase in the production of food
grains during mid-sixties. It was achieved as a result of adoption of the new agricultural
strategy, which was based on High Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds.
This programme was implemented in India under the guidance of Dr. M.S. Swaminathan,
the noted agricultural scientist of India. This programme was introduced in the form of a
package programme, since it depended crucially on regular and adequate supply of
irrigation, fertilizers, high yielding seeds, pesticides and insecticides.
Achievements
Productivity: The new technology has brought about a sharp rise in the yield of land in
respect of food grains.
Production: The production of wheat more than doubled from 10.4 million tonnes in 1965-
66 to 23.8 million tonnes in 1970-71.
Intensive Cultivation: Most of the HYV seeds mature into plants in a shorter period of time.
It provided an opportunity for growing more than one crop on a field during a year i.e.
multiple cropping.
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Limitations
(a) Crop Imbalance: Though the HYV programme was restricted to only five crops— Wheat,
Rice, Jowar, Bajra, and Maize, Out of these wheat has made the most rapid strides, while
coarse cereals— Jowar, Bajra, Maize have shown little increase in production.
(b) Regional inequality: This programme had been applied to the areas which had adequate
and assured irrigation facilities. So, it largely remains confined to Punjab, Haryana and
Western Uttar Pradesh.
(c) Income inequality: The programme accentuated income disparities as the agricultural
inputs like chemical fertilizers were largely cornered by rich landlords.
(d) Ecological imbalance: The programme envisaged application of chemical fertilizers,
pesticides, insecticides etc in large quantities which has threatened agricultural
sustainability and ecological balance.
(e) Social cost: As agriculture became more profitable, many large farmers evicted tenants
to cultivate land themselves. Therefore, a large number of tenants and sharecroppers have
lost their land and they have been forced to join the ranks of agricultural labourers.
(f) Employment loss: Due to the adoption of new technology labour absorption of new
technology has reduced.
Second Green Revolution
The first green revolution focussed only on grain production; it did not help the dryland
farming and helped only large farmers. The call for second green revolution focuses on
these issues by adopting a different strategy to follow. In context with our country, the
second green revolution has been called for in Eastern States via the Bringing Green
Revolution in Eastern India (BGREI).
Evergreen Revolution
Father of the Green Revolution in India and renowned farm scientist M S Swaminathan has
given the call for ‘evergreen revolution’, “which implies productivity improvement in
perpetuity without ecological and social harm. The evergreen revolution involves the
integration of ecological principles in technology development and dissemination.
Integrating ecology and technology is the way forward towards an evergreen revolution.

Operation Flood was a rural development programme started by National Dairy

Development Board (NDDB) in 1970s. The objective of this programme was to create a
nationwide milk grid. Gujarat-based co-operation “Anand Milk Union Limited” (Amul) was
the engine behind the success of the programme.
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It ensured that the producer gets a major share of the price consumers pay, by eliminating
intermediaries. It resulted in making India one of the largest producers of milk and milk
products and hence is also called the White revolution of India.
It also augmented rural income and proved to be a significant anti-poverty measure as 60%
of the beneficiaries were marginal or small and landless farmers.