GREEN REVOLUTION

Abstract
In recent years India is experiencing a rapid economic growth, especially after the 1990s when
India started to liberalize its economy in a full scale. However the economists emphasizes the
critical importance of the preceded 1980s when Indian agricultural sector registered a high
growth rate. The green revolution in India started in the late 1960s and with its success India
attained food self sufficiency within a decade. However, this first wave of green revolution was
largely confined in wheat crop and in Northern India such as Punjab, resulting in a limited
contribution to overall economic development of the country. On the contrary , the agricultural
growth in the 1980s (known as second wave of the green revolution) involved almost all the
crops including rice and covered the whole country, it enabled to raise rural income and alleviate
rural property substantially. Such a rise of rural India as a market for non agricultural products
and services was an important pre-requisite for the rapid economic growth based on the non
agricultural sectors’ development in India after the 1990s.
The Green Revolution refers to a research and development and technology transfer initiatives,
occurring between the 1930s and the late 1960s (with prequels in the work of the agrarian
geneticist Nazareno Strampelli in the 1920s and 1930s), that increased agricultural production
worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.[1]
The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the
"Father of the Green Revolution," who received
the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, credited with
saving over a billion people from starvation,
involved the development of high-yielding
varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation
infrastructure, modernization of management
techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds,
synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

“Green Revolution – a strategy that brought a change in structure of Indian agriculture”

and I have arranged my paper as follows:
1. Abstract
2. Salutation
3. Introduction
4. History
5. Green Revolution in India
6. Agricultural sector development in India
7. Impacts of Green Revolution
8. Food security
9. Environmental impact
10. Different type of impact of green revolution
11. Summary and conclusion
Introduction
The green revolution was the technological
response to the world wide food storage
which became threatening in the period after
the world war II. The green revolution
transformed farming practices in many
region of the tropics and sub-tropics where
the principal food crops were rice , wheat
and maize, but the brief account follows will
be mainly focused on the Indian
subcontinent.

In the 1960s, the green revolution allowed less developed countries , such as India, to overcome
chronic food deficits. Basically, green revolution stands for producing more food and other
agricultural products from less land. At the beginning of the green revolution there was a large
growth in Indian agriculture however, instability rose, and the green revolution was on a rapid
decline. In the end it caused a shortage of water.

Before the green revolution was introduced prior to the 1960s , farmer’s main goal was to
produce wheat and rice. These varieties had a low yield per hectare , which means that these
crops took one year to produce and in order for farmers to increase production , there would have
to be a change. . the change would have to consist of irrigation facilities, fertilizers, and the
pesticides. In order for these to work properly, there would have to be a sufficient quantity of
waters and fertilizers. At the beginning, many farmers thought if they could double their
production of crops in one season, that they would do whatever they could do increase crop
production, improving high yielding varieties of what was a major factor, which finally led to
green revolution.

The introduction of high-yielding varieties of seeds and the increased use of chemical fertilizers
provided the agriculture industry in Indian increase in production. The green revolution was
thought to pave to way for rapid industrial growth, but in the end it did exactly the opposite. It
created a shortage. At the time, when the green revolution first began, it was considered one of
the most significant technologies achievements in the agricultural industry . the green revolution
dramatically increased global food production over next two decades, particularly in India.
History
With the experience of agricultural development begun in Mexico by Norman Borlaug in 1943
judged as a success, the Rockefeller foundation sought to spread it to other nations. The office of
the 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 of
Indian minister of agriculture M.S. Swaminathan. Despite bureaucratic hurdles imposed by
India’s grain monopolies , the ford foundations and the 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 Dutta published his findings that ir8
rice yielded about 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer, and almost 10 tons per hectare under
optimal condition. 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.
In the 1960s, rice yields in India are about 2 tons per hectare: by the mid-1990s , they had risen
to 6 tons per hectare. In the 1970s , rice costs about $550 a ton; in 2001, it costs 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.

Green Revolution in India

Before focusing on the agricultural sector development in India,

looking briefly at the overall economic development
development process of the country since independence in 1947
until the present day would not a matter.
the economic growth rates of India in order to
eliminate year to year fluctuation is explained earlier
by showing growth rates in India between GDP and
primary industry each year from 1952 to 2005. Here
India suffered a relatively economic growth rates
around 3.5 percent per annum until the late 1970s,
with a large fluctuations due to the influence of the
agricultural sector growth which largely depended on
the monsoon situation. Indian economy then
experienced some improvement in the 1980s because
of the government’s liberalization policies (but not in
full scale) under the Rajiv Gandhi regime and a relatively high growth rate attained by the
agricultural sector in the decade. And finally, after the full-scale economic liberalization in 1991
the economic growth rates in India accelerated to a very high level (usually more than 6
percent ,and even more than 8 percent after the mid-2000s) until recently. It is notable at the
same time that the agricultural sector growth started to clearly lag behind the GDP growth since
the 1990s , which indicates that the Indian economy was plunged into a new developmental stage
after the 1990s where the widening disparity between agricultural and non-agricultural sectors is
one of the major problems for the economy.

Agricultural sector development in India by dividing the whole period from the independence to
the present time into several periods

1. Until the mid -1960s

It is well known that the agricultural sector of British colonial India, especially the crop sector,
was totally stagnant or even a negative growth was recorded in the entire first half of the 20th
century. This pattern, however, was reversed at the independence in 1947. The food grains
(which is defined in India as cereals plus pulses) production registered a high growth in India at
4.13 percent during 1951-52 to 1960-61 on average. Both the sown area expansion and the crop
yield increase were contributed to the growth. The growth rate of the agricultural sector was
decelerated during the period 1951 – 1961. The priority of the government’s agricultural policy
was primarily given to institutional reforms such as the land reform and the promotion of
farmers‟ cooperatives. As a „socialist‟ nation India strongly promoted a heavy industrialization,
especially after the second Five Year Plan (1956-57 to 1960-61), leaving the agricultural sector
relatively neglected.
Severe two years‟ consecutive droughts attacked India in the mid-1960s. agriculture
recorded a large negative growth and India faced a serious food problem. Since the share of the
agricultural sector in GDP was still very high at about 50 percent, the slump of agriculture hit the
economy as a whole and even the political regime itself. India was obliged to import as much as
10 million tons of food (mainly wheat) for the two years.

2. From the mid-1960s to the end of the 1970s

The serious economic and political crisis which India faced in the mid-1960s triggered the big
conversion of agricultural policy of the government; i.e. it emphasized technological innovation
and started to introduce new agricultural technologies from abroad. And it was a fortunate
coincidence for India that the mid-1960s was the time when new seed-fertilizer technologies
started to diffuse in the tropical developing world. In particular, it was luckily found that the
wheat HYVs (Mexican semi-dwarf wheat varieties) developed in CIMMYT in Mexico were
quite suitable for the climate conditions in the northern India such as Punjab. And the most
important factor which promoted the dissemination of the new technologies was the diffusion of
private tube-wells which exploit groundwater.
Thus the new seed-fertilizer technologies, especially for the wheat crop, started to disseminate
very rapidly in northern India and within a decade or so India attained food self-sufficiency
except for some drought years. It can be called the first „wave‟ of the Green Revolution in India.
However, Indian economy as a whole had to experience a bitter „lost decade‟ during the mid-
1960s to the mid-1970s mainly due to the shortage of foreign exchange for the import-
substituting industrial sectors. It was because India had to continue to import a large amount of
food for several years and it also had to import chemical fertilizers (and agricultural machineries)
for the development of agriculture. In sum, India had to pay a huge cost for the sake of the
negligence of agriculture at the time until the mid-1960s, which is considered to be a typical case
of the „Ricardian trap‟ in economic development.
The first wave of the Green Revolution in India had another limitation from the viewpoint of
overall economic development in the country. Because the diffusion of the Green Revolution
was confined to wheat crop and in northern India such as Punjab, Haryana and the western part
of Uttar Pradesh, it could not raise rural income and alleviate rural poverty in a wider area. Rural
India continued to be poor except some particular spots.
As a result of the rapid production growth of wheat, which was a minor crop in India at the time
of independence, however, the production of wheat exceeded that of the coarse cereals (such as
Jowar, Bajra, Ragi and Maize) by the end of the 1970s in India.

3.During the 1980s

The decade of the 1980s witnessed a very favorable growth rates in the agricultural sector,
including almost all the regions of the country and almost all the important crop sectors. The
rapid increase of rice production during the 1980s, which is an important staple food in eastern
and southern India, was especially essential for the development of hitherto poverty-struck rural
areas in India. The most important factor behind the overall rapid growth of the agricultural
sector in India was a widespread diffusion of private tube-wells (especially small-scale shallow
tube-wells). The diffusion of tube-wells in formerly rain-fed areas (or unreliably irrigated areas
by government canals) enabled to grow HYV wheat instead of Rabi crops such as pulses in the
dry season (Rabi Season), and in the monsoon season (Kharif Season) the yield of rice was
increased substantially by switching the varieties from traditional to modern types (HYVs). Thus
the highly productive rice-wheat cropping pattern was established in a wide area of rural India,
especially in the Genetic Basin. Furthermore, in some places with a plenty of rainfall such as
West Bengal, double cropping of HYV rice was widely disseminated. There had been a
controversy in India among economists regarding the reason why new agricultural technologies
were not accepted for long in eastern India, in sharp contrast with northern and some other parts
of India. It was argued by some Marxist economists that the „semi-feudal mode of production‟
system in eastern India (represented by agrarian structure with small numbers of big landlord and
large numbers of indebted poor sharecroppers) was ultimately attributed to it (Bhaduri, 1973).
Against this argument, however, Newberry (1974) tried to refute it from the theoretical
viewpoint and Bardhan and Rudra (1978) did so empirically.

Name 1950～ 1960～70 1970～80 1980～90 1990～96

60
Rice 4.53 2.12 1.73 4.08 1.60
Wheat 5.79 7.73 4.15 4.29 3.64
Coarse grains 3.76 1.67 0.55 0.71 -0.99
Maize 7.84 3.90 0.64 3.20 1.30
Total 4.45 3.10 2.07 3.38 1.81
Pulses, 3.80 -0.47 -1.18 2.45 -0.07
Total food grains
4.35 2.63 1.76 3.31 1.66
Oilseeds 3.05 2.41 1.34 6.01 4.16
Sugarcane 5.62 2.54 2.27 4.38 3.72
Cotton 4.54 2.03 2.69 3.23 4.51
Jute/Mesta 5.60 0.32 2.13 1.28 2.18

extreme land fragmentation in eastern India with a lack of successful land consolidation program
was often attributed to the delay of the diffusion of tube-wells (Bardhan, 1984). However, the
experiences in eastern India in the 1980s suggested that this hypothesis was totally wrong; i.e.
tube-wells did rapidly diffuse even under the extreme land fragmentation. And under the land
fragmentation the water sales market (groundwater market) for irrigation was widely emerged
and developed.
In sum, rural India witnessed a widespread agricultural development in the 1980s due mainly to
the diffusion of private tube-wells. Especially the most important thing was that rice production,
which was the main staple food in eastern and southern India, increased rapidly and contributed
to raising rural income and alleviating poverty. The real wages of agricultural laborers in India
had started to rise and also rural poverty started to decline for the first time in the long history of
the country.
 3. After the 1990s

Indian economy was plunged into a new developmental stage after the 1990s. First, the critical
period for the preparation of full-scale non-agricultural sector development was over until the
end of the 1980s, when broad-based agricultural development based on the second Green
Revolution was happened. Second, however, since India turned to the stage when per capita
human consumption of food grains (especially for staple food such as rice and wheat) started to
decline, agricultural growth rate will not be very high because food grains sector is large within
the agricultural sector, even if high-valued agricultural commodities (such as livestock,
vegetable, fruits) will increase relatively rapidly. Third, it means that widening disparity between
agricultural and non-agricultural (or between rural and urban) sectors will be a serious problem
for the economy.
some key facts and issues which Indian agriculture faced after the 1990s in the following.
1) The agricultural sector growth rate declined to 2.5 percent per annum on average after the
1990s. The „fatigue‟ of agricultural sector and rural economy is becoming a serious social
problem, especially compared to the rapid growth of non-agricultural sectors mainly in urban
areas. Although the government is setting the growth rate target of agricultural sector at 4
percent, it may be quite difficult to realize it.
2) Because of the declined per capita consumption for cereals (especially for rice) and also
because of the failure of food management policies of the government, India became a major
exporter of rice (very recently wheat also) since the mid-1990s to the world market ,particularly
to Bangladesh and Sub-Saharan Africa.

3) Subsidies for agricultural inputs such as chemical fertilizer, irrigation (canal) and electricity
(for electric pump sets such as tube-wells) has been rapidly increased since the 1980s until the
present day. Agricultural subsidies are now very big fiscal burden for the government, especially
for the state government. The subsidies are given mainly to the advanced agricultural areas and
also to the wealthy farmers in particular. Therefore, the necessary public investment for
agriculture and for rural areas is neglected, which causes the disparity between advanced rural
areas and backward rural areas fixed.

II. Role of the Green Revolutions in Economic Development

Summarizing the role of the Green Revolution in India, especially the second Green Revolution
during the 1980s, on overall economic development process of the country.
The most important lesson we learned is that agricultural growth should be preceded the modern
economic growth based on industrialization. The reasons are as follows.
At the beginning of economic development the agricultural sector is “large”. A large share of
population depend their livelihood on agriculture and related activities. They are poor and the
share of their household expenditures for food and beverages (Engel’s coefficient) is usually
very high; around 70 percent. Under such a situation, even if the government tries to promote
industrialization (especially heavy industrialization) with neglecting the agricultural sector, it
tends to fail because of the lack of the market for non-agricultural sectors. Note that export-
oriented industrialization is more difficult and entrepreneurs should at first depend on the
domestic market which is more familiar to them before going to exploit export market. In this
sense, the existence of the domestic market for their products is essential when promoting
industrialization. Because the majority of people live in rural areas at this stage of economic
development, the key is how to raise income and alleviate poverty in widespread rural areas.
Thus the development of agricultural sector, especially staple food sector, should come first
because majority of rural population depend their livelihood on it. If raising income of rural
population is the key, the agricultural growth should be led by productivity growth, rather than
by “horizontal” expansion of farmland.
Actually, as we had seen before in this paper, India had to pay a huge cost for the negligence of
agricultural sector before the mid-1960s, in the form of the “lost decade” from the mid-1960s to
the mid-1970s.
In conclusion, the second Green Revolution in India during the 1980s was able to play a critical
role in preparing a wide market in rural areas for non-agricultural products and services, which
became the basis of the rapid economic growth based on non-agricultural sector development in
the country after the 1990s. The author emphasizes here the final demand effects of the
agricultural development in the 1980s, although the author does not deny the existence and the
importance of backward and forward linkage effects of it too.

Impacts of green revolution

The increase production of wheat fueled a self-sufficiency of food for India. The high yielding
seeds and irrigation facilities, brought enthusiasm to many farmers in India. By seeing better
profits from the Green Revolution, the farmers began to enjoy life more with better earnings,
knowing that they had the ability to
provide for their family. Unfortunately, with the rise in use of chemical pesticides and fertilizers,
there were many negative effects on the soil and land. Despite the early benefits, it became
apparent that there were many negative impacts from the green revolution. After the Green
Revolution began in India, there was a change in the land use patterns, known as the degradation
of land. Whereas primarily there were only one crop planted per year, before the Green
Revolution. There were two to three crop rotations every year, the land quality diminished and
the land quality had suffered. Due to the impute of heavy chemical fertilizers, a strain on the
carbon material within the soils were created. There also has been a loss in bio diversity in farm
lands because since there has been an increase in chemical pesticides and fertilizers, many
insects have been killed and the birds that create homes in rural areas have found new areas to
live because of the negative side effects that the pesticides give off to the environment. As a
result of chemical use in the land, contamination of ground water affected the health of the
people who are consuming the agricultural goods that now contained pesticides and chemicals.
This directly affected the health of Indians, who were not used to putting such chemicals in their
bodies. It was not only the environmental and health problems that arose; there were also many
social problems that occurred in the late 20th century because of
the green revolution. Since the farming industry was booming and farmers had higher incomes,
there was an increase demand for more land which created more demand for farm families who
took on more farming land that they could manage. Critics believe that the Green Revolution
resulted in environmental
degradation, increased income inequality, inequitable asset distribution, and worsened poverty
levels in India. The majority of the large farmers were able to adapt to the new technologies
because they had better irrigation, fertilizers, and seeds. However, the Green Revolution affected
just as many of the smaller farmers during the Green Revolution. It is believed that the Green
Revolution encouraged mechanization, which pushed down rural wages and employment and
increasingly impoverished small farmers.
When the Green Revolution occurred, there was a spread only in irrigated and high-potential rain
fed areas, which created many villages without sufficient water. Even though there were more
employment opportunities and cheaper food, not having a sufficient amount of water in a village
is crucial for survival.
There was some retreating of water from natural watersheds; this was replenishing water, which
was pumped from areas that can be quickly replenished by the rainwater, however, there was not
a sufficient amount of water for survival.

Agricultural production and food security

Technologies

New varieties of wheat and other grains were instrumental to the green revolution.

The Green Revolution spread technologies that already existed, but had not been widely
implemented 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 wheat reduced-height genes and a rice semi dwarf 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.
HYVs significantly outperform traditional varieties in the presence of adequate irrigation,
pesticides, and fertilizers. In the absence of these inputs, traditional varieties may outperform
HYVs. Therefore, several authors have challenged the apparent superiority of HYVs not only
compared to the traditional varieties alone, but by contrasting the monoculture system associated
with HYVs with the poly cultural system associated with traditional ones.
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 and rely on machines, which as of 2014 rely on or
are derived from crude oil, making agriculture increasingly reliant on crude oil
extraction. 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.

Effects on food security

The effects of the Green Revolution on global food security are difficult to assess because of the
complexities involved in food systems.The world population has grown by about four billion
since the beginning of the Green Revolution and many believe that, without the Revolution, there
would have been greater famine and malnutrition. India saw annual wheat production rise from
10 million tons in the 1960s to 73 million in 2006. The average person in the developing world
consumes roughly 25% more calories per day now than before the Green Revolution. Between
1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed agriculture around the globe, world grain
production increased by over 250%.
The production increases fostered by the Green Revolution are often credited with having helped
to avoid widespread famine, and for feeding billions of people.
There are also claims that the Green Revolution has decreased food security for a large number
of people. One claim involves the shift of subsistence-oriented cropland to cropland oriented
towards production of grain for export or animal feed. For example, the Green Revolution
replaced much of the land used for pulses that fed Indian peasants for wheat, which did not make
up a large portion of the peasant diet.

Environmental impact
Increased use of irrigation played a major role in the green revolution.

Biodiversity

The spread of Green Revolution agriculture affected both agricultural biodiversity (or agro
diversity) and wild biodiversity. There is little disagreement that the Green Revolution acted to
reduce agricultural biodiversity, as it relied on just a few high-yield varieties of each crop.
This has led to concerns about the susceptibility of a food supply to pathogens that cannot be
controlled by agrochemicals, as well as the permanent loss of many valuable genetic traits bred
into traditional varieties over thousands of years. To address these concerns, massive seed banks
such as Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research’s (CGIAR) International
Plant Genetic Resources Institute (now Bioversity International) have been established
(see Svalbard Global Seed Vault).
There are varying opinions about the effect of the Green Revolution on wild biodiversity. One
hypothesis speculates that by increasing production per unit of land area, agriculture will not
need to expand into new, uncultivated areas to feed a growing human population. However, land
degradation and soil nutrients depletion have forced farmers to clear up formerly forested areas
in order to keep up with production. A counter-hypothesis speculates that biodiversity was
sacrificed because traditional systems of agriculture that were displaced sometimes incorporated
practices to preserve wild biodiversity, and because the Green Revolution expanded agricultural
development into new areas where it was once unprofitable or too arid. For example, the
development of wheat varieties tolerant to acid soil conditions with high aluminum content,
permitted the introduction of agriculture in sensitive Brazilian ecosystems as Cerrado semi-
humid tropical savanna and Amazon rainforest in the geo-economics macro regions of Centro-
Sul and Amazônia Before the Green Revolution, other Brazilian ecosystems were also
significantly damaged by human activity, such as the once 1st or 2nd main contributor to
Brazilian mega diversity Atlantic Rainforest (above 85% of deforestation in the 1980s, about
95% after the 2010s) and the important xeric called Caatinga mainly in the Northeastern
Brazil (about 40% in the 1980s, about 50% after the 2010s — deforestation of the Caatinga
biome is generally associated with greater risks of desertification).
Nevertheless, the world community has clearly acknowledged the negative aspects of
agricultural expansion as the 1992 Rio Treaty, signed by 189 nations, has generated numerous
national Biodiversity Action Plans which assign significant biodiversity loss to agriculture's
expansion into new domains.
Greenhouse gas emissions
According to a study published in 2013 in PNAS, in the absence of the crop germplasm
improvement associated with the Green revolution, greenhouse gas emissions would have been
5.2-7.4 Gt higher than observed in 1965–2004.
Dependence on non-renewable resources

Most high intensity agricultural production is highly reliant on non-renewable resources.

Agricultural machinery and transport, as well as the production of pesticides and nitrates all
depend on fossil fuels Moreover, the essential mineral nutrient phosphorus is often a limiting
factor in crop cultivation, while phosphorus mines are rapidly being depleted worldwide. The
failure to depart from these non-sustainable agricultural production methods could potentially
lead to a large scale collapse of the current system of intensive food production within this
century.
Health impact

The consumption of the pesticides used to kill pests by humans in some cases may be increasing
the likelihood of cancer in some of the rural villages using them. Poor farming practices
including non-compliance to usage of masks and over-usage of the chemicals compound this
situation. In 1989, WHO and UNEP estimated that there were around 1 million human pesticide
poisonings annually. Some 20,000 (mostly in developing countries) ended in death, as a result of
poor labeling, loose safety standards etc.
Pesticides and cancer

Long term exposure to pesticides such as organ chlorines, creosote, and sulfate have been
correlated with higher cancer rates and organ chlorines DDT, chlordane, andlindane as tumor
promoters in animals.[Contradictory epidemiologic studies in humans have linked phoenix acid
herbicides or contaminants in them with soft tissue sarcoma (STS) and malignant lymphoma,
organ chlorine insecticides with STS, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL), leukemia, and, less
consistently, with cancers of the lung and breast, organ phosphorous compounds with NHL and
leukemia, and thiazine herbicides with ovarian cancer.
Punjab case

The Indian state of Punjab pioneered green revolution among the other states transforming India
into a food-surplus country. The state is witnessing serious consequences of intensive farming
using chemicals and pesticide. A comprehensive study conducted by Post Graduate Institute of
Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) has underlined the direct relationship between
indiscriminate use of these chemicals and increased incidence of cancer in this region. An
increase in the number of cancer cases has been reported in several villages including Jhariwala,
Koharwala, Puckka, Bhimawali, and Khara.
Environmental activist Vandana Shiva has written extensively about the social, political and
economic impacts of the Green Revolution in Punjab. She claims that the Green Revolution's
reliance on heavy use of chemical inputs and monocultures has resulted in water scarcity,
vulnerability to pests, and incidents of violent conflict and social marginalization.
In 2009, under a Greenpeace Research Laboratories investigation, Dr Reyes Tirado, from
the University of Exeter, UK conducted the study in 50 villages
in Muktsar, Bathindaand Ludhiana districts revealed chemical, radiation and biological toxicity
rampant in Punjab. Twenty percent of the sampled wells showed nitrate levels above the safety
limit of 50 mg/l, established by WHO, the study connected it with high use of synthetic
nitrogen fertilizers.

Norman Borlaug's response to criticism

He dismissed certain claims of critics, but did take other concerns seriously and stated that his
work has been "a change in the right direction, but it has not transformed the world into a
Utopia".[]
Of environmental lobbyists, he said:
“Some of the environmental lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many
of them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of hunger. They do their
lobbying from comfortable office suites in Washington or Brussels...If they lived just one month
amid the misery of the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out for
tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that fashionable elitists back home
were trying to deny them these things”.

The "New" Green Revolution

Although the Green Revolution has been able to improve agricultural output in some regions in
the world, there was and is still room for improvement. As a result, many organizations continue
to invent new ways to improve the techniques already used in the Green Revolution. Frequently
quoted inventions are the System of Rice Intensification, marker-assisted selection, agro
ecology, and applying existing technologies to agricultural problems of the developing world.
Summary and Conclusions

In recent years India is experiencing a rapid economic growth, especially after the 1990s when it
started to liberalize its economy in a full scale. However, the author emphasizes the critical
importance of the preceded 1980s when Indian agricultural sector registered a high growth rate.
The Green Revolution in India started in the late 1960s and with its success India attained food
self-sufficiency within a decade. However, this first wave of the Green Revolution was largely
confined in wheat crop and in northern India, resulting in a limited contribution to overall
economic development of the country. On the contrary, the agricultural growth in the 1980s
involved almost all the crops including rice and covered the whole country, it enabled to raise
rural income and alleviate rural poverty substantially. Such a rise of rural India as a market for
non-agricultural products and services was an important pre-requisite for the rapid economic
growth based on non-agricultural sectors‟ development in India after the 1990s. The 1980s was a
critical decade for South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa to make a great divergence in the
economic development thereafter. The implication for Sub-Saharan Africa is that raising income
in rural areas through productivity growth of agricultural sector, especially the staple food sector,
is essential for the success of economic development through industrialization.
However, the actual situations which Sub-Saharan Africa faces at present are much more
challenging, if various disadvantages are taken into consideration. Disadvantages of
contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa include; diversified staple food in which rice and wheat has
only a minor share, scarcity of irrigated land, labor shortage in rural areas, difference in staple
food between rural and urban areas and so on.
The Green Revolution which India and other Asian countries experienced in the past is much
needed in Sub-Saharan Africa now for the long term economic development. It is forecasted,
however, that imports of rice and wheat will continue to be increased, especially in urban areas.
Wheat production cannot be increased in Sub-Saharan Africa due to lack of suitable land, but in
the case of rice, West Africa has a long history of its production and there are much room for
increased production in a wide unutilized swamped land for sales to urban areas. If the Green
Revolution will be possible in India in the near future, rice is the most prospective crop.