GREEN

REVOLUTION
Dr.Nabila Khurshid
Facts About Green
Revolution
• Science and technology were the crucial ways to establish the
this Revolution.
• Norman Borlaug is known as the Father of the Green Revolution
in the world.
• The use of chemical fertilizers is affecting the planet’s air and
water with an increase in carbon emissions.
• This Revolution had a considerable effect on human health.
• It had a major effect on global biodiversity.
• It was a factor in the Cold War.
• The breeding of HYV crops focused on cereal and staple crops.
History of Green
Revolution
• great increase in production of food grains (especially wheat and rice) that
resulted in large part from the introduction into developing countries of new,
high-yielding varieties, beginning in the mid-20th century
• Borlaug at a research station at Campo Atizapan, developed a short-stemmed
(“dwarf”) strain of wheat that dramatically increased crop yields.
• Previously, taller wheat varieties would break under the weight of the heads if
production was increased by chemical fertilizers.
• Its early dramatic successes were in Mexico and the Indian subcontinent.
• The new varieties require large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides to
produce their high yields, raising concerns about cost and potentially harmful
environmental effects.
History of Green
Revolution…….
• the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the 
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
 (FAO), Borlaug began his agricultural revolution in Asia.
• With India and Pakistan facing food shortages due to rapid
population growth, the importation of Borlaug’s dwarf wheat
in the mid-1960s was responsible for a 60 percent increase in
harvests there, helping both countries to become
agriculturally self-sufficient.
• The increased yields resulting from Borlaug’s new strains
empowered many developing countries, though their use
required large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. 
Benefits of Green
Revolution
 As a result of the Green Revolution and the introduction of chemical fertilizers,
synthetic herbicides and pesticides, high-yield crops, and the method of multiple
cropping, the agricultural industry was able to produce much larger quantities of
food. 
 Green Revolution was also beneficial because it made it possible to grow more
crops on roughly the same amount of land with a similar amount of effort. This
reduced production costs and also resulted in cheaper prices for food in the
market.
 The ability to grow more food on the same amount of land was also beneficial to
the environment because it meant that less forest or natural land needed to be
converted to farmland to produce more food.

“This is demonstrated by the fact that from 1961 to 2008, as the human
population increased by 100% and the production of food rose by 150%, the
amount of forests and natural land converted to farm only increased by 10%.”
Advantages and
Disadvantages of GR
• Advantages of Green Revolution

• The amount of greenhouse gas emissions will help to reduce this.

• It allows us to create more food than conventional methods of growing.

• In uncooperative conditions, it offers us with predictable yields.

• It allows a decline in food costs for the world economy.

• The deforestation problems on our planet have been minimized.

• Disadvantages of Green revolution

• A lack of biodiversity in the global structures of croplands has been established.

• With one ravaging disease, it can be washed out.

• It decreases the soil quality used for growing crops.

• It needs the use of agricultural methods that are not sustainable.

• It causes health effects that with its activities we have to remember.

Stages of Green
Revolution
(i) Scientific Breakthrough The scientific Breakthrough is
the discovery of high yield varieties of seeds. This is
usually associated with Mexican wheat varieties (Mexi-
Pak) developed in the international corn and wheat
improvement center and the high yielding rice verities in
the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in
Philippines.
(ii) Technological Breakthrough To achieve optimal level
of output from above HYVs, pertinent technological
developments were made in the field of mechanization
and water resource utilization.
Stages of Green
Revolution
(iii) Production Breakthrough To have optimal agriculture
produce, there was a dire need of excess supply of inputs such
as fertilizers, chemicals, machinery and HYVs of seeds. With
production breakthrough a largescale supply of all the inputs
was made available. In a addition the government made
facilitating policies pertaining to easy and cheap availability of
inputs and prices stability of outputs etc.
(iv) Agricultural Breakthrough The efforts made in earlier
phases helped a lot to give enormous output. It covered all the
main crops and also the various enterprises of animal
production. This agriculture produce directly and indirectly
benefited the small as well as large-scale farmers.
Impact of Green
Revolution in Pakistan
• Impact on Agricultural Production
In early 1960’s, new varieties of wheat were taken up by
Mexican growers and planted on 90 percent of the
country’s wheat land, which doubled the average yield
per acre as compared with traditional varieties of wheat.
Pakistan raised its total output of wheat in these years
from 4.5 million to 8.4 million tons, with 83 percent
increase. In this regard following indicators.
may be taken into account
Impact of Green Revolution in Pakistan
Factors Responsible for this
Phenomenal Growth
• High yield varieties were introduced, which gave more production.
• b. Progress in fertilizer manufacturing was observed which enabled farmers not
only to maintain the fertility of land, but also enrich the soil.
• c. Better quality pesticides and insecticides increased acreage of land to be
disinfected by the farmers for better crops.
• d. Better management of human resource was made through optimal utilization
of already available farm labor and induction of newly trained laborers.
• e. An effective utilization of non-human resources was made.
• f. The quantity and quality of land inputs as determined by the total cultivated
area and the cropping intensity was improved.
• g. Water availability was ensured, keeping in view its quantity required at a
pertinent time during growth of crops.
Pakistan Specific Factors
• Government policies to provide subsidies and credit to the producers
encouraged them to develop and adopt new technology for accelerated
agriculture growth
• Incentive prices were offered to the farmers through the price support
programme, which guaranteed them to sell produce in the market. This
reduced the element of risk and uncertainty and created a conducive
atmosphere to enhance agricultural production.
• The government’s policies made way for the enhancement of private
investment in agriculture sector especially in manufacturing and
installation of tube wells and machinery and allied equipments. The
annual increase in 1963- 64 and 1964-65 was around 35 percent.
• Transmission of the improved technology to the farmers through
Extension Service Programmes.
Conclusion
• Green revolution increases social, economic and
regional disparity.
• The bio-chemical technology remained confined to
those regions where the irrigational facilities were
available in plenty.
• The effects of GR would be more plausible if poor
farmers were provided with more credit, tolerance and
efficient management.
• The degree of effects of GR remained different
depending upon the resources of the farmers.
THANK YOU