CBSE Class 11 Economics OTBA Guidance Notes

1. Theme – “Second Green Revolution”

Abstract:

This case study begins by describing the importance of the agricultural sector in India. It provides a brief background to the rationale for undertaking the Green Revolution and the various kinds of changes that took place for the Green Revolution to be successful. Despite the successful rise in food grain production, agricultural growth rates in the ninth and tenth five year plans have not been up to expectations. Further, when compared to its neighbouring countries, India’s performance in the agricultural sector has been far from satisfactory. The time has come for a second Green Revolution. There are certain critical elements that are required for the Green Revolution to take place, both in terms of technology usage and issues to be considered. Further, India’s Food Processing Industry is at a fairly nascent stage and needs to develop rapidly in order to reduce wastage of food crops, fruits and vegetables, and help agricultural labour find new employment opportunities through which productivity can improve.

Historically, India has been an agrarian economy. When we mention the word agrarian – it implies agriculture and its allied activities that have dominated not only in the contribution to India’s GDP but have also been the highest employer of the labour force. Over the years, the decline in the population engaged in agriculture has not been as substantial as compared to its decline in share of India’s GDP. The Economic Survey of India (2012-13), states that the contribution of agriculture and its allied activities has been to only about 14.1% of India’s GDP at constant prices (2004-05) in 2011-12 but the sector continues to be important in the Indian economy as it provides over 58% of India’s employment as per 2001 census. The importance of agriculture is also based in the fact that it produces foodgrain to match the population of the country.

Over the years, especially post independence, India’s population has seen a rapid increase. This can be seen from the table 1.

Source: Mission India:

A Vision for Indian Youth Prima facie it would seem to be a herculean task to match food grain requirements to the population needs of the country. This was particularly true in the 1960s when there were acute food shortages, especially when there was a long drought. This made India greatly dependent on wheat imported from the United States of America. The late G. Subramaniam, (who catapulted the Green Revolution from the political angle) and Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, (the agricultural scientist who handled the technological aspect), described India’s mid 1960 crisis as: ‘During…. That critical period of drought [1966-67], President Johnson, because of certain policies he had adopted, was releasing wheat only in driblets. At one point, we reached a stage where there were stocks for only two weeks and nothing else in the pipeline.’ The 1960s crisis made India’s leaders determined to take her out of this situation. They used India’s strengths to remove its dependence on international supplies and become self-sufficient in food grains. It was felt that by adopting modern methods of production and bringing India’s enterprising farmers together, there could be solutions to this problem. This effort became popularly known as the Green Revolution.

The Green Revolution was launched to liberate India from what was called ‘ship to mouth existence’. During the period 1967 to 1978, there were three major changes made to the traditional agriculture practiced in India. More land was brought under irrigation through the use of diesel and electric pumps, double-cropping was introduced on existing farming land, and most importantly, new, high yielding varieties of seeds were used along with fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides. These changes were supplemented by institutional support to the farmers in terms of better transportation facilities and marketing of their produce. Certain social innovations were also initiated through land reforms, easier credit facilities and changes in the distributive system. As a result of this effort, yields increased, weeds and pests were controlled, farmers were able to buy seeds and other inputs. With mechanization on farms, less labour was needed on farms. India achieved food grain sufficiency in the 1970s, with a record 131 million tons of food grains produced in 1978-79.

The table below shows that as a result of the Green Revolution, India’s food grain production has grown dramatically. When two of the worst droughts occurred in 1979 and 1987, there was no need to ask any aid giving nation for food. The need to import food grains is now minimal, and there are adequate buffer stocks. In June 2002, buffer stocks stood at 64 million tons. India even exports certain quantities of food grains. For example, between 1997 and 2007, agricultural exports have increased 10.9 percent annually. Milled paddy rice is the major agricultural export followed by cotton lint, soya bean cake, buffalo meat, sugar and maize. During the same time period, agricultural imports have grown at an annual rate of 9.8 percent. Main agricultural imports include palm oil, soya bean oil, dry peas, wheat, cashew nuts, and dry bean.

some success, in that foodgrain production touched a new peak of 250.42 million tonnes in 2011- 12. The Agriculture Secretary mentioned that the country was able to achieve a bumper wheat crop in 2011-12 as crop yields rose due to favourable weather during February and March. This shows that the performance in the agriculture sector is still largely dependent on the vagaries of nature. Despite efforts, the Approach Paper to the Twelfth Plan states that agriculture and allied sectors is expected to grow at 3.3 – 3.5 percent per year against the target of 4 percent of the Eleventh Plan. The increasing divergence between the growth trends of the total economy and that of agriculture & allied sectors suggests an under performance by agriculture. It is also important to note that unlike the overall economic growth pattern, agricultural performance in India has been quite volatile.

Data collected by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations shows that even though India is an agrarian economy, it does not compare well with its neighbours on several agricultural indicators.

Table–3: Comparative study of continuation and growth of agriculture with regard to India.

According to Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam if all Indians have to have good nutrition and plenty of food, then India needs 360 million tons of food grains by 2020. This will allow for good domestic consumption and still leave a sufficient margin for food exports and aid to other countries in need. This mission demands a great revolution in research, technology development, agricultural extension services and, above all, a major network of marketing, storage and distribution. Further the biggest challenge is that India is still heavily dependent on the rains for the success of its agricultural produce. If there is a succession of bad years, output gets affected. To resolve all these remaining problems, we require a Second Green Revolution.

The Second Green Revolution will enable India to further increase its productivity in the agricultural sector. This revolution focuses on matching soil to seed, and product to market. The key parameters required in this endeavour are high productivity and better value addition by agro-processing.

Some of the important issues that India needs to consider during the Second Green Revolution are:

Better use of resources: Since productivity of land needs to be increased to feed the rising population it is suggested that poorer land be utilized for building roads, agro-processing industries and storage facilities, all of which are needed for processing and selling farming produce. Further a lot of present-day farming techniques result in wastage of water. India needs to adopt waterconserving technologies, as many developed countries have done. This will also aid farming in areas with less water, and be environmentally more sustainable.

Changing mindsets: Farmers typically believe that their role is limited to growing of crops. A change in their mindset is required to help them realize that their scope of work can increase from grain production to food processing and marketing. For this, new technologies should be pressed into service. Nearly 60 percent of India’s population depends on agriculture for a living. This should be reduced to 40 percent or less, and the people formerly employed in agriculture should ideally move to agro-processing and services, where earnings are higher. This will enable both the farmers as well as the people shifting to the new areas to become prosperous.

Diversifying products: Farmers need to be encouraged to move to producing crops where they have a natural advantage, and for which there is good demand. Animal husbandry and growing cash crops are two of the many new areas which are emerging.

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