The Green Revolution A Glorious Success History Essay

The yard Revolution A Glorious succeeder Hi report EssayThe term jet Revolution was first coined by the USAID United States Agency for International Development in 1968. It both started in Mexico with US aid and seconded by the support of giants want crossing and Rockfeller Corporation way back in the 1940s. It was the initiative of a worldly cin one lineamentrn named Norman Borlough who substantial a strain of rice and wheat which yielded an exone appraise (under optimal conditions) so far only dreamt off. These strains of cereals were termed as HYV (High Yielding Variety). Norman Borlough is con typefacered to be the father of the Green Revolution. He played a really instrumental role along with M.S. Swaminathan who was our minister for Agriculture in rescue Green Revolution to India.The G R was considered as the solution to hold the worlds growing population, it truly well may have been. J R McNeill In India alone the astounding rustic growth in Punjab is exemplifi ed by the profit in Punjabi wheat toil from 1.9 to 5.6 million rafts during the historic period 1965 by and through 1972.1The production of rice in the akins of manner make upd widely. India soon adopted IR8 a semi-dwarf rice variety developed by the International Rice search Institute (IRRI) that could produce more than(prenominal) grains of rice per plant when gr birth with original fertilizers and irrigation. In 1968, Indian agronomist S.K. De Datta published his conclusions that IR8 rice yielded slightly 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer, and almost 10 tons per hectare under optimal conditions. 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 IR36.2India was on the brink of a famine in 1961, entirely with the introduction of G R we became an exporter of food grains within a very short period of time.G R was a gift of the developed nations to the third wo rld countries. It was a package deal promoted by the population Bank to help them realize out of their debt traps. The G R was reliable with open arms with little or no thought about its viability or sustainability. It was looked on as a one stop grass over to their economic and demographic problems. The parking area rotary motion- the US-sponsored technological package for untaught development-was original in India some-what over-enthusiastically and also un- critically. It was hoped that with improved put forward production, non only a lasting solution would be effectuate for the perpetual problems of rural leanness and hunger provided also it would factorrate a new imagination base-a launching pad for rural industrialisation that would create new usance opportunities and would improve the quality of life at the grassroots in an appreciable measure. Dhanagare 1987Rather than Why was the Green Revolution such a great success? I would like to argue from the point of v iew of Was the Green Revolution such a great success? I would like to consider the viewpoints of some scholars which may be quite contrary to what the advocators and promoters of Green Revolution would like to believe.The G R as already mentioned antecedent was a package deal it came along with certain factors like irrigation, chemical substance fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and mechanization and hulking size holdings without which the success of G R would not be dramatic. These are factors that India did not and could not afford at all directs. A give way from this G R was not all positive it looked like it came in with more interdict as time passed on. Through dissimilar case studies I would like to present my argument.Endosulfan Poisoning in Kasargoad, Kerala, IndiaThis is the story of a small settlement in the state of Kerala a village named Swarga literally meaning heaven. A village untouched by industrialization and nation depended on plantation farming. A typi cal Indian village until suddenly people rear things going wrong, Calves dying honeybees disappearing, wildlife being alter and then slowly the people being change by a strange illness. The ca role, un cognise.The Kerala state judicature decided to spray its cashew plantations with ariel pesticide. It was a sight to see a helicopter hovering over the village and it attracted a lot of attention. Little did the people know what the aftermath of this would be. Even when a sudden and strange kind of illness hit little did they fit in it with the helicopter, they believed that it was some kind of a curse. Until one sodbuster noticed a strange coincidence in the death of his three calves and raised up an issue. This interested a journalist who began to probe into this situation. A local recreate who began to see a strange pattern of new diseases in his patients added honor to the stool of the journalist. It was not an easy path to travel and prove their floor as they had to fight capitalist giants whos stakes were high in the be of the deadly chemical. The help of an international organization was sought. A fact pay backing team of PAN(Pesticide Action Network) AP headed by Dr Romeo F Quijango was formed.The objective of the mission wasTo happen out the veracity of the reports that there have incidents of illness since the cashew lump plantations started their operationsThe extent to which these aerial sprayings have affected the people and the milieuAfter detailed inspection of the surroundings, physical examination of the affected people and a wide range of interviews with both the local people and politics the reports of poisoning were confirmed.The findings statedThe ca economic consumption for the illness was intrinsic toxicology properties of endosulfan at that place seems to exist no other probable ca accustoms other than endosulfan for the concomitant of illnessThere is a clear time and geographical association between the occurrence of il lness and the aerial sprayingThere is a corroborated effect on both the environment and the animals which are related to endosulfan poisoning.Medical reports of the victims as enter by the local physicians confirmed the poisoningBiological and environmental samples examine at laboratories confirmed the presence of endosulfan.The findings confirmed the poisoning and a persistent ban on the spray of endosulfan was placed. The extent of damage cannot be undone. roughly of the cases of poisoning described in the report are of young children innate(p) with cerebral palsy overdue to the poisoning.though this report was confined to Kasargod there are wide spread use and effects felt in the neighboring states as well. Here I would like to include an condition from the newspaper that report cases of endosulfan poisoning from KarnatakaGowda was born in 1977. To his chagrin through RTI he found that 92 villages were sprayed with endosulfan in the four taluks of the district. He visited 8 2 villages and found that horrifying cases of disabilities, especially cerebral palsy affecting adults and children. I have decided not to get married -firstly to carry this fights former and secondly to see that my children dont live like me. I may get married if I can afford to do a gene test which proves everything is alright with me, he adds. Gowda says In some places the situation is too horrible to describe. A mother who is an anganwadi teacher has two children one of them is affected with this type of poisoning. She gives him food at 9 am locks the door and goes for work.When she returns, the son will be rolling in his own fecal matter. This is an normal story. The government officials, if they visit each and every home, they will understand the sobriety of the problem. But they dont, hence dont understand our situation3This has been the effect of the indiscriminate use of pesticides and insecticides on the unaware and innopenny lives.Rachel Carson dedicated her entire a pply The unplumbed Spring to bring awareness to the effects of insecticides and pesticides on man and his environment. Though she did succeed to large extent on banning their indiscriminate use still continues in the third world countries.This according to Clevo Wilson Clem Tisdell are due to varied economic reasons and also due to lack of knowledge. Farmers continue to use pesticides if their net discounted rate of return is greater in the present. This happens much more in less developed countries than in more developed countries. To make themselves economically viable farmers are forced to use pesticides because it causes an cast up in the production in the short run, though the cost will increase in the long run which they are unaware of, and also once a new technique is used the cost of reverting back maybe very high.Further it may be due to a lack of knowledge on the part of farmers. It may also be that use of pesticides and fertilizers are considered to be an integral part of commercialized farming. To add to this would be the pressure the farmers may face from advertisements and sales schemes of companies manufacturing insecticides and fertilisers. It has also been found that though farmers may be aware of Integrated Pest commission systems they may not be easily accessible, as seen in the case of farmers in Sri Lanka.4Our next case study is based in Punjab that highlights the negative effect that G R has had on the employment of the youth.Punjab agriculture has been known for the green revolution of the late 1960s and the 1970s. Not only has it achieved an irrigation reporting of 95 per cent of the net sown area, cropping intensity of 185, and 98 per cent HYV coverage which are all the highest among the Indian states, precisely heretofore the yields of major crops wheat and paddy are of a very high order, i e, 3,941 kgs and 3,393 kgs per hectare respectively CACP 1997The agricultural arena in Punjab is very capital intense with the highest number of tubewells and tractors in the country and the highest consumer of electricity, 21% of wheat, 9% of rice and 21% of cotton produced in India came from Punjab. In the 1980s the scene began to change, the same train of production could not be maintained. The net costs began to increase generally due to over mechanization and small holdings were no longer bankable to cultivate. This became apparent in the rise in tenancy of small farms and another(prenominal) evidence of this was an increase in the market for second hand tractors. The equilibrium of marginal holdings in total decreased from 37 per cent to 26 per cent during 1970-71 to 1990-91 and those above 10 hectares change magnitude significantly GoP 1997The unemployment rates increased The proportion of agricultural labour in total rural anthropoid workers went up by 2.2 per cent during the 1980s and that of cultivators went batch by 2.7 per cent. The unemployment rate among rural males (2.9 per cent) in the late 1980s was marginally above that at the national aim (2.8 per cent) and that among rural females more than double (7.4 per cent) that of the national level (3.5 per cent) Chand 1999a.To add to this were the problems of monoculture and lack of diversification, increased attack of pests due to increased electrical resistance to insecticides decreasing water levels. Thus based on the Jhol committee agriculture was diversified to include horticultural crops leading to the opening of food affect industries.This did not seem to make much of a difference as the three industries could work only with a small number of farmers and this did not make much of a difference to the rest.The high mechanisation of agricultural operations had added to the problem of rural un-employment. Now, combine harvesters could do the entire result of paddy and a largeproportion of wheat crop, which had cut down the number of days a farm worker could be gainfully employed in the farm sector. The labour necess arys were also increasingly met from migrator labour. On the other hand, educated rural youth did not find farming profitable enough as an occupation. Unemployment of youth in Punjab was not due to lack of work opportunities in the farm sector per se, but due to the strong preference of these youth for non-farm jobs. But the industrial sector of the state which was dominated by small-scale industry did not passing m any(prenominal) skilled jobs and depended on migrant labour for manual work as these workers were open for lower wages, did not create trouble as they had less policy-making clout and bargaining power. On the other hand, urban people were preferred for skilled jobs as they are more tuned to industrial or corporate work culture Chand 1999b. The problem of rural unemployment was compound by the fact that rural youth did not possess any special skills and did not have an aptitude to work in received industries owned by local capital. The only industries they were more familiar with were agro-processing ones which had of late roped in some rural youth but the jobs were few as the operations were highly mechanised and few manual jobs remained.5The very spirit of G R was to improve agriculture and reduce the income disparities but that very purpose was defeated. Through our next paper Green revolution and increase in kindly inequalities in India D.N. Dhanagre6we are going to see how social inequalities have increased.The effects of G R were assessed within five years of its initiation into India through a symposium organised by the Centre for the pack of Social Change in 1973. Where both, the positive side and the negative side were highlighted. On the positive side the increase in crop production was stressed on. This increase was 87.2 per cent in Punjab, and 64.90 per cent in Haryana where the gains in production performance were impressiveVyas, 1974 67-70, and hence there was no alternative to G R to develop the backward regions of our countr y.The green revolution was distributed contrastingially to different categories of farmers putting the small and marginal farmers at a relative disadvantage. The reasons for differential gear scattering were obvious. The high cost/high yield cereal applied science of the green revolution called for substantial capital investments generally beyond the center of a majority of small and marginal farmers.CSSC 1984. To add to this the Indian governing was criticized by the Halselemere Group of favouring the rich and large land owning farmers in distribution of cheap credit and subsidies rather than the poorer ones.Size and nature of land holdings- ab initio it was believed that the size of the holding did not matter in G R practices, but when it came to the reality of implementation it was found not to be true. The agricultural development bureaucracy working at the grass root level that scale neutrality was not true, the larger holdings were at an advantage. According to Danagare even the introduction of HYV seeds there was a pro rich bias seen. The requirement of each farmer to buy two shares of seed worth Rs cytosine/- each per acre was again to the advantage of the larger land holding farmers.Since the G R package was created with the perennially irrigated land in mind the government favoured them rather than farming in semi-arid and dry areas again leading to contrariety in the distribution of income regionally. Further it has been found that while poor farmers own only 21% of land in wet regions almost 50% of the land was owned by poor farmers in the dry regions,Atherya et,al 1983. The polarization process that accentuates the rural class differences has been further intensified by the green revolution.In a survey done by Bhalla and Chada in Punjab its been found that farmers with land holdings less than 2.5acres earned Rs1231/- while those with land holdings 25acres or more earned Rs24,283/- annually. In other words a rich farmer without putting in any physical effort was earning much more than a poor farmer, where he and his entire family would have had to work.Use of mechanization- as very apparent mechanization of farming was to the advantage of the rich and large land holding farmers. It not only increased disparity among the farmers but also hit hard on the labourers. Billings and Singh have discovered that in Punjab the take in for agricultural labour went up from 51 mandays to 60.1 mandays with the introduction of the Persian wheel as a means of irrigation and of fertilisers and pesticides. However, when pump-sets, wheat-threshers, corn-shellers and tractors are introduced the average demand for labour drops down to 25.6 mandays (1969 A 221-24)It was found through surveys both in Punjab and in Chengilpet TN that the poorer farmers did not hesitate to invest and compete with the rich farmers though it was an uphill task for them but they did not benefit. In fact, all available statistics indicate greater and greater im miseration and pauperisation as the green revolution technology package has spread in diffierent parts of India. Dhanagare 1978I would like to conclude by mentioning Vandana shivahs view as expressed in her book The violence of the Green Revolution Third world agriculture, ecology and politics in the western view our system of agriculture was primitive and they precious to thrust upon us their modern scientific view, as a socio political solution to our problems which only created more problems. In the traditional agricultural systems Shiva believes that people used their knowledge and experience to create a offset between the resources and their uses. Cropping systems include a symbiotic relationship between soil, water, farm animals and plants. They were preserving and building on natures process and natures patterns. This system was based on sustainability and make the farmers self- reliant as advocated by Gandhiji.As Rachel Carson puts it In nature energy exists alone Silent Spring and if we dont recognize this and awake to the fact that we are a part of the nature we are destroying we may be too late.