Food Disaster in 1943 when British ruled India.

Bengal Famine, 4 million died of hunger in same year.

Theory says: Shortfall in food production. Amartya Sen says Food shortage the real contributer

for the death. World war II. Exploitation from Indian traders who sold the food at higher prices due to food shortage.

 Free India was aware of food insecurity.

Until 1967, efforts to achieve food self sufficiency were

not successful. Starvation still reported. Population growth faster than food production This led to drastic action to increase yield The action came in the form of Green revolution. The term Green Revolution is applied to the period from 1967 to 1978.

 Three Basic elements:

1. Continued expansion of

farming areas; 2. Double Cropping in existing farm land; 3. Using seeds with improved genetics.

 Continue to increase the farming land right from 1947 Not enough to meet the rising demands.

Expansion of Cultivable land.

Quantitative expansion of farmlands.

 Primary Feature of Green Revolution.

Instead of one crop per year, two crop per year, so two

monsoon. One natural and the other artificial monsoon. Artificial monsoon: Irrigational facilities. New Dams built for storage of large volumes of monsoon water, which were earlier wasted. Simple irrigational techniques were also developed.

 Indian Council for Agricultural Research was

reorganized in 1965 and then in 1973. Development of new Strains of High Yield Value (HYV) seeds. Mainly Wheat and Rice but also Millet and Corn. Most noteworthy HYV seed was the K68 variety for Wheat. Dr. M.P. Singh, the Hero of Indias Green Revolution. Dr. Swaminathan, the Father of Indias Green Revolution.

 GR resulted the recorded output of 131 million tons in

1978-79. India became Exporter of Food Grains. Industrial Growth with increased GDP rate.

Economic Results
New Dams to harness monsoon water, so Hydro

electric power plants, more Jobs created. India paid back all loans to World Bank. Increased Foreign Exchange. crease in yield per unit of farmland.

 GR created plenty of new jobs both in agricultural and

in Industrial by creation of factories, Hydro electric power stations. Better life of these workers.

Limitations
o Drought in 1979 and 1987, Due to poor monsoon. Since 1998 , India imported onions Sugar and other crops. o HYV seeds confined only to food grains, not on all kinds of agricultural crops. o Only Punjab and Harayana showed the best results, good results by West Bengal. Less impressive in other Indian states. o GR cannot therefore be considered to be 100 % success.

Any Questions