Green revolution and
farmer hunger – Can
technology be blamed?
expert corner
T
While the green revolution was lauded for increased food production through
new technology, critics blamed it for creating imbalance within the farming
community. Agriculture experts here try to demystify various controversial
aspects surrounding it
he modernisation of Indian
agriculture began in the
1950s and 1960s with the
introduction of the green
revolution, which ushered in
technology intensive farming
supported in large part by wide-spread
irrigation, fertilizers and pesticides. One can
draw a parallel with this and the
comparative recent introduction of agribiotechnology and GM crops about 10 year
ago with Bt Cotton. Both methodologies
have had a fair share of supporters and
sceptics. Today our Prime Minister is
promising of creating an ‘ever-green’
revolution. Yet critics and proponents of
organic farming deride the benefits of the
green revolution and new technologies
derived through agri-biotechnology. They
would have us believe that this led to debt
traps, farmer suicides and farmer hunger
(malnutrition) and therefore has been
detrimental to India’s agriculture interests.
Let’s examine this.
The Green Revolution ensured that the
national agenda to produce more quantity
of food and fibre, of better quality and with
less resource was possible. Our granaries
and warehouses are overflowing, our
markets full of food produce from across
India and the world. From a net food
importing nation, we have become
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BioVoiceNews | May 2016
The Green revolution was
never about promoting so
called ‘chemical agriculture.
It was an improvement over
traditional agriculture and
was designed to ensure
better returns on investment
for the farmer