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non-agricultural products and services as an important pre-requisite for the success of industrialization . By agricultural development through productivity growth such as the Green Revolution , rural income can be raised and rural poverty be alleviated . Therefore the Green Revolution can contribute to the overall economic development through creating a market in rural areas for non-agricultural products and services .
In the case of India , the Green Revolution at first started in the late 1960s . With the success of it , India attained food self-sufficiency within a decade by the end of the 1970s ( the first „ wave ‟ of the Green Revolution ). However , because it confined only to wheat crop and in northern India such as Punjab , it failed to raise income in the vast rural areas of the country . The second „ wave ‟ of the Green Revolution , however , reached India finally in the 1980s . Since it involved almost all the crops including rice ( which is a very important staple food in eastern and southern India ) and it covered the whole country , it was able to contribute to raise rural income and alleviate rural poverty in the whole country . Thus the second Green Revolution in the 1980s was essential for the history of Indian economic development .
This paper composes as followings . In the section I , we will reflect the process of the agricultural development in India after its independence in 1947 . In particular , the process of the first and the second waves of the Green Revolution and their impacts will be delineated in detail . In the section II , the role of the Green Revolution in India on its history of economic development will be presented . In the section III , the implications of the Indian experience for the contemporary Sub-Saharan Africa will be discussed , taking into consideration the similarities and differences between the two regions . Finally , we will summarize the argument and conclude .
I .
The Green Revolutions in India
Before focusing on the agricultural sector development in India , let us first look at briefly the overall economic development process of the country since independence in 1947 until the present day . Figure 1 illustrates the economic growth rates ( three-year moving averages ) of India in order to eliminate year to year fluctuations .
It is found from the figure that India suffered a relatively low economic growth rates around 3.5 percent per annum until the late 1970s , with a large fluctuations due to the influence of the agricultural sector growth which largely depended on the monsoon situation . Indian economy then experienced some improvement in the 1980s because of the government ‟ s liberalization policies ( but not in a full-scale ) under the Rajiv Gandhi regime and a relatively high growth rate attained by the agricultural sector in the decade . And finally , after the full-scale economic liberalization in 1991 the economic growth rates in India accelerated to a very high level ( usually more than 6 percent , and