Green Revolution India India Green Revolution | Page 7
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50
60
Sown area (million ha)
Yield （100kg/ha)
Irrigated Ratio(%)
45
Sown area
50
40
40
Irrigated ratio(right)
30
%
Million hecrate, 100kg/ha
35
25
30
20
20
15
Yield
10
10
5
Figure 5
2003/04
*
2000/01
1990/91
1980/81
1970/71
1960/61
0
1950/51
0
Sown Area, Yield and Irrigated Ratio of Rice Production in India
Source. Government of India, Agricultural Statistics at a Glance 2004.
Note. Yield of rice in India is in terms of milled rice.
However, if we investigate the factors which critically determine the diffusion of the new
seed-fertilizer technologies, it is evident that one of the key factors was the diffusion of private
tube-wells. Therefore the key question is why especially in the eastern India the introduction of
private tube-wells was delayed until the 1980s. One of the answers may be the shortage of capital in
the hand of farmers to purchase private tube-wells, because in eastern India there were in general
only small-scale poor farmers. In other words, it can be hypothesized that after the 1980s the real
price of tube-wells declined so that even the relatively poor farmers in eastern India could purchase
tube-wells. Another factor may be the delay of rural electrification in eastern India, because
irrigation cost is much cheaper by electric tube-wells than diesel-driven tube-wells３.
On the other hand, extreme land fragmentation in eastern India with a lack of successful land
consolidation program was often attributed to the delay of the diffusion of tube-wells (Bardhan,
1984). However, the experiences in eastern India in the 1980s suggested that this hypothesis was
totally wrong; i.e. tube-wells did rapidly diffuse even under the extreme land fragmentation. And
under the land fragmentation the water sales market (groundwater market) for irrigation was widely
emerged and developed４.
In sum, rural India witnessed a widespread agricultural development in the 1980s due mainly
to the diffusion of private tube-wells (Figure 6). Especially the most important thing was that rice
production, which was the main staple food in eastern and southern India, increased rapidly and