Indian Agricultural: Growth, Generation, Policy & Problem Indian Agricultural | Page 29

Pg.no. 28
While agricultural output increased as a result of the Green Revolution, the energy input to produce a
crop has increased faster, so that the ratio of crops produced to energy input has decreased over
time. Green Revolution techniques also heavily rely on chemical fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, and
defoliants and rely on machines, which as of 2014 rely on or are derived from crude oil, making
agriculture increasingly reliant on crude oil extraction. Proponents of the Peak Oil theory fear that a
future decline in oil and gas production would lead to a decline in food production or even a
Malthusian catastrophe.
Effects on food security
The effects of the Green Revolution on global food security are difficult to assess because of the
complexities involved in food systems.
The world population has grown by about five billion since the beginning of the Green Revolution and
many believe that, without the Revolution, there would have been greater famine and malnutrition.
India saw annual wheat production rise from 10 million tons in the 1960s to 73 million in 2006. The
average person in the developing world consumes roughly 25% more calories per day now than
before the Green Revolution. Between 1950 and 1984, as the Green Revolution transformed
agriculture around the globe, world grain production increased by about 160%.
The production increases fostered by the Green Revolution are often credited with having helped to
avoid widespread famine, and for feeding billions of people.
There are also claims that the Green Revolution has decreased food security for a large number of
people. One claim involves the shift of subsistence-oriented cropland to cropland oriented towards
production of grain for export or animal feed. For example, the Green Revolution replaced much of
the land used for pulses that fed Indian peasants for wheat, which did not make up a large portion of
the peasant diet.
Food security
Ramesh Kumar P