India’s Exhausted Green Revolution
Mariana McCrory
Lauren Erickson
Seth Werner
Zeck Koa Donahue
Thomas Kearney
EGEO 310: Developing World
Professor Mookherjee
June 1, 2009
INTRODUCTION
In 1943, India dealt with what is considered to be the world’s worst recorded food shortage known as the Bengal Famine. An estimated four million people died due to starvation, and it has been seen that a lack of food production was the main cause of this catastrophe. After the British left India in 1947, India set targets to increase food production and secure its country from another tragic famine. The Indian government in turn adopted the practices of the Green Revolution between the years of 1967 to 1978. The Green Revolution contains three main agricultural techniques, the continued expansion of farming lands, farming two crop seasons per year instead of only one, and seeds which have been carefully selected for genetic superiority. All three of these elements were used in making India self-sufficient in food production, and by the 1978-1979 season, India had recorded a grain output of 131 million tons and became one of the world’s biggest agricultural producers. The Green Revolution affected India’s agricultural sector greatly, but it also affected the country in many other ways as well. Specifically, it can be noted that the Green Revolution played a large role in the changing of the environment, society, and the economy. Because of intense controversy concerning the agricultural practices of the Green Revolution, it is important to review and analyze how the Green Revolution directly and indirectly impacted other aspects of the country and how future progress will result.
Social
It is critical to analyze the effects of the Green Revolution on social class and marginalized populations. In Amartya Sen’s Development as Freedom (2000), Sen asserts that the people of a less-developed country must be empowered and given freedom, including freedoms regarding economic pursuits. Although the shift in India’s agricultural sector dramatically affected the livelihoods of everyone engaged in small- to large-scale agriculture, the burdens of the Revolution were unevenly dispersed among populations such as women. It is also important to note the Revolution’s effect on traditions and ceremonies, in order to assess whether this development occurred within or outside of the dominant culture. It has been posited that the most effective development is that which occurs within the prevalent cultural paradigms.
Traditional Ceremonies/ Religion
Agricultural rituals were developed to respond to occurrences resulting from traditional agricultural practices. The green revolution initiated a second growing season, produced by an “artificial monsoon” of irrigation. This interruption in the natural/traditional cycle throws off certain rituals that are associated with a time of the year, which has been established to coincide with different parts of the agricultural cycle. For example, in West Bengal land preparation rituals known as Halpunya are performed on the first day of the Bengali month of Magh (January-February), the broadcasting of seed known as Rohini is practiced in the month of Jaistha (May-June), etc. For many, if not all, small farmers, each functional agricultural practice is associated with a religious ceremony. In villages where Green Revolution technology has been successful, these rituals have become almost non-existent. However, areas that have been less successful still practice these rituals because “…The peasants are taking a higher risk for planting these modern varieties without adequate irrigation or effective nutrient management. So they draw comfort from the familiar…” (Samaddar 2008)
Women
The marginalization of women as a result of the Green Revolution is largely a function of the reduction in agricultural jobs in rural communities. As some farming families become more wealthy, they are afforded the opportunity to practice Purdah, or female seclusion, thus relegating women, once active in the family’s economic sphere, back into the private sphere, where they have little agency in their community. (Parthasarathy 1997)
The Green Revolution has also suppressed traditional sources of knowledge. Where women were once a part of a traditional agrarian culture, engaged in knowledge production, new technologies and practices have established Western science as the superior source of agricultural knowledge. While studies have argued that men, even in traditional Indian culture, are generally regarded as more knowledgeable that women, the present departure from cultural knowledge serves to further distance Indian women from decision-making and agency in their community’s economy. (Jewitt 2000)
Income and Class
In Samaddar’s study of technology adoption and social change in two villages in India, he finds that all peasants in the assessed villages reported an increase in annual income. Despite this fact, “a widening income gap between various landowners within the village and especially between the two zones is more evident.” Also notable is the fact that “large landholding peasants have higher income compared to small landholding families.” The study notes that this gap is the result of disparities in resource access and availability of “proper infrastructure facilities.” As resources continue to be depleted as the result of unsustainable practices, access to these resources will become more limited, thus widening this gap and complicating relations within farming villages. (Samaddar, 2008)
Economic
India has deep historical roots in agriculture. With over 72% of India’s 1.1 billion people living in rural areas, agriculture still plays an important role in providing the basic necessities to the majority of its population (World Bank, 2009). Indeed, although agriculture only accounts for 21% of India’s gross domestic product (GDP), it employs 60% of India’s entire labor force (CIA, 2009).
Prior to the Green Revolution, India was deep in international debt. Drought, wars, famine and inflation all had taken their toll on the economy of India’s fledgling government as it struggled to pay for importing food to feed its starving people (Rothermund, 1993). India recognized early on, that the first step in saving its people from starvation and its economy from ruin was to become self-sufficient in agriculture.
The benefits of the Green Revolution on India’s economy were many. With a surplus of food being grown by farmers in India, India became the second largest exporter of foodstuffs, enabling it to pay back all its loans to the World Bank (Rothermund). Increased agricultural intensification brought with it a rise in demand for manual labor and the creation of new industries built around manufacturing and supplying pesticides, fertilizers, well pumps, and irrigation technology.
Unfortunately, the economic boon of the Green Revolution in India was not felt everywhere. Regional differences among the twenty eight states in India on access to water, pesticides, fertilizers, and funding led to disparities in wealth acquired in the Green Revolution. The states to benefit by far the most were Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh. From 1973, Punjab and Haryana went from jointly producing annually an average of 2 million tons of rice to producing in 1990 7.4 million tons (Rothermund, p. 142). In comparison to the state of Andhra where in 1973 it produced 6 million tons of rice to producing in 1990 just over 8.8 tons of rice, an increase in production of less than 10% in over two decades.
The reforms in agricultural policy during the Green Revolution which played such an important part in helping farmers have not been able to keep pace with the world market. In times where world prices for agricultural goods were low government support for agriculture was high and vice-versa when world prices were high (Mullen, Orden, & Gulati, 2005).
Environmental
The green revolution has made the yield of agriculture product increase since the 1960’s. As a result of this mass production of agriculture products and new techniques introduce from the green revolution, the environment has been in danger from water pollution and soil erosion. The green revolution introduced methods of agriculture to India that uses large amounts of fertilizers, pesticides and insecticides that have become harmful to the people and has made some of the exporting crops unwanted by other countries. The use of pesticides and fertilizers in India has made the drinking water in some area unsuitable for consumption. For example, fluoride contaminated water that causes the disease fluorosis, is affecting 65 million people in India. This is due to phosphatic fertilizers that are being used in agriculture all around the country. Using such fertilizers, as well as the depletion of aquifers, is causing the contamination of water to reach drastic proportions. One way that poisonous contaminants are reaching India’s drinking water is from rain runoff of land being used in agricultural practices.
Deforestation of large areas is being cleared to create cropland for agriculture. As a result soil erosion is causing the land to be unusable in the future. It is estimated that 145 million hectares are in need of conservation measures. In Maharashtra, for instance 32 percent of the land has been eroded and is now no longer cultivatable. Intense erosion occurs in the sub-humid and per-humid areas of India due to high rain fall and poor management of the land. Erosion of soil can case harmful pesticides to percolate down into aquifers and contaminate drinking water. Also harmful pesticides can travel with eroded soil to habitable bodies of water and cause eutrophication to occur killing off mass amounts of fish and water life.
To help stop the contamination of water and soil erosion from happening, India has several options: eco-friendly microbes can be used for fertilizers to stop contamination, sprinkler and drip irrigation will improve timely irrigation, and a gradual shift from chemical to ecological farming is an option to make India’s agriculture production more sustainable.
CONCLUSION
To some extent the Green Revolution had a successful impact in India. The constant looming threat of starvation that was plaguing the country prior to it’s being implemented has for the most part been eradicated. As evidenced by the earlier claims however, the results of the Green Revolution have not always been good. In a country that already struggles to cope with gender and class issues, it has often served to only exasperate the problem distancing the gains made by both groups and in its goal for financial gain it has often come at the cost valued traditions held for centuries. Even the economic gains made have favored some regions over others and they have been progressively falling behind in competing with today’s global market. The revolution has had a drastic effect on the environment as well, causing the soils and water to be contaminated with chemicals and this in addition to India’s age old indigenous forests are being lost to crop land at an astounding rate. All of these factors are only serving to hind India’s overall development. The Green Revolution was a great short term solution to an immediate problem, but its lack of foresight has potentially made many long term problems worse. Because India’s population is still on the rise, a new form of innovation needs to be reached, one that will be able to provide food for all its citizens and be capable of feeding them for generations to come as well as improve social and economic factors too. For this a sustainable solution needs to be reached. Monkombu Swaminathan, an Indian scientist of Agriculture has presented one such solution, modifying the Green Revolution into an Evergreen one. To maintain and increase the present crop yields and still being sustainable, he focused on a plan to harness the traditional wisdom of the Indian people while at the same time integrating frontier science and technology. Taking into account the fact that genetically enhanced crops only increase the potential of greater yield, Swaminathan proposed greater investment be put into the management and environment they grow in. He proposes this by promoting education, access to information and technology for farmers allowing them to intensely monitor their crops for things like Nitrogen levels, growth stage, pest pressure and simulation models that allow them to observe in real time the effects present and future weather will have on their immediate crops. Through this monitoring crops can be given what they need only when they need it, allowing for less capital investment and environmental degradation. The implications of such a process could really be India’s bright hope for the future. It is definitely apparent that something needs to be done and the Evergreen Revolution just might be a step in the right direction.
REFERENCES
CIA (2009, May). CIA: The World Factbook. Retrieved May 15th, 2009 from https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/in.html
Mullen, K, Orden, D, & Gulati, A (2005, February). Agricultural Policies in India: Producer Support Estimates 1985-2002. Retrieved May 14th, 2009 from http://www.ifpri.org/divs/mtid/dp/papers/mtidp82.pdf
Rothermund, D (1993). An Economic History of India. Routledge; 2nd Edition.
Swaminathan, M. S. 2000b An Evergreen Revolution. Biologist 47, 85-89 http://crop.scijournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/46/5/2293
World Bank (2009). India: Priorities for Agriculture and Rural Development. Retrieved May 14th, 2009 from http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/COUNTRIES/SOUTHASIAEXT/EXTSAREGTOPAGRI/0,,contentMDK:20273764~menuPK:548214~pagePK:34004173~piPK:34003707~theSitePK:452766,00.html
