Impact of Green Revolution on India

There were many major issues around the world that brought around the start of the Green Revolution. One major cause was the inadequate amount of food in relation to the population. In Doc. 1, a graph is provided that compares the wheat yielded in Mexico and India from 1950-2010. From 1950-1970, the graph shows that Mexico’s crops yielded low amounts of wheat. For India, the graph shows that the crops yielded low amounts of wheat from 1965-1985 which was after the Green Revolution began. The purpose of this graph was to provide the statistics on wheat yielded and how it changed over the decades. The intended audience of this graph was the scientists who wanted to see the progression before and after the revolution. This graph is significant to the topic because it shows that the low amount of wheat yielded

He points out facts about how the Green Revolution originally was laughed, then proves that these original thoughts untrue: “the Green Revolution has brought nothing to India except “indebted and discontented farmers,”… India, for instance, doubled its wheat production between 1964 and 1970 and was able to terminate all dependence on international food aid by 1975.”(143-144) This fact introduce and support the idea that Paarlberg has done his research around the world probing that the Green Revolution is the seeding of the future. Grose continues with many facts: “In Asia these new seeds lifted tens of millions of small farmers out of desperate poverty…India’s poverty rate fell from 60 percent to just 27 percent… the Green Revolution was good for both agriculture and social justice.” These facts are a few of many that logically support his claim that it is a substantial and real problem that world hunger is bigger than anyone ever thought. This helps his audience understand that the Green Revolution could be the answer to help end world hunger. The details and numbers build an appeal to logos and impress upon the reader that this is a solution worth looking

The excess use of fertilizers can result in soil erosion and can lead to land pollution.

Indian groups have adopted agriculture. The ability to grow crops has a huge implication for the

Formerly, the majorly cultivated crop in North Indus and Eastern Indus were wheat and rice respectively (Ladha et al., 2000). The adaptation and expansion of Rice-Wheat farming system occurred in India with the development of short duration varieties of rice and wheat during the Green Revolution (Timsina et al., 2001). The allied farming activity is livestock rearing in IGP. The livestock comprises 10% livelihood of rice-wheat based small farm holders in Indo-Gangetic plain (Erenstein et al., 2007) with an average 3.6 cow/household (Erenstein and Thorpe, 2010, cited in Erenstein 2011) .

Today’s commercial farmers are choosing to farm only a few varieties of plants or breeds of livestock. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations informs, “30 percent of livestock breeds are at risk of extinction; six breeds are lost each month.” Newer animal breeds that produce more meat and milk, or lay more eggs, more frequently are preferred to the older breeds, leading to the loss in diversity. An article supplied by FOA explains, “The world has over 50,000 edible plants. Just three of them, rice, maize and wheat, provide 60 percent of the world's food energy intake.” The production of so few varieties in agriculture puts our food security at risk. The Great Famine of 1845-49 is an example of the possible consequences

It was hypothesized that if bean plants were planted in four different brands of soil (Jiffy, Miracle-Gro, Scotts, and Vigoro), then the bean plant in Vigoro-the most expensive soil-would grow the tallest. The experiment supported the hypothesis. The hypothesis was supported because the plant in Vigoro had a growth average of 5.74 cm at the end of week 4, the highest amount of growth out of the four brands of soil. This indicates that Vigoro was the brand that caused the best amount of plant growth in the bean plants. Vigoro Organic and Natural soil contains a 0.09% Nitrogen and 0.06% Phosphate content (“Vigoro” n.d.). Both of these components are vital in a plant’s growth. Plants require nitrogen, and phosphorus to be supplemented by soil (“Plant” n.d.).

During the 1960s, there was a “sharp increase” in crop production which came to be known as the Green Revolution. This increase in crop yields was due to the advancements in plant breeding and the use of modern agricultural techniques. The Green Revolution intended to increase the food supply in order to reduce the risk of famine (intended outcome 1), and with the surplus they were able to export the excess (intended outcome 2). However, there were also some unintended outcomes. Two of these were salinization, and the artificial fertilizers that were used harmed the

For millennia, humans have implemented the process of selective breeding to produce desired traits in their crops and livestock. The process was simple: if a larger crop was preferred, larger plants were selected to be bred. Despite their limited knowledge of genetics, early humans possessed the ability to shape the genetic makeup of the plants and animals around them to precisely fit their nutritional needs. Most modern fruits and vegetables such as corn, bananas, wheat, and rice were developed through generations of selective breeding of their much smaller, mostly unrecognizable, predecessors. Twelve thousand years after the dawn of agriculture, modern technology has enabled a new way of improving such

The Green Revolution was a development and research project that improved technology in agriculture starting from the 1940’s. This had the largest impact on the food production in developing countries. The improvement increased yield in crops. In turn, this would have also increased farming income. It also implemented two to three different crop patterns and the use of the scientific method in order to identify issues and create solutions. It also created an increase in jobs. The revolution helped developing nations, like India, to keep up with the food needs of a growing, impoverished population. Negative consequences are the long-term effects of only using two to three crops depleted the land and eventually lowered yield. The heavy use of fertilizer has lowered the carbon content of soil and biodiversity. Also, the heavy production of crops does not allow for the land to rest, which increases weeds and impacts soil quality.

Most farmers, these days, practice modern farming methods under Green Revolution, which is a movement pushed by the government as an alternative solution to traditional agriculture. Its main goal is to make planting and harvesting more effective and efficient, as well as to eliminate hunger all over the world. It originated from manufacturers in the US when they discovered that it is possible to create a fertilizer from petroleum that can be used on crops—the so-called petrochemical fertilizer.

Welcome to the age of an agricultural revolution as everyday biotechnology continues to bring innovation to human’s most basic needs – food. Food is essential to any living organism, providing energy for our production and nutrients for our protection. Without this fundamental element, life cannot exist. Our lack to produce our own energy, like plants, causes us to become dependent on others for survival. Humans existence is attributed only to the million years of evolution our food source underwent to sustain our survival. Changing the primary nature of our food source, whether it is plant or animal, directs mankind in a dangerous future if our food dependency is permanently hampered. Welcome to the age of an agricultural devolution

In the last one-hundred years, the global seed diversity has declined 75-90%. The majority of our world relies on less than 20 different crops (Gidding, 2016). This highlights many concerns revolving around genetically modified plants vulnerability and a lack of plant evolution. We continue to lose touch with our wild plants. In 2014, over 180 million hectares of genetically modified crops were cultivated by more than 18 million farmers in 28 countries (Kalaitzandonakes, Phillips, Wesseler, & Symth,

Crop Biodiversity is a very important to the world we know. As populations grow around the world people are going to consume more food. This can cause a problem without crop biodiversity. Crop biodiversity is the outcome of the interactions among genetic resources, the environment and the management systems and practices used by farmers. This is the result of both natural selection and human interventions and human inventive developed over millennia. Crop diversity helps when trying feeding growing populations with smaller amount of cropland. Crop biodiversity is used in several different ways like pest control, pollination, pollution and sediment regulation, maintenance of the hydrological cycle, erosion control, and climate regulation and carbon sequestration.

There are numerous natural factors that limit food security. The challenges to food security in India are crop diversification, bio-fuel and medical plant development, climate change, water accessibility, creation of high yielding varieties, agricultural costs and crop insurance issues.