Maha Bharat: Episode 26

What is the green revolution?

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A brand new India came into existence in 1947, and with it came the mighty task of figuring out how everything in India should work. One of our biggest problems? How do we feed everyone in the country?

Over a decade in the 1960s, led by MS Swaminathan, India went from being an importer of food grains to one of the biggest producers and exporters of grains, and this changed the face of India, its people and our land. Learn about this incredible turnaround that is often called “The Green Revolution”

Show Notes

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Full Transcript of Episode 26 –

Roti, Kapda aur Makaan. 

Dialogue toh filmy hai, but doston, think about it: the small and big (chhoti-moti) parts of our everyday life revolve around this — Our three or sometimes more meals, kapda for each day and making sure there is a roof over our head. 

But this is not just our personal concern. The economic policies of our country revolve around roti, kapda and makaan too!

But today, we’re going to talk about a part of this dialogue that has changed the country’s economy, society and lifestyle — roti. Matlab, agriculture, ya kheti, in Hindi. 

And this is no small change…perhaps that’s why, it’s called a green revolution. That’s right. In the 1960s, there was a massive change in the agricultural sector of India.

Aaiyye samajhte hai, the history of grain in India, it’s importance in our economy and finally, the revolution — kraanti — that took place in the 60s. 

The Green Revolution is the story of 10 years — between 1965 and 1975. This is when there was a turnaround (parivartan) in the Agricultural sector of India. In a matter of a decade, we went from importing millions of tonnes of food to producing it. This great increase in food production was called the Green Revolution. It involves a great deal of research, technology and development in the sector of Agriculture. 

The Green Revolution also happened in other parts of the world around this time. 

But the humble grain (mamuli anaaj) has had a long journey before the revolution came. In fact, wheat, a household staple was grown in India as long as 5000 years ago, in the Indus Valley Civilization! 

The question is, what happened? How did agriculture evolve in India — and why did we need such a big change? 

Doston, would you believe me if I tell you that the vegetables we eat everyday in our lives — potatoes, tomatoes, chillies — are actually, not Indian?

Don’t get me wrong. Today, these vegetables and the recipes that we use them in are an inseparable part of the Indian Cuisine. But they came to India only in the 15th century, about 500 years ago, in what is called the Columbian Exchange. But as soon as we received these new, exciting vegetables, we started cultivating them ourselves. 

The reason I’m telling you this is so that we can realize just how important and efficient agriculture has been for the food we eat today — not only in India, but around the world. Our forefathers quickly learnt what is required for which crop — kahin paani zyada, toh kahi kam. Even during the Mauryan era, we had built irrigation systems required for the crops. 

By the Mughal Era, agriculture in India was booming. Not only were we cultivating wheat, rice and pulses, but also cotton, tobacco and maize. We were selling these crops. Agriculture was no longer just about sustaining ourselves. The livelihood of many people depended on it! 

And as you and I both know, where there is business, there is a hierarchy.

The Mughal Emperor Akbar introduced a land revenue system called Zabt, which meant that the farmers had to pay tax to the emperor on the crops they cultivated. If we fast forward a few hundred years — you find that the politics of agriculture now included the relationship between the owner of the land and the farmer who tills (उगाना)the land. The British government introduced the zamindari law, according to which the land being tilled by the farmer belonged to the land owner. The farmers who tilled the land and grew crops paid them a tax for it. Sounds a little unfair, right?

But this, friends, was the system. In fact, Zamindars were considered royalty in India.

This is a time when food production in our country was in a strange state: we did grow and produce crops, but our own people died of starvation. Around 15 to 29 million people died of starvation during the British rule. Eventually, agricultural productivity decreased. Whatever food we could cultivate, most of it was exported to Britain. One such instance that you may know of was the Bengal Famine in 1943, when nearly 30 lakh people died from starvation, malnutrition and lack of care.

I can’t help but remember what Winston Churchill (विंस्टन चर्चिल), the Prime Minister of the UK at that time said about this famine: that it was the Indians’ fault, who were “breeding like rabbits”. He sad, if there was such a shortage of food, how was Mahatma Gandhi still alive?

But — I may be getting distracted. 

Coming back to the Green Revolution. These are the events unfolded right before India got Independence. So, you can imagine the state of the Agricultural sector. We did not have the required technology, the systems of irrigation and the farmers were suffering under the Zamindari Act. 

Which is why, long before the Green Revolution was conceptualized, agriculture was already a priority for us. After Independence, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru headed the Planning Commission, which drew up Five-Year Plans for India. The first Five-Year Plan focused on Agriculture. Pandit Nehru firmly believed that the development of agriculture was linked to beginning reforms in the politics of land. 

[We hear Pandit Nehru’s voice]

Yes – the zamindari system was removed soon after independence. But Nehru wasn’t the only one working toward land reforms.

The very next year, Acharya Vinoba Bhave (आचार्य विनोबा भावे) led the Bhoodan (भूदान) movement, where he encouraged rich landowners to donate their lands to landless people. He travelled across the country, barefoot, persuading land owners. Over the next four years, a total of 40 lakh acres of land was donated under this movement!

At the same time, a lot needed to be done to improve the food production of the country. And the government got to work. 

Pandit Nehru administered the construction of dams like the Bhakhra Nangal (भाकरा नांगल) and Hirakud (हीराकुड) Dam, as well as other irrigation projects. Tractors, Oil Engines, pumps were manufactured and sold. Agricultural Research was started. Community development programs were launched in about 1500 villages of India.

The Result? By the second and third Five Year Plan, agricultural production increased in India by 16%.

But that is not a lot.

This is why, by 1960, the community development programs were replaced by the Intensive Agricultural Program ya, I-A-D-P, where a few districts in each state were provided with credits (udhaar), modern equipment, and technical advice. This program was beneficial in some states, yes.

But at the same time, a crisis was slowly building in our country. 

There was a massive jump in the population growth in India. Of course, this meant that there was slow increase in the consumption of food grains, too. We were not able to meet this demand with our own production. So, we didn’t have a choice but to import our food grains. During these years, India lived on what was called a ship-to-mouth existence. 

Matlab, the food was received at the docks, and sent directly to the market. This situation got so bad, that in 1966, India was forced to import nearly 1 crore tonnes of food from the U.S. It seemed as if all this effort to bring a development in the agricultural sector had not worked for us, at all. 

Let’s quickly recap. 

By the 60s, India is going through a hunger crisis. Importing food from the U.S. may be a temporary (kuch waqt tak ki) solution, but it’s putting a strain on our economy. The Nehru government was all for agricultural development — and tried several methods. But so far, they have not helped produce enough grain to stop the hunger crisis.

But, why?

Mr. M.S. Swaminathan, the former director of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, explains: 

[We hear the voice of M.S. Swaminathan talking about Indian crops.]

The government realized that their methods weren’t working.

Unfortunately, In 1964, Prime Minister Nehru passed away — and now, the responsibility of agricultural development was passed on to the new Prime Minister, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri. 

It is in this very year, during the third Five-Year Plan, that the Planning Commission as well as the Prime Minister decided that new steps had to be taken for India’s agricultural development. 

And this is where our story of the Green Revolution really starts! 

Let me introduce the main characters to you. 

Of course, Prime Minister Shastriji, who lent his support to this movement. Later on, in 1966, Mrs. Indira Gandhi became the Prime Minister and continued the same thing. But also important was C. Subramaniam, who was the Food and Agriculture Minister at the time (tabke). And finally, M.S. Swaminathan, who we heard before. Mr. Swaminathan is considered to be the father of the Indian Green Revolution!

At this time, a new policy was developed. Laws like the Land Reforms and better irrigation facilities had been provided to the farmers, but there was one game changer that would bring about the revolution. 

And this was the High Yielding Variety of Seeds, also called H-Y-V seeds. But, let me give you some background. 

In the 1950s, India was not the only country facing a hunger crisis. A big part of the reason for this was the quality of the grains. Grains like wheat and rice would often catch diseases — or quite simply, not yield any results. It is this problem that Dr. Norman Borlaug (नोर्मन बोरलॉग), a Nobel Peace Prize Winner, wanted to tackle. He famously said, “You can’t bring about peace on empty stomachs”

We often talk about “ending world hunger”. Well, that’s not happened yet — but if there’s someone who came close, it was Dr. Borlaug. From the 1940s, Dr. Borlaug worked toward creating a strain yani variety of wheat that was short-strawed, resistant to disease and rust and gave a good yield. These were called the new dwarf varieties of wheat. He conducted this research – successfully – in Mexico. 

So why is he important to our story?

That’s because the strain of wheat created by Dr. Borlaug was brought to India. He worked not only to create new strains of wheat, but also to improve the state of food production in developing countries like India.  Dr. Borlaug, in his own words, believed – 

[We hear the voice of Dr. Borlaug on food production]

M.S. Swaminathan, who was working on research for improving Indian grains, was trained under Dr. Borlaug. I’m sure you’ve put two and two together by now. Swaminathanji got to work —

[We hear the voice of M.S. Swaminathan, who wrote to Dr. Borlaug and invited him to India]

Dr. Borlaug visited India in 1963, to study the conditions of agriculture here. He decided what’s best for the Indian soil, and sent four dwarf varieties of Wheat to India. Swaminathanji’s team sprinkled these seeds for a test at various locations across the country — Ludhiana, Punjab, Indore, Delhi. At the end of this year, they discovered that these seeds were giving 3-4 times more results than the earlier varieties!

And as we know, this was also the time that the country was suffering from a hunger crisis. On the planning front, the leaders were still trying to decide what can be done to save India.

So, Dr. Borlaug’s seeds could not have come at a better time!

In 1964, Minister for Agriculture, Mr. C. Subramanian approached Mr. Swaminathan. The plan was simple: combine economic policy and science. The first step was to plant the new, high yielding variety of seeds in large numbers. And then, other steps will follow — steps for irrigation, economic support, education. And that is how the Green Revolution began in India. 

Doston, let me ask you, which sounds better? Sprinkling little seeds across all the agricultural districts of India, or a greater amount of seeds in only a few agricultural districts?

This was the question in front of our leaders, too. 

So, based on the previous experiments, it was decided that seeds would be sown only in 20-25% of the cultivated area, where there was easy access to water. In october of 1965, 114 such districts were selected for an Intensive Agricultural Areas Programme, or IAAP. High Yielding Variety of Wheat, Rice, Maize and Bajra were used. Punjab, Ludhiana, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal were among the states chosen. In the first stage, in 1966, the seeds were distributed in Ludhiana. In the Second and third stages, they moved to the other states. 

And this experiment, at that time, was extremely successful! 

For instance, in Ludhiana, the per hectare production of wheat increased by 2.5 times. Over the years, the production of foodgrains in the country increased hugely, especially wheat. So much, that

[We hear M.S. Swaminathan talk about the Wheat Stamp]

The increase in food production that you just heard about — this was more than what was achieved in the last 4000 years ago — from the Indus Valley Civilization times to independence!

But are simply good quality seeds enough for cultivation of crops?

A seed needs a lot of support to grow into a healthy crop. And different crops need different kinds of support. Let’s take the example of wheat, the main ingredient that goes into rotis, paranthas, puris etc. The seed needs a certain degree of temperature, rainfall, and soil to grow into a wheat crop.

So, basically, what I’m saying is that while HYV seeds started the green revolution, it needed the support of many other facilities. 

And the first one of these, if you haven’t guessed already, is water. 

Ab, rainfall could not be predicted in India. What was needed for the crops was irrigation. And the government knew about this — which is why, as I told you, it built dams and irrigation systems around the country. But with new seeds, better irrigation systems were required.

So, the government launched irrigation projects that used a new system across the country. One of these systems was drip-irrigation. 

This type of irrigation involved a system where the water reached the roots the crops drip by drip (boondh-boondh). This ensured that water wasn’t wasted. There were other such methods too, such as the sprinkler and lateral move system — but how were these different? These methods used localized irrigation – where water from a region was used to irrigate in small amounts, through low pressure. 

The other irrigation projects, like the ones in Ludhiana, were to divert water from rivers to the fields. 

Good seed, strong soil, enough water and sunlight — but the crop can still fail, if destroyed by pests. The HYV seeds needed pesticides and fertilizers in a good amount. The government introduced nitrogen-based fertilizers as well as pesticides. 

Everything comes at a cost, especially a revolution. 

The government spent a lot of money on these brand new, high-yielding Mexican seeds over the years. To give you an idea, this amount was 2.5 million dollars, in 1966. You can imagine how much that would be worth today. 

And so, the farmers had to pay for it too. But don’t get me wrong — in this case, even though the cost was high, the farmers made profits. A farmer paid around Rs. 76 per quintal (क्विंटल) ya 100kgs of the Mexian seeds, and earned Rs. 1520 per acre. In fact, the government also made it easy for the farmers to take loans from banks for tube wells, tractors and other new equipment. The Agriculture Development even made it possible for small landholders having 5 acres of land to take such loans. The income of these farmers increased by almost 70%! The Green Revolution, like we just talked about, had a lot of benefits. Not only did food production increase, but there was also prosperity in the villages.

The cost I’m talking about is not in terms of money. 

Doston, I want to talk about the other side of the Green Revolution. The ways in which it has affected the farmers and the environments — but negatively. And the ways in which it hasn’t been beneficial at all!

The mexican seeds yielded great results — but only when they were sown with the right amount of water, chemicals and soil. The Government tried to build systems to make this possible — like we talked about. 

But do you think all regions of this country had access to these?

India, where almost 70% of the population depends on agriculture to earn a living. And, where 82% of this population is small and marginal farmers. Did the Green Revolution knock on all their doors?

The simple answer is no. 

When we talk about the prosperity (samruddhi) of Green Revolution, doston, please remember that we are talking about two things: first one is the production of food and second,the prosperity of farmers. 

Well, enough food was produced to pull India out of a crisis. So much food, and so quickly, that this was called a Revolution. 

But the prosperity of farmers? This was only seen in some parts of the country, especially Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. In other parts, like I mentioned earlier, irrigation and fertilizers were not available. Small farmers took loans to keep up with this revolution, but failed to pay them back. In areas of Tamil Nadu, like Thanjavur, the farmers held only 5-10 acres of land. Of the profit they made from cultivation in this land, often 50-60% percent was spent paying rent for it. 

How could they afford to pay for the seeds, let alone the other new equipment? These farmers fell behind. 

This is the story of areas which, unfortunately, could not reap the benefits of the Green Revolution. 

Lekin dilchaspi ki baat toh yeh hai, that this revolution came at a cost even in areas that benefited from it, like Punjab. 

In fact, Dr. Vandana Shiva, an environmental activist, calls it a myth – ek kahani. And it’s important for us to understand this side of the story, too. 

Based on her research, Dr. Shiva says: 

[We hear Dr. Vandana Shiva talk about the demerits of Green Revolution]

Basically, Dr. Shiva explains that the new High Yielding Variety of seeds were not as effective as we think — but to make it effective, more water and chemicals were used. More water — matlab more dams were built. More people were displaced from their homes. And the harmful effect of pesticides and chemicals — I don’t need to explain to you. 

The negative effects of this revolution go deeper than this. 

The new equipment, new seeds, new technology — these were great, but limited! Getting access to these was a farmer’s first priority, and this created social and political conflicts in villages. Even in the villages of Punjab, where the revolution boomed, there were conflicts within the people, and against the government. Farming was no longer a give-and-take (len-den ka rishta) between farmers of a village. It now involved the government — and political parties. This put a lot of farmers, who did not have good political connections, at a disadvantage. 

A revolution did come to India, but it was not balanced.

It has been almost 50 years since the Green Revolution.

Has it been successful? 

Well, that’s a difficult question. 

We are the largest producer and consumer of pulses (daal) and milk in the world. And when it comes to rice, wheat and sugarcane, we’re at second place. This is a huge success. THe objective of our leaders was that India should become self-sufficient (atma nirbhar). And no doubt, we are. 

But while we are producing in large quantities, the yield of agriculture is low. This means that the number of crops grown per hectare is low. Moreover, in spite of producing in such a great amount, agriculture only contributes about 15% to the GDP of the country. This number used to be 40% in 1960!

At the same time, the state of agriculture and farmers in India is neglected.

About 80% of farmers in India are marginal farmers — matlab, have only 1-5 hectares of land. You can only imagine how much they may be earning from this. According to a report in livemint.com, 22 farmers are committing suicide everyday, due to the lack of an a successful yield and income.

There are many reasons for this. While many farmers do not have access to the technology required, many others are suffering because of climate change. 

And perhaps that’s why, in 2011, Dr. Manmohan Singh suggested: 

[We hear Dr. Manmohan Singh talk about a second green revolution]

In the later years, tabke Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also supported the idea of a second green revolution. The Father of Green Revolution, M.S. Swaminathan, calls for a second wave that will be more sustainable — which should be called Evergreen Revolution!

A Revolution saved India when it was on the verge of a crisis.

It also had many repercussions – on farmers, on the environment and on society. 

If a second green revolution is in store for India, then we can hope our leaders can eliminate these effects — and improve not only the production of food, but also the lives of the farmers. 

But of course, we can only wait and watch!

I’ll leave you with that for today. I hope you were able to understand what really happened during the Green Revolution, and how it changed the country. 

I’ll be back next week with a new episode of Maha Bharat!

Credits

Narrated by – Dhruv Rathee
Producer – Gaurav Vaz
Written by – Anushka Mukherjee and Gaurav Vaz 
Title Track Design – Abhijith Nath
Audio Production – Madhav Ayachit