Green Revolution: Its Legacy and India’s Strategic Role in Agricultural R&D

General Studies Paper-3

Context

India is facing both a responsibility and a historic opportunity — to repay the debt owed to regions that fueled India’s food security, and to reimagine agriculture for a sustainable future.

About the Green Revolution

• The term ‘Green Revolution’ was coined by William S. Gaud, then Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), in 1968.
• It turned a famine-prone nation into a food-secure one, ushering in self-sufficiency in grain production and empowering millions of farmers.
• In India, the Green Revolution benefited Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh with its focus on high-yielding rice and wheat varieties, irrigation expansion, and intensive chemical input.

India’s Agricultural Gains

• India’s Green Revolution was catalyzed by International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and IRRI germplasm. Varieties like Kalyan Sona and Sonalika (1967–68) came from CIMMYT breeding lines.
• Later, Indian institutions like the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) developed indigenous varieties pushing yields to 7 tonnes/hectare.
• In rice, IARI and regional institutes released iconic varieties like Swarna (1982), Samba Mahsuri (1986), and Pusa Basmati 1121 (2003).
• In 2024–25, India exported 6.1 million tonnes of basmati rice worth $5.94 billion, over 90% from IARI-developed varieties.

Green Revolution: Legacy & and Its Costs

• Continued Reliance on Global Research: As of 2024–25, 6 of the top 10 wheat varieties sown over 20 million hectares in India were directly derived from CIMMYT material.
• HD 2967 remains the only recent major indigenous variety.
• While northern states thrived, others — especially eastern and central India — remained underdeveloped. The excessive focus on procurement, subsidies, and irrigation for a narrow set of crops led to:
• Soil nutrient depletion and water table collapse.
• Stifled crop diversification and ecological imbalance.
• Farmer dependency on input-intensive monocultures.

Policy Levers to Address the Imbalance

• Decentralized Procurement: Expanding procurement beyond wheat and rice to include pulses, millets, and oilseeds from underserved regions like central India and the Northeast.
• Agroecological Transition: Supporting states to adopt regenerative agricultural practices and reduce chemical dependency.
• Water-Smart Farming: Incentivizing crops suited to local climates and water availability, rather than forcing uniform choices.
• Income Diversification: Promoting agro-processing, farm cooperatives, and access to rural credit to give farmers alternative revenue streams.
• Regional Equity: Diversifying procurement policies to include pulses, oilseeds, and millets from underrepresented regions.

India’s Opportunity and Responsibility

• Despite its gains, India contributed just $0.8 million to CIMMYT and $18.3 million to IRRI in 2024. According to Rajendra Singh Paroda, former DG of ICAR, India should fund strategic and collaborative research in:
  • Heat and drought tolerance;
  • Nitrogen use efficiency;
  • Gene editing;
• Artificial intelligence in breeding
• Recent initiatives like the International Year of Millets, ‘Bringing Green Revolution in Eastern India’ and the push for regenerative farming offer encouraging signals — but scale and sincerity are key.