Success of the Green Revolution in India

Running head: HISTORY
History
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1HISTORY
The purpose of the following essay is to determine the success of the Green Revolution
that was initiated by the several third world countries. The primary focus of this revolution was
to initiate the development of economy through agriculture. The leader of this Green Revolution
was India. In this essay, the success of this Green Revolution will be measured. The success of
this movement in other parts of the country will be discussed. The use of modern systems and
technology had been implemented in this revolution because better outcomes were desired.1 The
reasons for indulging in the Green Revolution will be discussed along with how India had
influenced other third world countries to take part in this.
It has been said that during the time of independence in 1947, India was a country mainly
dependent on the agriculture. On the other hand, it was also seen that the condition of agriculture
in India was not proper during that time. The newly formed government in India stressed on the
development of agriculture.2 Some major issues had been identified regarding this dismal
condition of agriculture in different states of India. These issues were the absence of investment,
lack of technology, low level of fertility and yielding on per acre basis and others. Therefore, the
Indian Government had to take the initiative to make the further developments in this section.
The Government of India had decided to use the HYV seeds to bring the changes in the
agriculture. The aim of this initiative was to make the agricultural farms more fertile and increase
the yielding capacity of these farms. The agricultural department was keen on turning agriculture
1 Conway, Gordon. The doubly green revolution: food for all in the twenty-first century. Cornell University Press,
2019.
2 Frankel, Francine R. India's green revolution: Economic gains and political costs. Princeton University Press,
2015.

2HISTORY
into an industrial system so people could get employment opportunities and increase the GDP
growth of the country.3
The Green Revolution had begun in the year 1965 and the use of High Yielding Variety
(HYV) seeds came to be formulated all across the country. Better and more efficient irrigation
facilities had also been managed in this situation as well.4 India had the responsibility of building
their economy in the most efficient ways all over again. This is why they had to take certain
strategies so the situations could be made better. During the times of British raj, India had faced
several famines. This had weakened their infrastructure completely. After all these barriers, India
went on to explore this Green Revolution by M.S. Swaminathan. It is quite important to discuss
some of the features of Green Revolution. Critics have highlighted the fact these HYV seeds had
been distributed across states like Punjab and Tamil Nadu since these states had good
infrastructure regarding irrigation facilities.5 Besides that, these seeds had been very much
successful with wheat crops. After the success in the first stage, these HYV seeds had been
distributed across several other states as well.
3 Kadiyala, Suneetha, Jody Harris, Derek Headey, Sivan Yosef, and Stuart Gillespie. "Agriculture and nutrition in
India: mapping evidence to pathways." Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 1331, no. 1 (2014): 43-56.
4 Frankel, Francine R. India's green revolution: Economic gains and political costs. Princeton University Press,
2015.
5 Gollin, Douglas, Casper Worm Hansen, and Asger Wingender. Two blades of grass: The impact of the green
revolution. No. w24744. National Bureau of Economic Research, 2018.