Agricultural Revolution in India: 16 Colors of Revolution

We can define revolution as a sudden change in certain circumstances or states. Agricultural Revolution in India is a must read topic for anyone. India is primarily an agricultural-dependent country. Over 70% rural population engages in agricultural activities. Among the primary sectors of the Indian economy, agriculture is a prime one. It contributes nearly 17-20% of total GDP. According to the 2011 census, 54.6% of the Indian population engages in agriculture. After independence first thing India had to focus on was solving poverty. The agricultural revolution in India helped the country in this fight against the food crisis and poverty.

Significance of Agricultural Revolution in India

Before British rule in India, agricultural methods followed by Indians were not advanced. However, the agrarian produce was sufficient for the country’s population. But the economic condition worsen during the British government rule. Moreover, India went through a drought-like adverse situation. However, in 1954, help was offered by the then-USA President Eisenhower. He introduced Public Law(PL)480 or Food for Peace. But later on, it was revealed to be a diplomatic move by the USA. In 1959, Agricultural experts from the USA visited India and recommended emphasizing agriculture. But the then Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru gave importance to industrial development over agriculture by introducing a second five-year planning. During the Indo-Pak war in 1965, the USA threatened India to withdraw from Public Law(PL)480 agreement if India did not surrender and stop the war.

How it Started

During the Indo-Pak war in 1965, the USA threatened India to withdraw from Public Law(PL)480 agreement if India did not surrender and stop the war. The second prime minister of India, Lal Bahadur Shastri, did not accept food dependency on the USA. So he pled Indians to sacrifice one meal at least a week to reduce food consumption. But making people hungry was not the ultimate solution. So, to encourage farmers and promote domestic agriculture, he coined the term ‘Jai Jawan Jai Kisan’ in 1965.

List of Agricultural Revolution in India

Sl No	Revolutions	Product	Year	Father of Revolution
1	Round Revolution	Potato	1965-2005	Not Known
2	Green Revolution	Food Grains (Mainly Rice & Wheat)	1966-67	Norman Borlaug & M.S.Swaminathan
3	Grey Revolution	Wood Production/ Fertilisers	1960-1970	M.S. Swaminathan
4	Pink Revolution	Onion Production	1970	Durgesh Patel
5	White Revolution (or Operation Flood)	Milk Production	1970-1996	Verghese Kurien
6	Blue Revolution	Fish Production	1973-2022	Dr. Arun Krishnan
7	Red Revolution	Tomato & Meat Production	1980s	Vishal Tiwari
8	Yellow Revolution	Oilseed Production	1986-1990	Sam Pitroda
9	Brown Revolution	Leather or Cocoa Production	–	Hiralal Chaudhari
10	Golden Fibre Revolution	Jute Production	1990s	–
11	Golden Revolution	Fruits/Honey/Horticulture	1991-2003	Nirpakh Tutaj
12	Silver Revolution	Egg or Poultry Production	2000s	Indira Gandhi
13	Silver Fibre Revolution	Cotton	2000s	–
14	Protein Revolution	Protein Based Agricultural Products	2014-2020	Narendra Modi
15	Evergreen Revolution	Overall Agricultural Development	2017-2022	M.S. Swaminathan
16	Black Revolution	Petroleum Production	–	–

Brief Description of the Agricultural Revolution in India

Now, we will discuss all these agricultural revolutions in India one by one in detail.

Green Revolution

Under the government of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and the leadership of M.S. Swaminathan, the Green Revolution was initiated in the late 1960s. M.S. Swaminathan, who is known as the father of the green revolution, introduced the High Yield Variety or HYV seed. These seeds are drought or rust-resistant, immune to disease, and highly productive. New mechanized tools, i.e., tractors and better irrigation facilities, had reached the project at the country’s peak of success. Instead of cash crops, the Green Revolution was focused mainly on food grains like wheat, rice, etc. It was primarily launched as a pilot project in the states of Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.

Advantages and Disadvantages of Green Revolution

Advantages of Green Revolution

• significant increase in the production of crops like wheat and rice, which helps reduce the shortage of food in the country.
• With the support of the green revolution, the farmer’s increased and boosted the country’s economic growth.
• Several agricultural activities created job opportunities in rural areas.
• Engaging investment in agricultural irrigation systems, roads, and storage facilities improves rural infrastructure and agricultural development.
• the extra-produced crop allowed India to export food grains, which brought foreign exchange and strengthened the country’s economy.

Drawback of the Green Revolution

Though the Green Revolution has many fold of agricultural advantages, it has several drawbacks and disadvantages too.

• The reliability of chemical fertilizer of farmers increases, which leads to soil pollution.
• Soil nutrients are lost, and the elimination of good bacteria and soil creatures by using excessive fertilizer and pesticides breaks the soil ecosystem.
• HYV seeds need a huge amount of water, which results in depression of groundwater for green revolution is limited in the states of Punjab, Haryana Uttar Pradesh.
• It implies a negative impact on the social structure because of farmers’ economic progress. The society prefers boy children over a girl.
• By consuming contaminated crops, serious health hazards arise.

Round Revolution

Round revolution is related to Potato Production. It enhances the commercial production of potatoes and increases the output of potatoes from three times the past production capacity.

Grey Revolution

Grey Revolution is related to green fertilizers which does not harm the soil and good bacteria. The Grey Revolution was started as a result or bi-product of the Green Revolution. It was introduced to overcome the drawbacks of the Green Revolution. Excessive use of chemical fertilizer had reduced the quality of soil, and good bacteria in the soil were washed away. To improve the soil quality and safe consumption of crops green fertilizer was introduced.

Pink Revolution

It increases the production of prawns by enhancing the production area, artificial weather, and availability of suitable water supply. Which, as a result, not only meets the demand of consumption of the country but also promotes exports. Note that the Pink Revolution in India also denotes the revolution of onion and pharmaceuticals.

White Revolution

The white revolution was started with the cooperation of Operation Flood Project. White revolution is related to Dairy Production in India. In 1970, Verghese Kurein, the chairman of the National Dairy Development Board of India, came up with the concept of Operation Flood. He is known as the father of white revolution in India. With the help of co-operatives like Amul(Anand Milk Union Limited) in Gujarat, the project started majorly in four cities of India- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. This revolution not only raised the production of milk and dairy products to make India self-sufficient by improving food components, promoting animal husbandry, and making modern management of technology but also made India number one in Dairy Production across the world.

Blue Revolution

Blue revolution is related to fisheries and aquaculture. The initiatives of Blue Revolution or Neel Kranti(Blue Revolution father) started with the 7th five-year plan of India (1985-90). It enhances both the production of inland and marine fisheries and aquaculture. Blue Revolution helps to improve the economic conditions of farmers, ensure nutritional and food security, and maintain environmental balance.

Red Revolution

Red Revolution is related to the production of Meat and Tomato. Indian rural households contain huge numbers of poultry. Improving the bird varieties, modern scientific technology of brid culture, nutritional food consumption, and improvement of cold storage to meat store in huge quantities for future use make India self-sufficient in Meat production and exportation of Meat. It boasts the economic condition of farmers.

Yellow Revolution

The period of the Yellow Revolution was 1986-1987. It was launched to self-sufficient the country in the production of edible oil-seed. Yellow Revolution is related to focusing on nine major oilseeds- mustard, sesame, Niger, soybean, groundnut, safflower, linseed, sunflower, and castor. To increase production some major steps were taken, i.e., improve irrigation facilities, increase the land proportion to culture oilseed, use of fertilizer and pesticides, improvement of transportation facility, use of hybrid seed, etc. Yellow Revolution not only made the country self-reliant on oilseed production but also improved the economic condition of farmers, which in turn better the socio-economic condition of the country.

Brown Revolution

Brown Revolution is related to the production of coffee, leather, and nonconventional energy. In the case of coffee production, growing organic coffee was highly challenging. Coffee is mainly produced in the states of Karnataka, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu, but the chemical fertilizer highly pollutes the land. Which in turn polluted the environment. Only the small tribal areas of Visakhapatnam were free from chemical fertilizer because the resource of modern technology and fertilizer or pesticides was limited in these areas. So, through this revolution, the government and coffee board tried to educate the tribal people to start the organic production of cocoa in these tribal areas. Which is eco-friendly to nature, meets the demand for organic coffee worldwide, and improves the economic condition of the tribal people.

Another thing which is considered in Brown Revolution is non conventional energy. The production of non-conventional energy has been in high demand in recent days. Conventional energy resources are limited, as well as polluting the environment. The use of non-conventional energy reduces pollution and helps fight global warming. The non-conventional energy do meet the energy demand throughout the world.

Golden Fiber Revolution

The Golden Fiber Revolution is related to jute production. Due to the colors of the jute fiber and its high cash value, the increasing output of Jute fiber is called the golden fiber revolution. Jute fiber is a type of vegetable fiber that is used in the fabric and paper industry. Before independence, India was only the top producer of raw jute and jute products. However, after the partition of the Indian continents, major jute-producing areas fell under the territory of Bangladesh. So, the Indian jute industry became threatened. To revive the jute industry an initiative was taken as the golden fiber revolution. It not only increases the production of raw jute but also focuses on improving the soil quality.

Golden Revolution

Golden revolution is related to the revolution in the sector of Horticulture, i.e., garden crops like vegetables, fruits, etc. Besides, it includes the remarkable production of honey in India.

Silver Fiber Revolution

It is related to the revolution in the sector of cotton fiber. Cotton is mainly grown in the state of Maharastra and Gujarat. Though the two states are drought-prone, the cotton culture is hampered. The first step taken to revolution was the introduction of the first genetically modified cotton seed(B T Cotton Seed), which is drought and pest-resistant.

Silver Revolution

The period of the Silver Revolution was from 1969 to 1978. Silver Revolution is related to the production of poultry and poultry products in India by introducing new varieties of breeds, which are disease-resistant nutrients based on poetry food scientific technology to raise many poultry in a single place to meet the demand for poultry in the country.

Protein Revolution

Protein Revolution is the brain child of Shri Narendra Modi and was launched in the year 2014. It was a technology-driven second green revolution in India agriculture sector is a volatile sector, so to assist the condition of fluctuation government allotted a fund of 500 crores for farmers besides a TV channel named Kisan launched to help the farmers provide information about new scientific technology, agriculture equipment introduction of a new variety of seeds weather update technique, etc.

Evergreen Revolution

The Evergreen Revolution started by Dr. MS Swaminathan in 1990 green revolution which began in 1960, showed a great result in the production of the food chain but provided an unhealthy environment as it decreased the soil condition by more and more use of pesticides only with rice production are high comfortable to other food grains like vegetable oil extra due to excessive use of pesticides not oil good bacteria and nutrients of soil evaporated but also the help of human being are deteriorated by consumption of food grains to overcome this problem a sustainable way of agriculture was introduced the Moto was low use of pesticides insecticide low environmental deterioration less use of land but less import but high productivity highly nutritional food higher the rate of exports increase of economic conditions of farmers, etc.

Black Revolution

The black revolution is related to the production of petroleum. This revolution laid its foundation in 1975 when the Government of India initiated an experiment to mix up ethanol, which can be produced from sugarcane and petrol, to produce biodiesel. Nowadays high demand for biodiesel has led the government to import a huge amount of root petroleum from foreign countries, which proves the economic laws of our national wealth. After its successful implementation in 2003 Ministry of Oil and Natural Gas launched a program called the Ethanol Blending Petrol Program. Thus black revolution had two-fold benefits: one was biodiesel production, and the other was from the renewable source of energy, reducing the emission of harmful gases. Another one is it opens the window for farmers to earn extra income by cultivating sugarcane.

Objectives of Rainbow Revolution

Agriculture depends on many factors, i.e., soil, rain, seedlings, temperature, etc. The Key focus of the agricultural revolution in India pointed out below:-

• Use of new technology and scientific appliances to boost crop production.
• Use of High Yield Variety(HYV) seeds for extensive/enormous food production.
• To boost the soil fertility and nutrients, manure/compost-based products are used.
• Increase the use of pesticides or fungicides for pests-free fresh food crops.
• Channels and reservoirs are built up for the supply of water in fields, where rain waters are insufficient to do plantation.
• Reform Lands to reduce poverty.

Conclusion

India is primarily an agriculture-dependent country, so the implementation of various agricultural revolution programs made India a self-reliant country for agriculture production and boosted India’s economy by increasing exports rather than imports of farm products. For any examination this is a must asked topic. Green Revolution UPSC Questions are most interesting one. Some of the key questions are write a short note on green revolution.

Source: Google, and Wikipedia

==========

Thanks for reading this article. If you have any information related to this article and blog, you can put comment or visit the contact us page.

You can also visit the Disease, and Treatment-related Medical Blog: Nursing Knowledge

and Popular Quotation related Blog: A to Z Quotes

==========