What was the basic pre-requisite for the success of new agricultural…

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Agricultural Development in India

The Indian agricultural economy was largely subsistence in nature before Independence. It had a dismal performance in the first half of the twentieth century. This period witnessed severe droughts and famines. During partition, about one-third of the irrigated land in undivided India went to Pakistan. This reduced the proportion of irrigated area in Independent India. After Independence, the immediate goal of the government was to increase foodgrains production by (i) switching over from cash crops to food crops; (ii) intensification of cropping over already cultivated land; and (iii) increasing cultivated area by bringing cultivable and fallow land under plough. Initially, this strategy helped in increasing foodgrains production. But agricultural production stagnated during the late – 1950s. To overcome this problem, the Intensive Agricultural District Programme (IADP) and Intensive Agricultural Area Programme (IAAP) were launched. But two consecutive droughts during the mid-1960s resulted in a food crisis in the country. Consequently, foodgrains were imported from other countries. New seed varieties of wheat (Mexico) and rice (Philippines) known as high yielding varieties (HYVs) were available for cultivation by the mid-1960s. India took advantage of this and introduced packaging technology comprising HYVs, along with chemical fertilizers in irrigated areas of Punjab, Haryana, Western Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. Assured supply of soil moisture through irrigation was a basic pre-requisite for the success of this new agricultural technology. This strategy of agricultural development paid dividends instantly and increased foodgrain production at a very fast rate. This spurt of agricultural growth came to be known as the ‘Green Revolution’. This also gave fillip to the development of a large number of agro-inputs, agro-processing industries and small-scale industries. This strategy of agricultural development made the country self-reliant in foodgrain production. But the Green Revolution was initially confined to irrigated areas only. This led to regional disparities in agricultural development in the country till the 1970s, after which technology spread to the Eastern and Central parts of the country. The Planning Commission of India focused its attention on the problems of agriculture in rainfed areas in the 1980s. It initiated agro-climatic planning in 1988 to induce regionally balanced agricultural development in the country. It also emphasized the need for diversification of agriculture and harnessing of resources for the development of dairy farming, poultry, horticulture, livestock rearing and aquaculture. Initiation of the policy of liberalization and free market economy in the 1990s influenced the course of the development of Indian agriculture.