With the advent of modernization in Indian agriculture, many changes were brought to it, and those changes included: clearing of forests to expand cultivable land and, formation of large farm units to facilitate cultivation of single commercial crop, applications of machinery, applications of agro-chemicals like synthetic fertilizers, pesticides, etc.
Consolidating many small field- units at one place to make a big farm unit has been the major activity adopted in the modern agriculture. This is called as Land Consolidation. During the Green Revolution, the government made arrangements for the consolidation of small holdings of farmers in their easy approach.
Earlier, farmers had many small units of fields located at distant places. Thus, they had to waste a considerable length of time in cultivating and managing these fields. Many of such distantly located field units remained uncared and even uncultivated. If cultivated, the crops standing in such fields were often eaten up by stray cattle. Also, there were no permanent irrigation channels and approach roads to field units. The consolidation of farm units solved all these problems. This condition supported the crop production to rise to a considerable extent.
Today, vast areas of land are dominated by industrial agriculture—the system of chemically intensive food production developed in the decades after World War II. This type of agriculture has the characteristics of enormous single-crop farms and animal production facilities.
Earlier, the industrial agriculture i.e. agriculture on large scales, was hailed as a technological triumph that would enable a skyrocketing world population to feed itself. Today, farmers as well as scientists and policy makers observe industrial agriculture or the agriculture on large farm units as a dead end, a mistaken application to living systems of approaches better suited for making jet fighters and refrigerators.
The impacts of industrial agriculture on the environment, public health, and rural communities make it an unsustainable way to grow our food over the long term. And better, science-based methods are available.
Monoculture or mono-farming is at the core of industrial food production on large farm units. It is the practice of growing single crops intensively on a very large scale. Corn, wheat, soybeans, cotton and rice are all commonly grown this way in many countries of the world. Monoculture farming relies heavily on chemical inputs such as synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. The fertilizers are needed because growing the same plant (and nothing else) in the same place year after year quickly depletes the nutrients that the plant relies on, and these nutrients have to be replenished somehow. The pesticides are needed because monoculture fields are highly attractive to certain weeds and insect pests.
No matter what methods are used, agriculture always has some impact on the environment. But industrial agriculture is a special case as it damages the soil, water, and even the climate on an unprecedented scale.
Intensive monoculture depletes soil and leaves it vulnerable to erosion. Chemical fertilizer runoff and other wastes add to global warming emissions and create oxygen-deprived “dead zones” at the mouths of major waterways. Herbicides and insecticides harm wildlife and can pose human health risks as well. Biodiversity in and near monoculture fields takes a hit, as populations of birds and beneficial insects decline.
Whenever we attack a population of unwanted organisms (such as weeds or bacteria) repeatedly with the same weapon, we give an evolutionary advantage to genes that make the organism less vulnerable to that weapon. Over time, those genes become more widespread, and the weapon becomes less useful—a phenomenon called resistance. Industrial agriculture has accelerated resistance problems on at least two fronts – overuse of antibiotics in meat production, and use of agro-chemicals.
The Green Revolution
A significant increase in agricultural productivity resulting from the introduction of high-yield varieties of grains, the use of pesticides, and improved management techniques, is called the Green Revolution. According to another and rather detailed opinion- The Green Revolution was the worldwide transformation of agriculture that led to significant increases in agricultural production between the 1940s and 1960s. This transformation occurred as the result of programmes of agricultural research, extension, and infrastructural development, instigated and largely funded by the Rockefeller Foundation, along with the Ford Foundation and other major agencies.
The Green Revolution is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is not specific to India though it is India where the attempts of Green Revolution have been most successful. There were three basic elements in the method of the Green Revolution:
(1) Continued expansion of farming areas;
(2) Double-cropping existing farmland;
(3) Using seeds with improved genetics.
Since the human population continued increasing and reached to a point of population explosion, greater pressure continued increasing on soils and other resources, for matching the rates of food production through agricultural practices.
The knowledge of farmers and scientists continued increasing and a number of new technologies were developed step by step in the fields of Plant Breeding, Agronomy, Horticulture, Animal Husbandry, Veterinary Sciences etc.
The synthesis of varieties of chemical compounds started so as to serve as agrochemicals to support production, to protect crops from pests and diseases, to eradicate weeds from crop fields, to stimulate flowering and fruiting at an early age, to obtain quality fruits and vegetables etc.
Side by side, experiments in the fields of Animal Husbandry, and veterinary sciences to obtain more milk, eggs, meat etc. continued to support the food production to feed an increasing number of human mouths. These factors supported food production towards self-sufficiency but exploited in full, the Carrying Capacity of the Earth. The efforts and exercises mentioned above, cumulatively led to a revolutionary change, or the Green Revolution, in agriculture of many of the industrialized as well as developing countries.
Characteristics of Green Revolution
The Green Revolution came as an answer to the agricultural backwardness of the 3rd word during 1940s.Following were some of the major characteristics of the Green Revolution –
A. Formation on big farms or the Land Consolidation
B. Use of Modern Agricultural Implements
C. Intense Cropping or the Monoculture
D. Use of Agrochemicals like Synthetic Fertilizers and Pesticides etc.
Green Revolution caused Socio-economic Inequality because heavy farm machinery and costly agrochemicals could be afforded by rich farmers only. Since the poor farmers with small land holdings could not afford to purchase costly agrochemicals, they could not receive good production from new and hybrid crops. As hybrid crops remain prone to pesticide attack, and the poor farmers could not purchase costly synthetic pesticides, their crops were eaten up by insects or were completely damaged by crop- diseases. On the other hand, these farmers could not receive the actual price of their hard labour due to falling prices of agriculture produce in the market. This was the reason why the suicidal tendencies started sprouting in their mind that could not be suppressed longer and about 250 farmers of Punjab committed suicide during 1999 to 2000. Observing these conditions, the scientists of India started thinking seriously about how to improve these basic shortcomings of green revolution. They thought out and developed the concept of Sustainable Agriculture.
