Green Revolution and Punjab Farmer
The Green Revolution (GR) was a remarkable feat of human ingenuity. It was the Third Agricultural Revolution in human history, catalysed by miracle seeds of wheat and rice. The GR helped China emerge from a famine (30 million starvation deaths) and India avoid one. High-yielding varieties of wheat and rice developed in Mexico (International Wheat and Maize Research Centre — CIMMYT) and the Philippines (International Rice Research Institute — IRRI) reached subsistence farmers of Punjab and put food-scarce, ‘ship-to-mouth’ existence India on road to food self-sufficiency. Annual procurement of 30 million tonnes of wheat and paddy from Punjab, the epicentre of GR in South Asia, is a legacy of that triumph. Half-century later, some journalists, politicians, and commentators are blaming GR for the ills inflicting Punjab agriculture.
Pre-Green Revolution India
Food shortages haunted fledgling independent India. We did not have foreign exchange to import wheat. First, USSR rescued us by accepting payment in Indian Rupees. From 1956 onwards USA supplied massive quantities of wheat under Food for Peace Programme on concessional terms. From 1950 to 1965 food production increased by 27 per cent, but population jumped by 36 per cent, aggravating food scarcity. Prime Minister (PM) Lal Bahadur Shastri gave a call to observe a weekly fast. Hotels were banned from serving food on Sundays. Number of guests at marriages was restricted.
National policies (Agriculture Prices Commission, MSP, market committees, expansion of public sector agriculture R&D, and private sector fertiliser factories), introduced under US persuasion, provided the underpinnings for GR. The USAID, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations helped development of vibrant agriculture knowledge triangle of education, research, and extension. In 1966 alone, more than 600 wheat-laden ships left for India.
Green Revolution Started in Punjab
Chief Ministers’ Conference in 1966 resolved to import 18,000 tonne seed of two Mexican wheats. Imported seed was distributed to lakhs of farmers in 2 and 4 kg cloth bags stitched in jails. Fertiliser rakes were prioritised over passenger trains on Kandla-Bathinda line. Imported fertilizer was promptly supplied to farmers. Wheat production in Punjab jumped by 136 per cent from 1966 to 1969. With a lag of 2–3 years, success was achieved in Haryana and Western UP.
As FCI procured 6.8 million tonne wheat, an elated PM Indira Gandhi commemorated “Wheat Revolution” by releasing a postage stamp in 1968. Assured of adequate wheat production, India was not cowed down by US pressure and created Bangladesh in 1971. This was possible because GR had taken roots in Punjab, Haryana and Western UP. Assured of food security, India focused on developing industry and service sectors. Despite myriad problems, political stability ensured survival of the largest democracy. We should not forget that food shortages contributed to disintegration of once-powerful USSR.
Rice Production Promoted in Punjab
Except patchy success in pockets of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, rice production did not improve significantly till early 1970s despite introduction of miracle rice (IR8) in 1966. Punjab at that time did not grow much rice. As India eats more rice than wheat, Punjab farmers were incentivised to produce rice. Around 1970 paddy MSP was 60 per cent of wheat MSP. Now the two MSPs are almost equal. With present input costs and MSP, water guzzler rice is more profitable than wheat for most farmers.
Cultivation of poor chapati-making red Mexican wheats required shallow seeding, more fertilizers, timely irrigations, and mechanised threshers. Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) scientists promptly developed high yielding amber (Sharbati) coloured dwarf wheats, high yielding rice, and cost-effective production-protection practices. Enterprising Punjab farmers capitalised on the opportunity. Hard working Ramgarhias and engineers played a crucial role by quickly developing/copying and repairing threshers, seed drills, engines, tractors and combine harvesters. These were critical for success of new seeds. Assured water supply from shallow tube wells and institutional loans promoted use of costly inputs. Most of the operations, except paddy transplanting, were mechanised. Punjab became a drought-proof ‘rice-wheat factory’ producing 9 tonne/ha in 10 months.
From 1965 to 1990 rice and wheat production increased by 750 per cent. Milk production increased by 225 per cent. Punjab farmers attained modest levels of prosperity. Income of landless labour improved. Land development, mechanisation, construction of pucca houses and rural roads, and demand for consumer goods boosted rural non-farm sector and ancillary small and medium enterprises in towns and cities. About 3000 rice shellers, a dozen large milk plants and hundreds of flour mills were set up employing thousands of people.
Rock Stars of Green Revolution
For his stellar role in developing and spreading high yielding Mexican wheats, Dr Norman Borlaug received Nobel Peace Prize (No Nobel Prize in Agriculture) in 1970. Contemporary media regards Dr M S Swaminathan as father of GR in India. The GR started with wheat in Punjab. The rock star of ‘Wheat Revolution in Punjab’ was Dr D S Athwal. He was also the first scientist on planet earth to develop hybrid millet. Miracle IR8 rice was developed by Drs Peter Jennings and Hank Beachell. Dr G S Khush was the rock star of rice breeding programme at IRRI for 35 years, developing more than 300 innovative strains, including IR36, which raised global rice production.
With crop breeders in the driver seat, scientists from other disciplines made immense contributions by mitigating emerging production and protection problems.
Union Agriculture Minister C Subramaniam supported by Agriculture Secretary B Sivaraman played a crucial in operationalising enabling policies and institutional framework for the success of GR. Punjab team comprising Development Commissioner S S Grewal, Registrar Cooperative Societies M S Gill and Joint Director Agriculture G S Kalkat ensured seamless execution despite administrative disruption resulting from partition of Punjab on 1st November 1966, just before the sowing of imported Mexican wheats.
Lakhs of Punjab farmers cultivated new seeds using bullock-drawn ploughs, Persian wheels, and canal irrigation. They contributed Rs 1 to 5 to present a Gold Medal to Dr Athwal. He rated this Farmers’ Medal as the highest award he received, above the Padma Bhushan conferred by the Government of India.
Browning of Green Revolution
By 1990, a national perception emerged that Punjab farmers are rich, although early signs of browning of GR had appeared. Johl Committee in 1986 had recommended diversion of 20 per cent area from rice to other crops. A PAU study in 1990 forewarned that Punjab was heading towards an acute water scarcity if rice area was not reduced from 2 million hectare (mha) to 1.5 mha. A brainstorming meeting of policy makers in 1998 concluded that for achieving the average state income, a farming family should own 4.5 ha land and 75 per cent were below this threshold. Even with the highest yields of wheat and rice in the country, a Punjab farmer owning 2 ha was economically worse off than an unskilled service sector worker. There was over-capitalisation of agriculture due to underutilised expensive tractors and implements. The urgent need was to reduce pressure on land. During the last 25 years, economic condition of small and marginal farmers has worsened, and farmer indebtedness has increased.
A combination of science, policy, and synchronised execution from 1960 to 1980 culminated in the success of GR. Except for carefully crafted, time-bound, partial subsidies on phosphate and zinc fertilizers, nothing else was subsidised. Sub-division of land holdings, inability to create industry and service sector jobs, deterioration of rural education, and disconnect of science from policy have resulted in the present agriculture and rural crisis. Despite the 1990 warning, area under rice has expanded to 3 million ha. Open-ended subsidies have crowded out productive investments and are playing havoc with ground water. The beneficiaries are large and absentee farmers as annual rents for electric-tube-well-irrigated land in many districts are Rs 60,000 to 70,000 per acre. Poor farmers are being squeezed from all sides as input costs have escalated, productivity gain has declined, public services have deteriorated, and there is not enough work in the villages. Many farmers have lost pride in hard work and producing milk, vegetables, and pulses for self-consumption. Scared of drug and gangster menace, they are taking any risk to send their children to foreign countries, resulting in hollowing out of Punjab. Buoyed by hyped success of farmer agitation, farm unions are frequently blocking railway tracks and highways, hastening exodus of industry.
Green Revolution and Pollution
Although there is some scope for reducing the use of urea, much of the blame for pollution by fertilizers used in paddy-wheat cycle is misplaced. Punjab has a comparative advantage in producing wheat. It does not require much pesticide use. Where possible, efforts should be made to promote integrated pest management in rice incorporating biorational pesticides. Major pesticide use is in cotton and is anecdotally linked with high incidence of cancer. There are reports of high uranium levels in the cotton belt. Untreated effluents loaded with heavy metals and persistent chemicals from electroplating, dyeing, textile, paper, and leather industry are discharged into drains and rivers. This water is used for irrigating vegetables, cotton, and other crops, as well as for livestock and human consumption in the South-Western districts.
Climate Change Impact
Rice and wheat production is sputtering. Food security cannot be taken for granted. Ukraine-Russia war has disrupted wheat, fertilizer, and energy supplies. Climate change induced extreme weather events like 2022 heat wave and late rains in 2023 have reduced wheat production and quality. Sub-optimal monsoons reduced rice production in 2022. Rice is a casualty of and a significant contributor to climate change. Its global greenhouse gas emission footprint is similar to that of aviation sector. Rice-heavy diets are also linked to diabetes and malnutrition. Apart from greenhouse gas emissions, burning of paddy straw is a health hazard.
Policy instruments like adequate R&D funding, crop-agnostic pricing of inputs and outputs, income support for farmers and cash transfer to poor should be used to nudge producers and consumers away from rice and to make wheat and rice production climate-change-resilient. Solutions of farming problems have to be increasingly found outside of agriculture by promoting non-polluting industry and service sectors. Policy makers should smartly blend complicated economic and technological fixes. It will be far difficult than promoting the wonder seeds of wheat and rice was. Problems of Punjab agriculture in 2020s cannot be mitigated by the tools, techniques, and mindsets of 1960s.
Details of a related 50-minute conversation in Punjabi language are in this video:
