GREEN REVOLUTION: ITS IMPACT ON THE

ENVIRONMENT

LAW, POVERTY AND DEVELOPMENT

KRITI

ID NO. 2147

YEAR II, TRIMESTER VI

DATE OF SUBMISSION: 15TH APRIL, 2016

NATIONAL LAW SCHOOL OF INDIA UNIVERSITY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3

1. HIGH YIELDING VARIETY SEEDS...........................................................................4

2. LOSS OF DIVERSITY...................................................................................................5

3. INCREASING PESTICIDE USE...................................................................................5

4. SOIL EROSION..............................................................................................................6

5. WATER SHORTAGES..................................................................................................7

CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................9

BIBLIOGRAPHY....................................................................................................................10
 INTRODUCTION
The 20th century was a period of agony “and ecstasy on the farm front. The colonial period
(1900-1947) was marked by insignificant growth in food production and frequent famines.
While the Nehru period (1947-1964) was characterized by insignificant growth on irrigation,
power generation, production of mineral fertilizers, chemical pesticides, community
development, and above all, strengthening of agricultural research and education but in spite
of all the measures taken to strengthen” agricultural research, education, extension and
development, the gap between the food production and food requirement continued to grow
between 1950 and 1960. Consequently, “food imports grew year after year.1 Then came the
Green Revolution” which improved the face of agriculture in India, increasing the yields with
the help of improves technologies. “The Green revolution was the product of a symphony
approach involving mutually reinforcing packages of” technology, services, public policies
and farmers’ involvement.2

Conservation of biodiversity can no longer be regarded as an esoteric exercise, “but

something that affects the totality of the environment, on which the very existence of life
(including human) depends. Therefore, biodiversity is critical to our survival, more so, of the
poorer assetless section of our society whose well-being depends on biomass. ” The basic
reason for this is that biodiversity and “bio productivity are interdependent. Essentially, it is a
question of survival. Furthermore, the prospect of climate change would lead to the change in
biotic composition of ecosystems and also their migration. ” Not knowing the exact nature of
genetic changes, the need for as wide a genetic base as is possible has become urgent.3

Genetic diversity pertains essentially to the domesticated plants and animals and is the result
of the domestication “process for purposes of food to feed the escalating human population
and to meet other human needs. This process led to the expansion of agriculture and animal
husbandry.4 Over the course of time it meant greater dependence on only high yielding
varieties with consequent shrinkage of the generic base and increased crop vulnerability. The
Green Revolution agriculture is based on high productivity and low diversity. ” Now it is
necessary to “combine high productivity and high genetic diversity not only to enhance food

1
M.S. Swaminathan, FROM GREEN TO EVERGREEN REVOLUTION, 17 (2010).
2
Id, at 17.
3
ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS IN INDIA, 5, (M. Bala Krishnan ed., 2000).
4
Id.
production for the increased population, but also as insulation against threats from global
climatic changes and air, water and land pollution.5”

The key to Green Revolution is the modernization of traditional agriculture and this “calls for
a new package of practices made up of the following- high-yielding varieties, improves farm
equipment, substantial inputs of chemical fertilizers and insecticides, which in turn require
the indispensable assured supplies of water at specified intervals.6 The Green Revolution
relied heavily on fertilizers and pesticides, but in the nineteen-sixties little thought was given
to the environmental consequences.7” Runoff polluted many rivers and lakes, and some of
India’s best farmland was destroyed. “Without a lot of water, the crops could not be sustained,
and it should have ended long before it did.8”

India’s sustained and rapid economic growth offers an opportunity to lift millions out of
poverty. “But this may come at a steep cost to the nation’s environment and natural
resources.9 If there is one problem that comes nearest as a direct consequence of the advent of
the green revolution, it is the further deterioration of the notoriously bad tenurial conditions.
The paper discusses about the adverse impact of the Green Revolution on the environment
due to the use of technologies such as high yielding varieties of seeds, insecticides and
pesticides etc.”

Following are the major problems-

1. HIGH YIELDING VARIETY SEEDS

The term ‘high- yielding variety’ is a misnomer, because it implies that the new seeds are
high yielding of themselves. “The distinguishing feature of these seeds is that they are highly
‘responsive’ to certain key inputs such as fertilizers and irrigation. ” Whereas in the absence of
additional inputs “of fertilizers and irrigation, these seeds perform worse than the indigenous
varieties.10 The gain in output is insignificant compared to the increase in inputs. The
measurement of output is also biased by restricting it to the marketable elements of crops.
But, in a country like India, the crops have traditionally been bred to produce food not just for
5
Id
6
W. Ladejinsky, How Green is the Indian Green Revolution, 8(52) ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY 133, 135
(1973).
7
M. Specter, Seeds of doubt, THE NEW YORKER (August 25, 2014), available at
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/seeds-of-doubt (Last visited on April 14, 2016).
8
Id.
9
World Bank, Greening India’s Growth, (2014), available at
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22048/Greening0India0tions0and0trade0offs.pdf
?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Last visited on April 14, 2016).
10
V. Shiva, THE VIOLENCE OF THE GREEN REVOLUTION, 72 ,1989.
humans, but fodder for animals and organic fertilizer for soils. In the breeding strategy for the
Green Revolution, multiple uses of plant biomass seem to have been consciously sacrificed
for a single use.11 An increase in the marketable output of grain has been achieved at the cost
of a decrease in the biomass available for animals and soils from, for example, stems and
leaves, and a decrease in ecosystem productivity due to the over-use of resources.12”

Significantly, much of the increased yield “obtained by planting the new HYV seeds consists
of water. Increasing the nitrogen uptake of plants by using artificial fertilizers which upsets
their carbon- nitrogen balance, causing metabolic problems to which the plant reacts
primarily by taking up extra water.13”

India is a centre of genetic diversity of rice. “Out of this diversity, Indian peasants and tribals
have selected and improved many indigenous high-yielding varieties. ” Comparative studies of
22 rice growing systems “have shown that indigenous systems are more efficient when inputs
of labour and energy are taken into account.14”

2. LOSS OF DIVERSITY
Diversity “is a central principle of traditional agriculture in India. Such diversity contributed
to ecological stability, and hence to ecosystem productivity. The lower the diversity in an
ecosystem, the higher its vulnerability to pests and disease.”

The “Green Revolution package has reduced genetic diversity at two levels. First, it replaced
mixtures and rotations of crops like wheat, maize, millets, pulses and oil seeds with
monocultures of wheat and rice. Second, the introduced wheat and rice varieties came from a
very narrow genetic base. Of the thousands of dwarf varieties bred by Borlaug, 15 only three
were eventually used in the Green Revolution.16 On this” narrow and alien genetic base the
food supplies of millions are precariously perched.

3. INCREASING PESTICIDE USE

Because “of their narrow genetic base, HYVs are inherently vulnerable to major pests and
diseases. As the” Central Rice Research Institute, in Cuttack, notes of rice as: “The

11
Id.
12
V. Shiva, The Green Revolution in the Punjab, THE ECOLOGIST (March, 1991), available at
http://livingheritage.org/green-revolution.htm (Last visited on April 14, 2016).
13
Id.
14
Shiva, supra note 10 at 73.
15
Dr. Norman Borlaugh, also known as the Father of Green Revolution. He was the one to introduce high
yielding variety seeds with modern agricultural techniques in India.
16
Shiva, supra note 12.
introduction of high yielding varieties has brought about a marked change in the status of
insect pests like gall midge, brown planthopper, leaf-folder, whore maggot, etc. Most of the
high-yielding varieties released so far are susceptible to major pests with a crop loss of 30-
100 %.”17 “Even where new varieties are specially bred for resistance to disease, breakdown
in resistance can occur rapidly and in some instances replacement varieties may be required
every three years or so. In Punjab, the rice variety PR 106, which currently accounts for 80
per cent of the area under rice cultivation, was considered resistant to whitebacked
planthopper and stem rot when it was introduced in 1976. It has since become susceptible to
both diseases, in addition to succumbing to rice leaf-folder, hispa, stemborer and several
other insect pests.18”

The natural vulnerability of HYVs to pests has been exacerbated “by other aspects of the
Green Revolution package.” Large-scale monoculture provides a large and often permanent
niche for pests, turning minor diseases into epidemics. “In addition, fertilizers have been
found to lower plants' resistance to pests. 19 The result has been a massive increase in the use
of pesticides, in itself creating still further pest problems due to the emergence of pesticide-
resistant pests and a reduction in the natural checks on pest populations.”

The ‘miracle’ seeds of the Green Revolution “have thus become mechanisms for breeding
new pests and creating new diseases. Yet the ” costs of pesticides or of breeding “new
‘resistant’ varieties was never counted as part of the miracle of the new seeds.20”

4. SOIL “EROSION
Over the centuries, the fertility of the Indo-Gangetic plains was preserved through treating the
soil as a living system, with soil-depleting crops being rotated with soil building legumes.
Twenty years of ‘Farmers' Training and Education Schemes’, however, have transformed the
Punjab fanner into an efficient, if” unwilling, “soil bandit”.

Marginal land or forests have been cleared “to make way for the expansion of agriculture;
rotations” have been abandoned and cropland “is now used to grow soil depleting crops year-
in, year-out. Since the start of the Green Revolution, the area under wheat, for example, has
nearly doubled and the area under rice has increased five-fold. During the same period, the
area under legumes has been reduced by half. Today, 84 % of the Punjab is under cultivation,
17
Shiva, supra note 12.
18
World Bank, supra note 9.
19
Shiva, supra note 10 at 115.
20
Shiva, supra note 12.
as against 42 % for India as a whole. ” Only four % of the Punjab is now ‘forest’, “most of this
being plantations of Eucalyptus.21”

The result of such agricultural intensification has been “a downward spiraling of agricultural
land use - from legume to wheat to wasteland.”22 “The removal of legumes from cropping
patterns, for example, has removed a major source of free nitrogen from the soil. In addition,
the new HYVs reduce the supply of fodder and organic fertilizer available to farmers.
Traditional varieties of sorghum yield six pounds of straw per acre for every pound of grain.
By contrast modern rice varieties produce equivalent amounts of grain and straw. This has
contributed to the thirty-fold rise in fertilizer consumption in the state since the inception of
the Green Revolution.”

Increased fertilizer use, “however, has not compensated for the” over-use of the soil. “High-
yielding varieties rapidly deplete micronutrients from soils and chemical fertilizers (unlike
organic manures which contain a wide range of trace elements) cannot compensate for the
loss. Micronutrient deficiencies of zinc, iron, copper, manganese, magnesium, molybdenum
and boron are thus common. In recent surveys, over half of the 8706 soil samples from the
Punjab exhibited zinc deficiency, reducing yields of rice, wheat and maize by up to 3.9
tonnes per hectare.23”

Partly as a result of soil deficiencies, the productivity of wheat and rice has declined in many
districts in the Punjab, in spite of increasing levels of fertilizer application.24

5. WATER “SHORTAGES
Traditionally, irrigation was only used as an insurance against crop failure in times of severe
drought. The new seeds, however, need intensive irrigation as an essential input for crop
yields. Although high-yielding varieties of wheat may yield over 40 % more than traditional
varieties, they need about three times as much water. In terms of water use, therefore, they
are less than half as productive.25”

One result of the Green Revolution has therefore been to create conflicts “over diminishing
water resources. Where crops are dependent on groundwater for irrigation, the water table is
declining at an estimated rate of one-third to half a metre per year. A recent survey by the
21
Shiva, supra note 12.
22
Shiva, supra note 12.
23
Shiva, supra note 10 at 115.
24
Shiva, supra note 12.
25
Shiva, supra note 10 at 115.
Punjab Directorate of Water Resources, has shown that 60 out of the 118 development blocks
in the state cannot sustain any further increase in the number of tube wells.26 Nearly twenty %
of the world’s population lives in India. But the country has only five percent of the planet’s
potable water. Mr. Deepak Pental, the former vice-chancellor of the University of Delhi, a
professor of genetics and also one of the country’s most distinguished scientists said, ” “Every
time we export one kilogram of Basmati rice, we export five thousand kilograms of water.
This is a suicidal path. We are exporting tons of soy meal. The Japanese feed it to cows. The
nutritive value of what a cow is eating in Japan is more than what a human being eats in
India.”27

Irrigation through “the utilization of groundwater has become problem ridden as excessive
withdrawal has led to deeper and deeper aquifers having to be tapped. Water accumulated in
these aquifers over thousands of years is being drawn out in the space of few years. This has
led to a larger demand for electricity to run the pumps. 28 Overexploitation of groundwater
increases pumping costs and, if it leads to saltwater intrusion, may make aquifers unusable.
Political exigencies have necessitated that this electricity be supplied free, and so imposed yet
another burden on the already fund strapped exchequer. 29 These and many other forms of
environmental degradation cause real costs to the economy and to people’s welfare. Yet these
costs often go unmeasured, and thus, their magnitude is largely unknown. Therefore, a
country typically has insufficient information about the level of environmental ” damage, let
alone information “about the way to reduce or reverse the damage.30”

26
Shiva, supra note 12.
27
Specter, supra note 6 at 10.
28
Nathaniel, Green Revolution and Subsistence agriculture, 32(18), ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY 930,
931 (1997).
29
Id.
30
Specter, supra note 6 at 10.
 CONCLUSION
The “Green Revolution in Indian agriculture has been a subject of intense debate among
scholars and policy-makers in terms of its implications for the rural economy and society and
the sustainability of agricultural development.31 Although the Green Revolution brought
initial financial rewards to many farmers, the rewards were linked to high subsidies and price
support. But such subsidies could not be continued indefinitely and farmers are now facing
increasing indebtedness.”

The increased capital intensity of fanning “has generated new inequalities between those who
could use the new technology profitable and those for whom it turned into an instrument of
dispossession. Small farmers have been particularly hit badly. The prime beneficiaries have
been larger farmers and agrochemical companies. HYV seeds are illustrative. Unlike the
traditional high yielding varieties which have co-evolved with local systems, the Green
Revolution HYVs have to be replaced frequently. After three to five years’ life, they become
susceptible to diseases and pests. Intensive irrigation has led to the need for large-scale
storage systems, centralizing control over water supplies.”

In order to save our environment from the adverse impact of the Green Revolution, we need
an evergreen revolution. “There are two major pathways to fostering an evergreen revolution.
The first is organic farming. Productive organic farming needs considerable research support,
particularly in the areas of soil fertility replenishment and plant protection. Soils in most part
of India lack organic matter and are also deficient both in macro and micronutrients. A
majority of our farmers cultivate one hectare or less. Crop-livestock integrated farming will
help to build soil fertility but most small farm families have only 1 or 2 arm animals like
cows, buffaloes and bullocks. Green manure crops and fertilizer trees can help to build soil
fertility. Also, commercially viable organic farming methods will spread only if there is a
premium price for organic products. Organic farming should be promoted in the case of
vegetable and fruit crops and medicinal plants, where the danger of pesticide residues should
be avoided.32”

31
S. Singh, Green Revolution: in light and shade, 36(42) ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL WEEKLY 3996, 3996
(2001).
32
Swaminathan, supra note 1 at 20.
The other pathway to an evergreen revolution is green agriculture. “In this case, ecologically
sound practices like conservation farming, integrated pest management, integrated nutrient
supply and natural resources conservation and enhancement, are promoted. Green agriculture
techniques could include the cultivation of crop varieties breed through use of the
recombinant DNA technology, in case such varieties have advantages like resistance to biotic
or abiotic stresses, or other attributes like better nutritive quality. In organic farming, the
cultivation of genetically modified crops is prohibited.33”

The Green Revolution, thus, while aiming for increased food supply, has greatly affected the
environment in the adverse ways than good.

33
Swaminathan, supra note 1 at 20.
 BIBLIOGRAPHY
BOOKS:

1. M.S. Swaminathan, FROM GREEN TO EVERGREEN REVOLUTION, 17 (2010).

2. ENVIRONMENT PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS IN INDIA, 5, (M. Bala Krishnan ed., 2000).

ARTICLES:

1. W. Ladejinsky, How Green is the Indian Green Revolution, 8(52) ECONOMIC AND

POLITICAL WEEKLY 133, 135 (1973).

2. M. Specter, Seeds of doubt, THE NEW YORKER (August 25, 2014), available at
http://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2014/08/25/seeds-of-doubt (Last visited on
April 14, 2016).
3. V. Shiva, The Green Revolution in the Punjab, THE ECOLOGIST (March, 1991),
available at http://livingheritage.org/green-revolution.htm (Last visited on April 14,
2016).
4. Nathaniel, Green Revolution and Subsistence agriculture, 32(18), ECONOMIC AND

POLITICAL WEEKLY 930, 931 (1997).

5. S. Singh, Green Revolution: in light and shade, 36(42) ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL

WEEKLY 3996, 3996 (2001).

REPORTS:

1. World Bank, Greening India’s Growth, (2014), available at

https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/bitstream/handle/10986/22048/Greening0India
0tions0and0trade0offs.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y (Last visited on April 14,
2016).