Question

Read the following statements and choose the correct answer.
Assertion: The use of agrochemicals and improved crop varieties led to the Green Revolution.
Reason: One of the major cons of Green revolution was the degradation of the environment.

Answer 1

In the mid 1960s, during the period of Green Revolution, plant breeding techniques led to the development of several high yielding and disease resistant varieties of crops such as wheat and rice. Along with the use of agrochemicals (chemical fertilisers and pesticides) and better crop management practices, these new varieties led to a dramatic increase in food production.

As the use of agrochemicals increased, the quality of soil and water deteriorated. Excess use of chemicals alters the natural composition of the soil, creating pH and nutrient imbalance. It also leads to the death of many beneficial soil microbes. Some of these chemicals also accumulate on the crops and enter the food chain.

Water bodies are polluted when water from irrigation washes off these chemicals into the nearby water bodies. Addition of chemical fertilisers to water bodies enriches them with nutrients, leading to excessive growth of algae. The algae use up most of the dissolved oxygen in the water, leaving very little for the respiration of aquatic animals, which gradually start dying.

Thus, we may conclude that the Green Revolution came at the price of a degrading environment.
Therefore, both assertion and reason are true but the reason is not the correct explanation for the assertion.