Question

Revolutions in the field of agriculture have helped in poverty alleviation and food security. Elaborate.

Answer 1

Approach:

• In intro discuss basic features of Indian Agriculture.
• Discuss about the different reforms in agriculture sector.
• Discuss about the role of these reforms in solving problems of poverty alleviation and food security in India.
• Provide appropriate conclusion.

Indian agriculture sector accounts for 18 per cent of India's gross domestic product (GDP) and provides employment to 50% of the countries workforce. Since Independence Indain agriculture was facing many problems like poor productivity, low irrigation facility and lower use of technology. To tackle such issues, many initiatives was started to improve the agriculture productivity. Many of these initiatives has far reaching effect on improving agriculture productivity. Some of these initiatives can be called as revolutionary steps.

Different reforms i.e revolution in agriculture sector:

1. Green Revolution: Under this new technology, new ideas, new applications of inputs like High yielding variety (HYV) seeds, fertilizers, irrigation water, pesticides etc. were used in the agriculture sector to increase the production and productivity of agriculture sector. Due to use of High yielding variety (HYV) production of food grains has increased.
2. White Revolution: Under this, India became the world's largest milk producer from a milk-deficient nation. It created a national milk grid linking producers throughout India with consumers in over 700 towns and cities, reducing seasonal and regional price variations while ensuring that the producer gets a major share of the price consumers pay, by cutting out middlemen.
3. Yellow Revolution: It is the sudden increase in the production of edible oils due to plantation of Hybrid oil seed like mustard , sesame , etc. Indian oilseeds production scenario from a “net importer” status in the Eighties to a near self-sufficient” status during the early Nineties has been popularly termed as the “Yellow Revolution
4. Golden Revolution: From 1991 to 2003 is termed as Golden revolution, when there was a huge increase in the production of Fruits, Honey Production and other Horticulture products.

Role in poverty alleviation and food security:

1. Increase in Agricultural Production: Due to the adoption of new agricultural strategy the volume of agricultural production and productivity has recorded manifold increase. The introduction of high-yielding varieties (HYV) of seeds and the increased quality of fertilizers and irrigation techniques under green revolution led to the increase in production to make the country self-sufficient in food grains, thus improving agriculture in India. These revolutions helped in achieving the goal of food security in our country.
2. Increase in rural Income: Operation Flood and green revolution helped in increasing in rural Income by increasing food production and access to new technology. Operation Flood created a national milk grid linking producers throughout India with consumers in over 700 towns and cities, reducing seasonal and regional price variations while ensuring that the producer gets a major share of the price consumers pay, by cutting out middlemen. So white revolution helped in improving the rural Income.
3. Strengthening the Forward and Backward Linkages: Due to revolution in agriculture sector, linkage in agriculture and Industry has increased. Due to linkage, production of grain has increased and helped in improving the rural income.

Way Forward:
Due to revolution in agriculture sector, along with many advantages there is certain limitation like increase in regional variation. Small and marginal farmers also not get benefitted from these reforms in larger extent. In such case, there is also a requirement for development of backward areas and small and marginal farmers.