Essay : Green Revolution

Green Revolution

Introduction: The Green Revolution is a term referring to the reformation of agricultural practices resulting in dramatic increases in crop yields by the use of artificial fertilizers, pesticides, and high-yield crop varieties. Bangladesh is a very small country of l, 47,570 square kilometer area having a population of 15 core 99 lacs. The land area is gradually decreasing because of Population growth, industrialization and other infrastructure development. This results a declining trend of per capita land availability from 0.13 hectare to 0.06 hectare during last few decades (1960 to 2000). However, agriculture plays a pivotal role in overall economic development of the country, not only in terms of it contribution to GDP (about 16% of the GDP). More than 70% of the population depends on agriculture. In order to feed the huge population green revolution has emerged in 1960s and priority was given to produce more food in terms of grain through intensification of land usage. It has created a tremendous pressure on limited land resources. New crop variety was introduced as well as chemical fertilizers and pesticides, irrigation in the name of modernization. As a result immediate objectives of more grain production have achieved and grain (rice) production has increased by manifold. For a shorter period Bangladesh has achieved so called self-sufficiency in food.

What is Green Revolution: The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, and development, and technology transfer initiatives that increase agricultural production worldwide. It refers mainly to spectacular increase in wheat, rice and com yields in many countries of the world in the late 20th century due largely to the use of high yielding varieties, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation water. Here, the word 'green' is used to symbolize green color of crops at younger stage and the word 'revolution' has been used to mean a quick change. This change came from transformation of conventional cultivation system to a high yielding cultivation system with new technologies. This change occurred silently to reduce hunger of millions of people in the world. That is, "Green Revolution" represents a strategy of quick increase in agricultural production through the use of a production package that contains improved seed, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation water and improved management.

History of Green Revolution: Green revolution was first initiated in 1944 in Mexico. This got momentum mainly with the development of a number of high yielding wheat varieties in the late 1940s. Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist, who won the Nobel peace prize in 1970, led the revolution.

The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution" credited with saving over a billion people from starvation, involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation  infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution Of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers. As a result of this revolution, Mexico became self-sufficient in food-grain production in 1951  that used to depend on imports for half of its food-grain requirements. In 1964' the country was able to export about a half million ton of wheat.

The term 'Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 by former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies in the field of agriculture which contain the makings of a new revolution.

During the mid- 1960s India and Pakistan were at war and experienced widespread famine and starvation. Nevertheless, these two countries were able to escape famine and hunger within a short period of time due to adoption of new technologies offered by the contemporary green revolution. Thus, these countries achieved self-sufficiency in food production. Several Asian countries  namely, India, Pakistan, Philippines, China, Thailand, Indonesia, Srilanka and Bangladesh have also experienced spectacular increase in food production due to green revolution.

Two international research organizations, namely, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (Centro Internacional de Majoramiento de Maizy Trigo, or CIMMYT) and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) have contributed significantly to the success of green revolution. Thus, production of food-grains increased significantly throughout the world, marking the phenomenon as green revolution.

Green Revolution in Bangladesh: The spread of 'seed-fertilizer-water' technology popularly known as green revolution began in Bangladesh in the 1960s. At that time farmers rarely used fertilizers, pesticides and modern irrigation equipments. Bangladeshi farmers used traditional methods of farming that they practiced since thousands of years. Initially Bangladesh Water Development Board (BWDB) developed multipurpose flood control, drainage and irrigation projects. Meanwhile, Bangladesh Agricultural Development Corporation (BADC) introduced modern irrigation equipment, chemical fertilizers, pesticides and new varieties of high-yielding seeds developed by international and national research institutes. This laid the foundation for green revolution.

The spread of green revolution and the consequent increase in food production was fairly noticeable after the independence in 1972. The population of Bangladesh was 75 million at that time, which increased to 160 million in 2016. During that period food-grain production increased from 10 million tons to 37 million tons in the country indicating a significant positive effect of green revolution. In this way, Bangladesh and the contemporary world escaped mass hunger and famine due to introduction of green revolution in agriculture.

Impacts of Green Revolution: The impacts of green revolution are-

Increase in Production: The first major direct effect of the green revolution has been the sharp increase in agricultural production. As a result of new 3rlCUltural strategy, food grains output increased substantially.

Proper use of land: Green revolution has enabled better land use by employing  '0 and three crop pattern.

Market Oriented agriculture: Green Revolution has enabled agriculture to ange from subsistent to commercial and market-oriented.

Linking agriculture with industry: Green Revolution has relationship between agriculture and industry.

Rural prosperity: Green Revolution has increased rural prosperity. It is bo  to have secondary and tertiary impact over rural economic and social system  Negative Impacts of Green Revolution

After the green revolution, when the technology and the notion of chemical agriculture were introduced, it seems that the gross production of main grain, rice, has increased. It has, however created a large negative impact on rural farmers and the environment. Chemical agriculture is only oriented to economic profit but ecological and social factors are totally ignored. Chemical agriculture is totally anti-natural and destructive. Consequently this agricultural technology creates many problems. These are as below-

Degradation of Soil: Use of inorganic fertilizer and pesticides (without use of any organic fertilizer) results lack of organic matter supply which caused a Iot of problems to the soil. Soil becomes hard, water holding capacity reduces, soil pH becomes imbalance that causes some micro-nutrient deficiency, reduces soil microbial activities result less availability of plant nutrients.

Increasing pest problem: Degraded soil becomes unhealthy and unhealthy soil grows unhealthy plants. Without considering the root cause the use of chemical poisons to destroy the pest and consequently the pest problem is not solved and become worse.

Effects on food security: Though production has increased fostering by the Green Revolution, it has decreased food security for a large number of people because of the shift of subsistence-oriented cropland to cropland oriented production of grain for export or animal food.

Food quality degradation: The products grown with excessive chemic fertilizers and pesticides are low in quality. This low food quality bec01fl apparent in taste and preserving capacity of the products. Chemically  product has less nutrient content like protein, vitamins and minerals and water content. The high water content may be one of the main reasons forla of taste and low preserving capacity of chemically grown product.

Pesticides: In Green Revolution agriculture relies on extensive use Of pesoc which are necessary to limit the high levels of pest damage that inevitably in monocropping — the practice of producing or growing one single crop   wide area.

Biodiversity : The spread of Green Revolution agriculture affected both the Green Revolution acted to reduce agricultural biodiversity, as it relied on just a few high-yield varieties of each crop. This has led to concerns about the susceptibility of a food supply to pathogens that cannot be controlled by agrochemicals, as well as the permanent loss of many valuable genetic traits (t-6fi) bred into traditional varieties over thousands of years. To address these concerns, massive seed banks such as Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's have been established.

Dependence on non-renewable resources: High intensity agricultural production is highly reliant on non-renewable resources. Agricultural machinery and transport, as well as the production of pesticides and nitrates all depend on fossil fuels. Moreover, the essential mineral nutrient phosphorus is often a limiting factor in crop cultivation, while phosphorus mines are rapidly being depleted worldwide. The failure to depart from these non-sustainable agricultural production methods could potentially lead to a large scale collapse of the current system of intensive food production within this century.

Pollution of Soil, Water, Air and Products: Use of chemical pesticides results pollution of the environment as they are chemical poison. They are very much effective in killing living things and have long term residual effect (some cases more than 10 years). The poison pollute the product first and then soil, air and water consequently. This pollution results in poisoned product, soil degradation, and the disappearance of fish, birds and other animals.

Health Problem: People experienced health hazards in two ways. Firstly, people eat the poisoned agricultural products and other contaminated food like, meat, milk, fish etc from chemical agricultural production. The poison accumulates in the living body and through the food chain, the poison is condensed and creates different health hazards. The ultimate destination of any chemical poison, wherever it is used, is the human body. Secondly, the chemical pesticides directly affect the farmers who use it. In Bangladesh, most farmers handle pesticides without protection for their bodies and they are usually the most serious victims. The chemicals also produce a health hazard to other living things, especially livestock's and poultry birds.

Recommendations:

Sustainable Agriculture: Sustainable Agriculture is a concept that emphasizes meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. If natural resources such as soil, nutrients and water are used up at a rate faster than they are replenished then the farming systems is unsustainable. Sustainability is also dependent on maintaining a high level of biodiversity, especially in the soil and the Unminding environment. Therefore, economic and social issues, as well as the Pr0dUCtivity of the land and the broader health of the environment, have to be considered when working towards sustainable agriculture.

Importance of Sustainable Agriculture Practices: Bangladesh is under tremendous pressure to produce food grain for a huge population utilizing very limited land resource of 8.3 million hectare. It is claimed by the government that if the natural factors remain favorable Bangladesh can grow sufficient food grain (cereals) for its people. Now the question is how long ? It has already proved that land and other natural resources cannot be exploited endlessly. By this time we have damaged our soil, genetic and other natural resources to a great extent. We must find the alternate way out before going the situation at an unprecedented level. We should not utilize the technology for only exploitation of natural resources. We must choose the environment friendly technology that can meet the present need and also conserve the resources for future use. We have huge natural resources, thousands of indigenous knowledge gathered by our ancestors which they learn from nature. We require necessary harmonization between indigenous knowledge and technologies.

Sustainable agriculture concept would be very much helpful to overcome the situation. A sustainable pro-people agriculture policy should be developed by the government and a strong long term social movement is required for that.

Conclusion: The Green Revolution was a major achievement for many developing countries and gave them an unprecedented level of national food security. It represented the successful adaptation and transfer of the same scientific revolution in agriculture that the industrial countries had already appropriated for themselves. The Green Revolution also lifted large numbers Of poor people out of poverty and helped many people avoid the poverty and hunger they would have experienced. The largest benefits to the poor were mostly indirect, in the form of lower food prices, increased migration opportunities, and greater employment in the rural non-farm economy. people and  Policymakers receive will direct need benefits to target from the new poor technologies. more precisely New to technologies ensure that poor will also need to be environmentally sustainable. By building on the strengths of the i Green Revolution while seeking to avoid its weaknesses, scientists and policymakers can take significant steps toward achieving sustainable food security for the entire world's people.