Green Revolution
After the Second World War, the increased deployment of technologies including pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers as herbicides and fertilizers as well as new breeds of high yield crops greatly increased global food production.
Green Revolution refers to a set of research and development of technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1930s and late 1960s (with prequels in the work of agrarian geneticist “Nazareno Strampelli” in 1920s and 1930s) that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives resulted in the adaptation of new technologies including:
1. High yielding varieties
2. Chemical fertilizers
3. Agro chemicals
4. New methods of cultivation, including mechanization
Green revolution in INDIA
It started in India in early 1960s and led to an increase in food grain production, especially in Punjab, Haryana, and Uttar Pradesh during the early phrase. The main development was higher yielding varieties (HYV) of Wheat, which were developed by many scientists including American agronomist Dr. Norman Barlaung. Indian geneticist M. S. Swaminathan and others. The “Indian council of agricultural research” also claims credits for enabling the Green Revolution, in part by developing rust resistant strains in wheat. Then came the high yielding varieties of rice and all other crops.
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In India, Farming is the main production activity. 75% of the total people who are working are dependent on farming for their livelihood. “As food for this growing population, we need more than a billion tons of grain every year.”But there is a basic constraint in raising farm production. Land area under cultivation is almost fixed. In India, there has been a four times increase in production of food grains from 1952 to 2010 with only 25% increase in the cultivable land area.
This is the only reason for Green Revolution in India is the ever growing population of our country. But this had let our country towards one of the greatest threats, a plague.
Let me discuss about this.
For the rapid growth of crop plants, Nitrogen enriched chemical fertilizers and various pesticides such as “Urea”, “NPK” are applied in the crop fields. But only 30% of the total compounds are taken by crop plants and the remaining 70% Nitrogen compounds get mixed up with underground water and the compounds also enter human bodies in the form of nitrate form along with vegetables and fruits and underground drinking water. Gradually, these nitrate compounds get stored in our body at a very large amount and we suffer from the following diseases:
1. Hormone induced cancer in Ovary, Thyroid Gland, Prostrate Gland
2. Metabolism – Obesity, Diabetes, Hyper Tension
3. Thyroid Gland – Autism, Neurodevelopment disorder, Hypo Thyroid, ADHD
4. Reproductive system:
Male – Infertility of Sperm
Female – Infertility, Premature Puberty, Premature Baby, Fibroid, Ovarian Syndrome.
Not only that some amount of the chemical fertilizer gets stored under the soil at a certain place and simulates the micro organisms and various kinds of bacteria present there. Due to the anaerobic respiration of those micro organisms, the compounds turn into Nitrous Oxide and causes environmental pollution. When this gas enters our respiratory system it gradually gets mixed up with the blood and caused various kinds of Cancer in the human body.
Every year more than 7, 00,000 cancer patients are admitted in the hospitals of India and more than 1, 00,000 cancer patients die every year.
DISASTERS CAUSE BY GENETICALLY MODIFIED ORGANISMS (GMOs) AND OTHER CHEMICAL INPUTS.
The good thing about designing a plant with an insecticide gene is it eliminates a lot of unwanted bugs. The downside is that only the strongest insects survive, resulting in a new class of superbugs resist to both the crop’s implanted toxins and spray on chemicals.
Chemical fertilizers provide minerals which dissolve in water and immediately available to plants. But these may not be retained in the soil for long. They may escape from the soil and pollute groundwater, rivers and lakes. Chemical fertilizers can also kill bacteria and other micro organisms in the soil. This means some time after their use, the soil will be less fertile than before.
The consumption of chemical fertilizers of Punjab is the highest in the county. The continuous use of chemical fertilizers had let to degradation of soil health. Punjab farmers are now forced to use more and more chemical fertilizers and other inputs to achieve the same production level and the soil health is gradually becoming more degraded and the rate of poisonous substances in the food grains, that causes slow poisoning and various kinds of Cancer i.e., Blood Cancer is also rising.
GMO complains use to pest proof their crop is also suspected to kill vital beneficial bugs, like bees and butterflies. At first consideration it might seem like more food for the world should trump the lives of some annoying bugs, but that’s shortsighted thinking since the elimination of pollinating insects could eventually lead to a collapse in the food supply. This is because insect pollination supports one-third of food crops. Thus, instead of solving food shortage problem, GM foods may actually make things much, much worse.
GMOs are used just to get much higher yields from the same piece of land compare to general seeds. In India, there were more than 1 00 000 varieties of rice. Some of them used to give much more yield than the present day genetically modified varieties of rice and some varieties of rice used to give unbelievable yield in the drought prone areas. But due to the more than excessive use of the GMOs we have lost 95% of those varieties. Today less than 5000 natural varieties of rice are left in India but most of those varieties will be found just in the highly secured laboratories.
WE MUST TRY TO RESIST IT AND TRY TO PRESERVE OUR “DIVERSITY IN THE SPECIES OF FOOD CROPS”.
The steps are as follows:
1. If we dump Neem leaves, Leaves of Custard Apple, Curd, Cow Dung and Cow’s Urine and treacle in a pit and leave it for some days, so that it can form compost. Then spread it in the crop field then it can be used as Organic-Pesticide and Manure.
2. If we bounder the crop field with Opuntia Plants than it will work as Bio- Pesticide.
3. The ash of cow dung cakes can also be used as Organic Pesticide.
4. The process in which farm wastes like livestock excreta, vegetable waste, animal refuse, domestic waste, sewage waste, straw, eradicated weeds etc., is decomposed in pits is known as Composting. The compost is rich in organic matter and nutrients. This is very useful for crop plants.
5. Prior to sowing of crop seeds, some plants like Sun hemp or guar are grown and then mulched by ploughing them into the soil. This green plants thus turn into green manure which helps in enriching the soil in nitrogen and phosphorus.
Written by: Mriganka Debnath
School: Sarada Vidya Mandir
Class: IX
E-mail ID: dmriganka40@gmail.com
Address: Udaypur, Raiganj (U.Dinajpur), 733130
Contact no.: 9932598823, 9434984331, 9476412086 Reference: World Wide Web, NCERT science textbook class 9, Survey (Uttar Dinajpur),
