Green Revolution in India

The Green Revolution in India was the period, commencing in 1968 under the premiership of Indira Gandhi, during which Indian agriculture was transformed by the adoption of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties, chemical fertilizers, irrigation expansion and mechanized farm tools. Led within India by the agricultural scientist M. S. Swaminathan and drawing directly on the high-yielding, rust-resistant wheat varieties developed by Norman Borlaug, the transformation concentrated heavily in Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh and drove a sharp rise in food grain production that turned India from a food-deficit nation dependent on imports into a net grain exporter within about two decades. The transformation also produced significant regional and social inequities and long-term environmental costs, including groundwater depletion and soil degradation in the most intensively farmed regions, that remain debated in assessments of its legacy.