Question

Briefly explain any two drawbacks of the first Green Revolution.

Answer 1

Green Revolution involved the use of High-Yielding Variety (HYV) of seeds, which led to an unprecedented increase in the production of wheat and rice. However, the Green Revolution had several drawbacks.

Two of the drawbacks were:

1. The Green Revolution did not bring prosperity to all the regions of India. The states or regions which benefitted the most were Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. Agriculturally, these regions were already in a better position before the Green Revolution. The eastern part of the country and the arid and semi-arid regions did not benefit from this revolution.
2. HYV seeds required the use of huge quantities of water, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The repeated and continuous use of fertilizers and pesticides led to the degradation of the quality of soil and polluted the groundwater. This forced the peasants to use more fertilizers, pesticides and other inputs to bring out the same level of production. This increased the cost of production.