From a country plagued with chronic food shortage, the Green Revolution turned India into a food-grain self-sufficient nation within the decade of 1968-1978. By contrast, the decade of 1995-2005 witnessed a spate in suicides among farmers in many parts of the country. These tragic incidents were symptomatic of the severe stress and strain that the agriculture sector had meanwhile accumulated. The book recounts how the high achievements of the Green Revolution had overgrown to a state of this ‘agrarian crisis’. In the process, it also brings to fore the underlying resilience and innovativeness in the sector which enabled it not just to survive through the crisis but to evolve and revive out of it. The need of the hour is to create an environment that will enable the sector to acquire the robustness to contend with the challenges of lifting levels of farm income and coping with Climate Change. To this end, a multi-pronged intervention strategy has been suggested. Reviving public investment in irrigation, tuning agrarian institutions to the changed context, strengthening of market institution for better farm-market linkage and financial access of farmers, and preparing the ground for ushering in technological innovations should form the major components of this policy paradigm.

This edited book focus on highlighting the evolution of Indian agriculture over the past 75 years of independence, covering every sector, viz. crop science, horticulture, management of biotic & abiotic stress, post-harvest quality management, livestock, fisheries, mechanization, marketing and human resource development. The book has 30 chapters from most experienced researchers and academicians who are actively engaged in research work on the subject area of the book. The book is in line with the strategy for new India @ 75’ brought out by NITI Ayog. It highlights India’s success stories in innovation, technology, enterprise and efficient management together to achieve overall growth while making available food, required nutrition and others ecological services. It also asses the India’s preparedness in terms of commitment toward sustainable development goal SDG). The book is a relevant reading material for both students and researchers and policy makers.

The green revolution in India about 50 years ago transformed India's image then as begging bowl to bread basket. This transformation during the 1960s took just about 4 years. The yield increases achieved in wheat and then in rice which occurred in just about half decade is far in excess of the yield increases during the preceding 4000 years. This remarkable feat was achieved with the leadership of the author using the dwarf wheat types which had been produced by Norman Borlaug in Mexico. The research and development of green revolution of wheat and rice at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi was led by the author along with his team of students and co-workers. He has published over 100 papers on green revolution and the ever-green revolution which is a refinement of the former. This book is a compilation of just about 40 of his numerous research papers, monographs and books published by him on this subject. The papers in this book bring out the scientific basis of the modification of the plant type so as to be responsive to exogenous addition of chemical fertilizers and irrigation. The ideal plant type enables capture of adequate sunlight and using the chemical fertilizers added to the soil, produce substantial photosynthetic starch. And because the plants have short and thick culm, they are able to withstand enormous amounts of grains in their ears. This indeed was the basis of breaking the yield barriers associated with native varieties. The book also brings out that green revolution had established the food security at the national level but not at the individual household levels of millions of resource-poor rural small and marginal farming, fishing and landless families. Further green revolution was commodity-centric and the manner of its practice led to environmental degradation and social inequities. This author realized as early as 1972 that system of agriculture in India should be designed to fight both the famines of food and rural livelihoods. In pursuit of it, this author further designed an evergreen revolution with systems approach. What this means is providing concurrent attention to ecological foundations of agriculture and the livelihoods of the rural people. The book also brings out that green revolution was a team effort involving scientists, policy makers, administrators, farmers and students. This book is an outstanding example of green revolution providing a breathing space by putting the cereal grain production rate ahead of the population growth rate and then when food security has been adequately established, the system is changed to achieve productivity in perpetuity without causing environmental and social harm.

Monograph on the behaviour of farmers in the context of the green revolution and its impact on agricultural development in India - narrates interviews with agricultural workers as well as rich and poor farmers in bihar and punjab, outlining the psychological aspects and sociological aspects which oppose rationality in the adoption of new technologys, and indicates the agricultural policy to be followed to overcome them. Bibliography pp. 145 to 152, glossary, map and statistical tables.

The Green Revolution has been heralded as a political and technological achievement—unprecedented in human history. Yet in the decades that have followed it, this supposedly nonviolent revolution has left lands ravaged by violence and ecological scarcity. A dedicated empiricist, Vandana Shiva takes a magnifying glass to the effects of the Green Revolution in India, examining the devastating effects of monoculture and commercial agriculture and revealing the nuanced relationship between ecological destruction and poverty. In this classic work, the influential activist and scholar also looks to the future as she examines new developments in gene technology.

Contributed articles on economic aspects of agriculture in India.

India's agricultural growth in the twentieth century has been low compared to that in other developing countries. However, there have been some important developments in the agricultural sector in this period. Famines have all but disappeared and there is now a food surplus. The green revolution too increased yield and productivity for certain crops in specific agro-climatic zones. Having said that, a lot still needs to be done. While agricultural growth has contributed to significant decline in poverty, India still remains home to the largest number of poor. Agricultural productivity remains low in much of the rain fed areas where poverty and malnutrition are concentrated. Land productivity is also declining in areas which are over-irrigated. Agricultural growth must be restarted, and the benefits more fairly distributed. This timely handbook reviews key issues in Indian agriculture today. Individual contributors assess: · The state of Indian agriculture in relation to state and central economic policies and their impact on the economic and societal environment · The need to shift focus from green revolution areas to other regions and crops in the context of globalization and even distribution of the benefits achieved · Food security, not only at the national but also at the regional, household, and group levels · Contemporary issues relating to poverty and agricultural subsidies · Emerging issue of the changing agrarian system and rural urban linkages

The success of the agricultural policy adopted in 1965 has given India the hope of escaping from its circle of poverty. At the same time the increased rate of economic development seems to have exacerbated social tensions and accentuated disparities that may eventually undermine the foundations of rural political stability. Originally published in 1971. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

This ambitious and engaging new account of independent India's struggle to overcome famine and malnutrition in the twentieth century traces Indian nation-building through the voices of politicians, planners, and citizens. Siegel explains the historical origins of contemporary India's hunger and malnutrition epidemic, showing how food and sustenance moved to the center of nationalist thought in the final years of colonial rule. Independent India's politicians made promises of sustenance and then qualified them by asking citizens to share the burden of feeding a new and hungry state. Foregrounding debates over land, markets, and new technologies, Hungry Nation interrogates how citizens and politicians contested the meanings of nation-building and citizenship through food, and how these contestations receded in the wake of the Green Revolution. Drawing upon meticulous archival research, this is the story of how Indians challenged meanings of welfare and citizenship across class, caste, region, and gender in a new nation-state.