The Hindu Business Line : Another Green Revolution

India’s first Green Revolution was set in motion at a time when there was a desperate need for it. During a period when a third of the population was dependent on agriculture, the input-intensive approach to farming was required to raise yields multi-fold to feed a growing population.

Now it looks like the world is going to face an acute food security problem by 2030, what with the increasing focus on diverting certain crops for fuel needs, and on.

Some agriculture analysts think India is now ready to start a second green revolution, albeit for other reasons.

Fewer people are engaged in farming at the present juncture, with many farmers giving up their traditional occupation that has become unviable, to head to the urban areas in search of jobs.

If this process continues, India will face a serious food crisis by 2050.

Deep in debts that they are unable to repay, farmers are selling their lands to builders and real estate companies. India’s agriculture growth rate, which is just 4 per cent and too low for a developing country, may fall further if the government does not take urgent steps to pump investments into the farm sector and extend the required subsidies and loan waivers to make farming viable again for the farmers.

Also, farmers are not getting their actual value of their crops.

This pricing problem too needs to be corrected at the earliest.

Mukesh Kumar Hyderabad

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