Introduction
The last few years have seen several significant changes in the field of agriculture. It has supplied adequate amount of food for the growth of the human population. This period of revolution was seen as a time period when the production of global agriculture enhanced significantly due to new advances. At this time, new chemical-based fertilizers as well as artificially prepared pesticides and herbicides were developed.
These chemical fertilizers supplied crops with abundance of nutrients and increased its yield. The newly formed synthetic form of pesticides and herbicides were also seen to be effective in controlling weeds. It deterred or destroyed insects, and also eliminated ailments that resulted in higher levels of productivity. Let us explore Green Revolution and also examine the advantages and drawbacks linked with this period
Positive effect of green revolution
High yield crops
Along with the chemical advances used with this period, it has also led to the introduction and development of high-yield crops. These crops are specifically made to produce more amount of overall yield. Another method called as multiple cropping also got implemented at the time of the Green Revolution. It led to higher levels of productivity. This production of larger amounts of food also increased the productivity that made it easier to feed the increasing human population.
Cheaper prices of food
Besides production of food in larger amounts, the Green Revolution made it possible to cultivate more crops on the same land with a similar level of effort. This lowered cost of production resulted in lesser prices of food in the entire market. Bigger yields with the same level of work resulted in lowered cost of production that ultimately reduced consumer costs and enhanced profits.
Protects the environment
As more food can be produced from current croplands via the Green Revolution, it has resulted in lesser needs of conversion to other types of land. This enhanced ability to cultivate more amount of food on the land is also useful for the environment. This is because it meant that less natural land required to get transformed to farmland for the production of more amount of food.
With green revolution, the natural land isn’t required for agricultural land. It is safe for utilization by plants and animals for their natural habitat. This revolution also resulted in creating a consistent supply of food.
Eliminates the requirement for fallowing
Fallowing is a way that farmers use to safeguard their land in dry climates. Through Green Revolution, the requirement to fallow gets eliminated as fertilization, weed control and irrigation makes possible for the production of food. Farmers are seen to obtain more amount of income in dry land as their croplands have become more productive with this revolution.
Makes food supply predictable
Before introduction of green revolution, it was uncertain to predict food supply. In absence of favourable weather conditions, the harvest would get lowered. The lesser availability of food, resulted in its higher pricing. Due to the Green Revolution, farmers are able to predict harvests. With manageable weather conditions at each field, the influence of poor harvesting seasons has been significantly reduced.
Creation of more jobs
Green revolution has created to more job vacancies throughout the agricultural sector. With more jobs, it has resulted in more income. This in turn created a flourishing economy and gave people an opportunity to rise above poverty with passing time.
Negative impacts of the green revolution
Expensive
Though techniques and methods used by this revolution increased availability of food, but these methods and techniques were seen to be quite expensive.
More environmental harm
The various types of pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers used for the production of more food provides the ability to lead to high levels of soil pollution and erosion. This can result in local level of water tables. People are getting exposed to concentrated chemicals that adversely impacts personal and environment health.
Creates a lot of food waste
Prior to this revolution, wastage of food within the entire supply chain has never happened. Most of the foods that were cultivated was for local population. With green revolution, food is grown at a quick rate and in large quantities, that has led to its wastage in the entire system. Nearly forty percentage of a harvest gets lost at consumer level before its processing. This leads to wastage of around 1 billion ton of food per year.
Results in seed unproductiveness in specific crops
Patenting is seen to be a major issue in the present Green Revolution. Farmers who have genetically altered their harvests are provided with a choice to patent work so as to safeguard their profits. This genetic profile prevents the seeds obtained from genetically altered yields from cultivating. This forces farmers to continuously purchase new seeds from developers. This implies high prices for everyone.
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