Agricultural Revolutions in India

Agriculture makes a huge contribution to the Indian Economy. Over the last few decades, the Government of India has taken several measures for growth and improvement. It is the backbone of the Indian economy. The GDP contribution of agriculture is 19.9% in the year 2020-21. India is the highest net cropped country in the world, USA and China are next. Till independence in India, only cash crops were produced we had an underdeveloped irrigation facility, with no modern technology, and because of recurrent famines and droughts, India faced consistent food shortages post Independence.

India had to import grain from the United States from 1956 to 1966. Constant arm twisting by the US on Food grain import and drought conditions from 1965 to 1966 compelled the ruling Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shashtri, to make ‘Food Self-Sufficiency’ one of India’s top economic priorities. He gave the “Jai Jawan Jai Kisan” slogan and launched Green Revolution under Indian Geneticist M.S Swaminathan. It completely changed the face of Indian Agriculture.

So far, many revolutions have been introduced in the ‘Agricultural sector’ amongst them Green and White Revolutions catapulted the growth. 

Agricultural Revolution in India

Revolutions in Agriculture

Revolutions in agriculture refer to important changes in the agricultural domain, with inventions, discoveries, or with new technologies which came to be implemented. These agricultural revolutions helped in increasing production as well as the production rate.

Various different revolutions in the case of agriculture in India marked an important new era in the case of agricultural developments and helped to increase agricultural production tremendously and also led to the creation of new opportunities.

List of Revolutions of Agriculture in India

We are listing the important revolutions of agriculture in India in tabular form so that the list can be easily understood and memorized. 

Revolutions	Product	Year	Father of Revolution
Round Revolution	Potato	1965-2005	Not Known
Green Revolution	Food Grains (Rice and Wheat)	1966-1967	Norman Borlaug, M.S.Swaminathan
Grey Revolution	Wood Production/ Fertilisers	1960-1970	M.S. Swaminathan
Pink Revolution	Onion Production	1970	Durgesh Patel
White Revolution (or Operation Flood)	Milk Production	1970-1996	Verghese Kurien
Blue Revolution	Fish Production	1973-2022	Dr. Arun Krishnan
Red Revolution	Meat or Tomato Production	1980s	Vishal Tiwari
Yellow Revolution	Oilseed Production	1986-1990	Sam Pitroda
Brown Revolution	Leather/ Cocoa Production	–	Hiralal Chaudhari
Golden Fibre Revolution	Jute Production	1990s	–
Golden Revolution	Fruits/Honey/Horticulture Production	1991-2003	Nirpakh Tutaj
Silver Revolution	Egg/ Poultry Production	2000s	Indira Gandhi
Silver Fibre Revolution	Cotton	2000s	–
Protein Revolution	Agriculture	2014-2020	Narendra Modi
Evergreen Revolution	Overall development of Agriculture	2017-2022	M.S. Swaminathan
Black Revolution	Petroleum Production	–	–

Highlights of Agricultural Revolutions

Some important agricultural revolutions which took place in the Indian context are as follows:

Green Revolution

• For the first time, ever High yielding variety (HYV) seeds were introduced in India in 1960. These seeds were drought and pest resistant.
• Since Punjab, Haryana, and Tamil Nadu had sufficient irrigation facilities It was launched first in these states.
• The first focus was on Rice/Wheat Crops cash crops like cotton, Jute, and oilseeds were excluded from it. 
• The most neglected resource of agriculture, the irrigation facility was developed. Other areas such as fertilizers, pesticides, and weedicides were also improved.
• Tractors, Harvesters, and Drill modern machinery was introduced to promote commercial farming. 
• The Green Revolution gave new impetus to Agriculture in India. The Per Hectare Yield increased from 850 KG in 1960 to 2281 kg in 1990.

Consequently, India became a surplus producer and now farmers shifted from subsistence farming to commercial farming. Gradually as the Green Revolution expanded across India, it became one of the stalwarts in the agricultural sector.

White Revolution

• The revolution was influenced by the success story of the Amul Milk Cooperative Society in Gujarat. Which began in the year 1946 as a revolt against the middlemen or local trade conglomerates, who would exploit Milk farmers.
• Tribhuvan das Patel decided to form a cooperative society for milk producers where farmers would collectively decide their price and sell directly to the dairy. The new concept instantly hit and paved the way for India’s “White Revolution”. 
• At that point, Dr. Varghese Kurien recognized as the “Father of the White Revolution” joined them. 
  The milk collection was decentralized by making a Cooperative society in Gujarat. It still is one of the biggest business innovations in the country. In 1954 for the first time, Buffalo Milk powder was manufactured. In 1955, the cooperative was named Amul and it still continues to be the largest milk producer in India.
• The exponential growth of Amul influenced Lal Bahadur Shastri so much that he wanted all the states in India should set up a Cooperative society like Amul. Thus in 1965 National Dairy development board was established to formulate a Dairy development program under Dr. Verghese Kurien.

He started “Operation Flood” which was launched in 1970 in 4 cities Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Chennai. Interestingly the funds were generated from the food aid of milk products given to India by the United Nations world food program. 

Operation Greens

Recently in 2018-19 “Operation Green” was launched with the objective to achieve similar success results as Operation Flood or White Revolution. Operation Greens scheme is for fruits and vegetables, major focus on TOP Crops like Tomatoes, onions, and potatoes. The purpose is to ensure farmers are not exploited and get the right price in the market. Its aim is also that Top crops are available across the country with no price variations.

Black Revolution

• It was launched to boost the production of petroleum in India. In 1975 India started experimenting with Ethanol and petrol to produce Biodiesel. Ethanol is made from sugar cane juice and molasses. 
• Finally, in Jan 2003 Ethanol Blending Petrol program was started by the Ministry of Petroleum & Natural Gas. And then in 2006, Bio Diesel’s purchase policy was announced. 
  The Ethanol requirement for sugarcane opened up an alternative source of income for farmers. Merging the two reduces air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. 
  In fact, The National Policy on Biofuels 2018 encourages biodiesel production from non-edible oilseeds, used cooking oil, and short gestation crop. Which can be easily grown even on barren lands.

Grey Revolution

The grey revolution began in 1960 and ended in 1970 in India. It is connected to an increase in fertilizer production. After the success of the increase in high-yielding varieties of seeds, it targeted to improve the quality of fertilizer for crop development. It basically compensated for the drawbacks of the green revolution in India. 

Yellow Revolution

Yellow Revolution in agriculture refers to the growth in edible oil production from 1986 to 1987. Total 9 oilseeds namely groundnut, mustard, soybean, safflower, sesame, sunflower, linseed, and castor were aimed to increase oil production. The implantation of hybrid mustard and sesame seeds oil boosted the revolution. A tremendous increase in Sunflower farming in Punjab built new opportunities for Farmers. During the early nineties, an all-time record of 25 million tonnes of oilseed production from annual oilseed crops was attained. 

Golden Revolution

The duration between 1991 to 2003 is referred to as the Golden Revolution. During these years the productivity in the horticulture sector, Honey, and Fruits increased remarkably. The planned investment and new technology helped in making these sectors sustainable livelihood and nutrition options. Currently, India is leading in the production of fruits like Mangoes, Bananas, Coconut, etc.

Brown Revolution

This revolution is going on in the tribal areas of Vishakhapatnam. Its aim is to attain the required supply for a huge demand for coffee from developed nations. Therefore, it focuses on increasing the production of eco-friendly coffee. 

Golden Fiber Revolution

This Revolution is about the development of Jute production. It’s called Golden Fibre because of its color and high monetary value. Jute was used as a raw material in the fabric industry during the industrial revolution and is still being used. Now it is one of the important raw materials for the Paper Industry as well. Besides Jute enhances the organic fertility of the soil. It started when the Golden Revolution was taking place from 1991 to 2003. There is still a lot of scope for improvement in this industry.

Protein Revolution

It was conceived by PM Narendra Modi in 2014 and continued till 2020. 

• It was the second Green Revolution, driven by technology to raise the farmer’s productivity. 
• To assist farmers who faced fluctuating conditions the government fixed a price stability fund of Rs.500 crore. 
• And to provide real-time information on innovative techniques, water conservation, and organic farming, besides this the Kisan TV channel was also launched. 
• The fund for storage capacity was raised to Rs. 5,000 crore 
• Further to increase awareness about soil health,  a Soil health card was given to every farmer for which Rs.100 crore were kept aside
• While for mobile soil-testing laboratories Rs.56 crore were granted. 

Round Revolution

The Government of India started this revolution in order to increase production and increase the new variety of Potatoes. Although it started in 1965 it continued till 2005. Farmers get good monetary rewards because of the national and international demands for Potatoes. For example, When Mc Donalds was in need of potatoes for their french fries product, they educated farmers about scientific farming in Gujarat. This shows potato cash crop has a huge demand across the world. 

Red Revolution

As the color tells its related to the production of tomatoes and meat in India. Vishal Tiwari was the father of the revolution. The technical changes like improved quality of seed, cold storage facility, and transportation propelled 66% of growth. And resulted, in an average  3.1% pa increase in the growth of tomatoes and meat. This revolution gave major results between 1980-2008.

Related Links

1. Important Features of Indian Economy
2. Green Economy
3. Green Revolution Krishonnati Yojana
4. Five-Year Plan Related To Blue Revolution

FAQs on Agricultural Revolutions in India

Q 1. Which is the first agricultural revolution in India?

Answer-

In India, the Green Revolution was first implemented in Punjab in late 1966-67. 

Q 2. How many revolutions are there in agriculture?

Answer- 

In India, there have been 16 agricultural revolutions.

Q 3. Which revolution was agriculture?

Answer-

The Neolithic revolution which is commonly known as agricultural revolution, occurred around 10,000 BCE and was a major turning point in human history.