With the increase in foodgrain output due to the Green Revolution, India began to depart from reliance on foodgrain imports. However, the increased production only substituted for import and no fundamental changes were observed in the supply demand situation of domestic foodgrains, given that there were no changes in the per-capita daily foodgrain consumption between pre- and post-revolution periods. Moreover, while taking it out of the Ricardian Growth Trap, the Revolution created new problems in the Indian economy. Let us review the process from the viewpoints of increased gaps between provinces (Section 2-1) and farmers' involvement in the market economy (the market nexus) (Section 2-3). These elements will lead to arguments regarding two de-stabilizing agricultural factors in the Indian economy; farmers' movement as pressure groups and potential food shortage of the future, which will be discussed in Chapter 3.
2-1 Regional Gaps
The Green Revolution is represented by the farming system based on the combination of high-yielding varieties, irrigation and chemical fertilizers.
The introduction of the high-yield varieties, that require the establishment of agricultural infrastructure based on irrigation, brought about the agricultural policy of pursuing efficiency rather than equality. In other words, it was a conversion from the development of farming areas by a Populism-type principle of equality to an intensive agricultural-area programme (1964/65) that invests mainly in the areas with relatively well-established infrastructure. The land productivity by province implies that the Revolution spread especially to the areas with irrigation systems (Figure 1-7). As a result, granaries were formed in the northwest areas consisting of Punjab, Haryana and the western part of Uttar Pradesh, where irrigation canal networks have been maintained since the colonial. When the Revolution had more or less spread in the late 1970s (1978/79), Punjab and Haryana, together occupying only 5.5% of the country's total farmland, produced 25% of the national output of wheat and nearly 10% of that of rice. These two provinces supplied about 70% of foodgrains procured by the Government for its buffer inventory and low-price sale to the poverty class. Indeed, these provinces feed India, and are the base of its food security.
