User:Ju menendez/Green Revolution in India

Research Question: How did the Green Revolution negatively impact India’s social sector (at the cost of developing its economic sector)?

Comments: Ok, this could work, Julieta. I think you’re asking about the debates surrounding the Green Revolution, yes? Do you specifically mean the environmental critiques of modernized industrial agriculture (such as Vandana Shiva has articulated)? If so, why not say that exactly? (10/20/19)

REVISED Research Question: Though Punjab is India's most prosperous state, it is also "the region most seething with discontent," (Shiva, 13) as demonstrated most clearly by rising numbers of farmer suicides. How did the Green Revolution--first implemented in India in the Punjab region in the 1960s--contribute to Punjab's contemporary unfavorable social conditions?

Due to its adequate geography and the availability of its natural resources, the Indian Government selected Punjab as the location to introduce the Green Revolution in India in the 1960s. (Sangha, 332) The Indian government launched this agricultural technological development as a strategy to tackle India’s weak economy following its independence. (Sandhu, 1192) Since then, the Green Revolution has led to significant increases in Punjab’s agricultural output, supporting India’s economy.

***** (*include quantitate evidence here--maybe: "With a mere 30% of the total cultivated area of the country, Punjab contributed 70% of the total food grains production of the country in 1969-70"--Sandhu, 1195. OR: "farmers, who adopted the high-yielding varieties in 1966-67 doubled their output and in one jump, increased their net income by over 70 percent" (Sandhu, 1197) ******

Despite this increasing profitability, Punjab's rural people have been challenged with a range of issues, including extreme indebtedness, farmer's suicides, health problems, excessive alcohol and drug use, and loss of cultural identity. (Sangha) **More research to pinpoint specific issues to focus on...*

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Why is it valuable to focus on Punjab? Look at: Sandhu, 1196.


 * "The comparative success of the green revolution in Punjab is due to a number of favourable conditions prevailing in Punjab" (Sandhu, 1196)
 * "Punjab implemented various land reforms far more efficiently than any other State in the Union" (Sandhu, 1196)

Social consequences of Green Revolution on Punjab farmers:


 * "The late 1990s witnessed an emergency of debt-driven suicides and rapid indebtedness that had taken hold of the countryside across the nation." (Dutta, 229)
 * STAGNATION, MONO-CROPPING: "stagnation in production due to vast cereal-based mono cropping" (Dutta, 229)
 * INCREASED COSTS: "the application of expensive chemicals (like fertilisers, pesticides, weedicides, and so on), over-mechanisation, labour and irrigation eventually increased the input cost of cultivation manifolds." (Dutta, 229)
 * Which led to BORROWING MONEY --> Cycle of DEBT, exacerbated by the LIBERALIZED ECONOMY
 * Farmer suicides.

*** Question: Narrow my research Q to social problems on Punjabi FARMERS?