Agriculture (a) Green Revolution By the middle of the 1960s the scenario with regard to food production was very grim. The country was incurring enormous expenditure on importing food. Land reforms had made no impact on agricultural production. The government therefore turned to technological alternatives to develop agriculture.
High Yielding Variety (HYV) of seeds of wheat and rice was adopted in in select areas well endowed with irrigation. Unlike traditional agriculture, cultivation of HYV seeds required a lot of water and use of tractors, chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The success of the initial experimental projects led to the large-scale adoption of HYV seeds Green Revolution in India Vinoba Bhave Envisioning a New Socio-Economic Order purpose was to provide rural households with assets which would improve their economic position, so that they would be able to come out of poverty. These could be improvements to the land, supply of cows or goats for dairying or help to set up small shops or other trade-related businesses.
Introduced in all the blocks in the country, the target was to provide assistance to families in each block over five years ( – ), which would reach a total of million families. The capital cost of the assets provided was covered by subsidies (divided equally between the Centre and the States) and loans. The subsidy varied according to the economic situation of the family receiving assistance. For small farmers, the subsidy component was %, .
% for marginal farmers and agricultural labourers, and % for tribal households. Banks were to give loans to the selected households to cover the balance of the cost of the asset. About . million households were covered under the programme till .
Dairy animals accounted for % of the assets, non-farm activities for % and minor irrigation works for about %. The functioning and the effects of IRDP were assessed by many economists as well as government bodies. These studies raised many questions about the end result. Lack of proper selection procedures for identification of beneficiaries,