What is Green Revolution ? Why was it imple-mented and how did it benefit the farmers?

The introduction of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of seeds and the increased use of fertilisers, pesticides and irrigation facilities are known coEectively as the Green Revolution which resulted in the increase in crop yield needed to make India self-sufficient in food grains. Various land reforms were also undertaken in order to make Green Revolution successful.
Thus, Green Revolution included the foUowing measures : .
(i) Use of High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of seeds
(ii) Increase in irrigation cover
(iii) Use of insecticides and pesticides
(iv) Consolidation of holdings
(v) Rural electrification
(vi) Improvement in rural infrastructure
(vii) Agricultural credit facilities (viii) Use of chemical fertilisers
Green Revolution was implemented because of the foUowing reasons :
(i) Food Security : The colonial rule had made Indian agriculture suffer from low level of productivity especiaEy in food grains as more emphasis during colonial rule had been on cash crops which served as raw material to British industries. This resulted in shortage of food grains in India and made Green Revolution necessary to provide food security to the population.
(ii) Low Irrigation Facility: The land area under irrigation cover was only 17% in 1951. The major part of agriculture was dependent on rainfaU from monsoon and in case of scanty rainfall or delayed monsoon, crops were destroyed due to lack of proper irrigation facEities. This caused low level of agricutural production.
(iii) Conventional Methods: The use of conventional inputs and absence of modern techniques led to low level of agricultural productivity.