Effect of Green Revolution in wheat on production of pulses and nutrients in India

Ryan, J G and Asokan, M (1977) Effect of Green Revolution in wheat on production of pulses and nutrients in India. Indian Journal of Agricultural Economics, 32 (3). pp. 8-15. ISSN 0019-5014

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Abstract

The effect of high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of wheat introduced in the mid-1960s in India on the production of pulses and major nutrients was evaluated. Linear trend lines were fitted to data from six major wheat-growing states of India, namely, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh for the ten-year period preceding 1964-65 and separately for the subsequent ten-year period. 22% of the expansion in wheat acreage during the latter period could be accounted for by the reduction in the area of pulses. 8% of the expansion in wheat was at the expense of winter rice and barley. The vast majority of the growth in the area sown to wheat in the six states was a result of increases in cropping intensities resulting from the HYVs, expansion in irrigation and an increase in net sown areas. Total trend foodgrain production in 1974-75 in the six states would have been 13.4% less had the HYVs of wheat not been introduced, taking into account the reduction in the production of pulses, winter rice, and barley, as well as the increased wheat production. Generally per caput reductions would have amounted to between one and two percentage points less than those figures. From a nutritional angle, the substitution of wheat for chickpea that occurred after the Green Revolution resulted not only in a vast increase in the production of energy from each hectare, but also of protein. The success of these wheats clearly illustrated how a plant breeding strategy which emphasized increased yield potential could result in significant improvements in aggregate nutritional well-being. Both the coarse grains and pulses, which are primarily crops of rainfed semi-arid tropical areas, require substantial increases in yield potential in the future if the nutritionally most vulnerable groups are to be made better off

Item Type:	Article
Divisions:	UNSPECIFIED
CRP:	UNSPECIFIED
Subjects:	Others > Wheat
Depositing User:	Mr B K Murthy
Date Deposited:	30 Jan 2014 01:43
Last Modified:	24 Jul 2018 10:24
URI:	http://oar.icrisat.org/id/eprint/7401
Official URL:
Projects:	UNSPECIFIED
Funders:	UNSPECIFIED
Acknowledgement:	UNSPECIFIED
Links:	Google Scholar

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