{"id":41604,"date":"2024-07-19T06:39:07","date_gmt":"2024-07-19T01:09:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=41604"},"modified":"2025-10-13T13:17:27","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T07:47:27","slug":"green-revolution-in-maize","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/green-revolution-in-maize\/","title":{"rendered":"Green Revolution in Maize"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>Green Revolution in India<\/li>\n<li>Green Revolution in Maize<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Why in News?<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>India is a success story of the green revolution in maize driven by the private sector, with maize production having more than tripled over the past 20 years.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Green Revolution in India:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>About:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The history of the Green Revolution in India goes back to the <strong>1960s <\/strong>when high-yielding rice and wheat was introduced to<strong> increase food production<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It was a period during which <strong>agriculture in India was converted into a modern industrial system<\/strong> by the<strong> adoption of technology<\/strong>, such as\n<ul>\n<li>The use of high yielding variety (HYV) seeds,<\/li>\n<li>Mechanised farm tools,<\/li>\n<li>Irrigation facilities,<\/li>\n<li>Pesticides and fertilisers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Mainly led by agricultural scientist <strong>M. S. Swaminathan<\/strong> in India, this period was part of the larger Green Revolution endeavour initiated by <strong>Norman Borlaug &#8211;<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>for increasing agricultural productivity in the developing world,<\/li>\n<li>by leveraging agricultural research and technology.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Impact:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Crop varieties can be chosen by <strong>breeding for a variety of beneficial traits<\/strong>, including high yields, resistance to disease, fertiliser responsiveness, and product quality.<\/li>\n<li>It resulted in <strong>an increase in food grain production<\/strong> (especially in Punjab, Haryana, and Western UP), reduction in imports (leading to self-sufficient), industrial development, rural employment generation, etc.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Criticism: <\/strong>Despite its initial success, the Green Revolution was met with much controversy throughout India. This is mainly due to &#8211;\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Increased input cost:<\/strong> This resulted in the indebtedness of the small farmers due to increased borrowing to finance the change from traditional seed varieties.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Environmental damage and reduced soil fertility: <\/strong>Due to excessive and inappropriate use of fertilisers and pesticides.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Increased regional disparities:<\/strong> This is becausethe green revolution spread only in irrigated and high-potential rainfed areas.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Largely limited to wheat and rice.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Green Revolution in Maize:<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Maize crop in India:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>In India, <strong>maize is principally grown in two seasons<\/strong>, rainy (kharif) and winter (rabi).<\/li>\n<li>Kharif maize represents around 83% of maize area in India, while rabi maize corresponds to 17% maize area.<\/li>\n<li>Among the maize growing countries, <strong>India ranks 4th in area and 7th in production<\/strong>, representing around 4% of the world maize area and 2% of total production.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Maize production in India:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>There is another less celebrated revolution that has taken place in India.<\/li>\n<li>Between 1999-2000 and 2023-24, annual production of maize has more than tripled, with average per-hectare yields rising from 1.8 to 3.3 tonnes.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Another feature of maize in India:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Maize is a fuel crop rather than a feed crop.<\/strong> Less than 25% of the maize produced is consumed directly by humans.<\/li>\n<li>An estimated 60% goes as feed for poultry and livestock, which is indirectly consumed as food by households (as chicken, egg or milk).<\/li>\n<li><strong>14-15% of India\u2019s maize utilisation is for industrial purposes<\/strong>. Maize grains have 68-72% starch, and 1-3% of other simple carbohydrates.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Starch <\/strong>has applications in the textile, paper, pharmaceutical, food and beverage industries.<\/li>\n<li>The usage of maize as a feedstock for <strong>ethanol<\/strong>, which is mixed with petrol, is more recent.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>New varieties of maize:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) has bred <strong>India\u2019s first \u201cwaxy\u201d maize hybrid<\/strong> with high starch content, making it better suited for ethanol production.<\/li>\n<li>The Mexico-based CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) has opened <strong>a maize doubled haploid (DH) facility<\/strong> at Kunigal, Karnataka.\n<ul>\n<li>It produces genetically pure maize that can be used as parents for further crossing and breeding of hybrids.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>What advantage does maize have over wheat and rice?<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Rice and wheat are resistant to hybridization <\/strong>because they are self-pollinating plants, meaning that both the male and female reproductive organs are present in their flowers.<\/li>\n<li>This contrasts with maize, whose ability to cross-pollinate makes hybrid breeding a profitable endeavour.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Role of private sector in green revolution in maize:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>More than 80% of India&#8217;s maize crop is hybridised by the private sector.<\/li>\n<li>CIMMYT is sharing its improved inbred lines with both public sector institutions and 25-odd private seed companies.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Q.1. What is the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI)?<\/h3>\n<p>The IARI, commonly known as the Pusa Institute, is India&#8217;s national institute for agricultural research, education and extension. Currently located in Delhi, it is financed and administered by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).<\/p>\n<h3>Q.2. What is Green Revolution 2.0?<\/h3>\n<p>Green Revolution 2.0 places an emphasis on sustainability by promoting less water-intensive crops, introducing water pricing mechanisms, and addressing unsustainable practices.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/explained\/explained-economics\/explained-the-green-revolution-in-maize-9462437\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">The green revolution in maize<\/a> | <a href=\"https:\/\/iimr.icar.gov.in\/?page_id=51\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">ICAR<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>India is a success story of the green revolution in maize driven by the private sector, with maize production having more than tripled over the past 20 years.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":41605,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-41604","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41604"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41604\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/41605"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}