<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->even the green revolution experiment was started there.
but punjabis themselves are also a major reason why punjab is prosperous. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The roots of the agricultural turn around can be tracked back to the great famine of Bengal in 1943. However, the major thrust or "Green Revolution" started as the result of the wars of 1962 and 1965. India until then depended very heavily upon the food import from USA, USSR, Cuba, Mexico, and China.
During the wars, this dependence proved to be the strategic weakness of India, which was quickly realized by Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri who was Agriculture/supplies minister and later Prime Minister. During this period, he launched the campaign of "Adhik Ann Upjao", to increase the food grain production. Another campaign of weekly fasting and kitchen gardening was launched to reduce the consumption of food grains and shift the consumption of grains towards vegetables.
After the wars, Indian government had to relook at the food policy from security standpoint. and the result was what came to be later known as the green revolution. By the end of 1965 the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) was re-organized and re-vitalized. The experimentation of new agriculture suitable for modern India was championed in the universities of PUSA Bihar, TNAU Coimbatore, and GBPAU Pant Nagar UP. The pioneering scientiests who were the brains behind the research were Dr. MP Singh, Dr. MS Swaminathan, and Dr. BP Pal.
There was 3-fold development required for India:
- developing high-yield food grain seeds, suitable for Indian soil
- developing technology to make productive vast non-cultivable land of central and western India.
- developing infrastructure for efficient production(fertilizer factories, cold storages, irrigation systems, distribution system, local value additions like sugar mills)
It is a myth that Panjab was the main beneficiary. While it is true Panjab was one of the states which soon caught up with new techniques and benefited, it was not alone. Haryana, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and UP were other main states that benefited. While Panjab and Haryana excelled in wheat and mustard production, WB in cottonseed, UP in sugar cane and pulses, TN in rice and oilseeds. If Punjab came to be known as breakfast table of India, UP the sugarbowl of India.
Within 15 years, by the late 70s, rural India was turned around and India was exporting food grains rather than importing.
Farmers of Punjab and Haryana, did show more flexibility in adapting to new paragigm of technology and took the changes in their stride. So much so that the state of UP invited the Jat/Sikh farmers of Punjab haryana to come and settle down in the arid regions of western northern UP, and a new large district was created called "Sardar Udham Singh Nagar" which is in Uttarachal now. Even the governments of African countries came to request and invite Punjab farmers
to settle there. But all this was not due to any partial interest taken by the Indian Govt, but just because of natural conditions of Punjab and hard work of Punjabi farmers.
but punjabis themselves are also a major reason why punjab is prosperous. <!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The roots of the agricultural turn around can be tracked back to the great famine of Bengal in 1943. However, the major thrust or "Green Revolution" started as the result of the wars of 1962 and 1965. India until then depended very heavily upon the food import from USA, USSR, Cuba, Mexico, and China.
During the wars, this dependence proved to be the strategic weakness of India, which was quickly realized by Sri Lal Bahadur Shastri who was Agriculture/supplies minister and later Prime Minister. During this period, he launched the campaign of "Adhik Ann Upjao", to increase the food grain production. Another campaign of weekly fasting and kitchen gardening was launched to reduce the consumption of food grains and shift the consumption of grains towards vegetables.
After the wars, Indian government had to relook at the food policy from security standpoint. and the result was what came to be later known as the green revolution. By the end of 1965 the Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR) was re-organized and re-vitalized. The experimentation of new agriculture suitable for modern India was championed in the universities of PUSA Bihar, TNAU Coimbatore, and GBPAU Pant Nagar UP. The pioneering scientiests who were the brains behind the research were Dr. MP Singh, Dr. MS Swaminathan, and Dr. BP Pal.
There was 3-fold development required for India:
- developing high-yield food grain seeds, suitable for Indian soil
- developing technology to make productive vast non-cultivable land of central and western India.
- developing infrastructure for efficient production(fertilizer factories, cold storages, irrigation systems, distribution system, local value additions like sugar mills)
It is a myth that Panjab was the main beneficiary. While it is true Panjab was one of the states which soon caught up with new techniques and benefited, it was not alone. Haryana, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and UP were other main states that benefited. While Panjab and Haryana excelled in wheat and mustard production, WB in cottonseed, UP in sugar cane and pulses, TN in rice and oilseeds. If Punjab came to be known as breakfast table of India, UP the sugarbowl of India.
Within 15 years, by the late 70s, rural India was turned around and India was exporting food grains rather than importing.
Farmers of Punjab and Haryana, did show more flexibility in adapting to new paragigm of technology and took the changes in their stride. So much so that the state of UP invited the Jat/Sikh farmers of Punjab haryana to come and settle down in the arid regions of western northern UP, and a new large district was created called "Sardar Udham Singh Nagar" which is in Uttarachal now. Even the governments of African countries came to request and invite Punjab farmers
to settle there. But all this was not due to any partial interest taken by the Indian Govt, but just because of natural conditions of Punjab and hard work of Punjabi farmers.