It was in April-May 1968, that the country witnessed the wonderful spectacle of large arrivals of wheat grain in the mandis of Punjab like Moga and Khanna. Wheat production in the country rose to nearly 17 million tonnes that year, from the previous best harvest of 12 million tonnes. The nation rejoiced at our coming out of a “ship to mouth” existence. Later in 1968, William Gaud of the US referred to the quantum jumps in production that brought about semi-dwarf varieties of wheat and rice as “green revolution”. This term has since come to symbolise a quantum jump in productivity and thereby, of production of major crops.

This year, wheat production may reach a level of 85 million tonnes, compared with the 7,000,000 tonnes our farmers produced at the time of our independence in 1947. I visited several grain mandis in Moga, Khanna, Khananon and other places in Punjab during April 23-27 and experienced concurrently a feeling of ecstasy and agony. It was heartwarming to see the great work done by our farmers under difficult circumstances, when often they had to irrigate wheat fields at night due to lack of availability of power during the day. The cause of agony is the way the grains produced by farmers with loving care were being handled. Punjab has 146 mandis and 1,746 purchase points. Gunny bags, containing the wheat procured during April and May 2010, are occupying a considerable part of the storage space available. The condition of the grains of earlier years presents a sad sight. The impact on the quality of paddy is even worse. Malathion sprays and fumigation with aluminium sulphide tablets are used to prevent grain spoilage. Safe storage of grains involves attention to both quantity and quality. Food safety is as important as food saving. Due to recent rains and relatively milder temperatures, grain arrivals have been a little slow, but they are now picking up. For all concerned with procurement, dispatch and storage of wheat grains in Punjab-Haryana-western Uttar Pradesh region, which is the heartland of the green revolution, the next few weeks will be a nightmare.

Punjab farmers contribute nearly 40 per cent of the wheat and rice needed to sustain the public distribution system. The legal entitlement to food envisaged under the proposed National Food Security Act cannot be implemented without the help of the farm families of Punjab, as well as of other green revolution areas. At present, they are facing serious problems both during the production and post-harvest phases of farming due to inadequate investment in farm machinery and infrastructure.

On the production side, the ecological foundations essential for sustainable food production are in distress. There is overexploitation of the aquifer and nearly 70 per cent of the irrigated area is showing a negative water balance. The quality of water is also deteriorating due to the indiscriminate use of pesticides and fertilisers. Nearly 80,000 hectares of cropland in the southwest region of Punjab are affected by water-logging and salination. Deficiencies of nitrogen, phosphorous and zinc are affecting Punjab soil. Unless urgent steps are taken to convert the green revolution into an evergreen revolution, leading to an enhancement in productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm, both Punjab agriculture and our public distribution system will be in danger. Our population is now over 1.2 billion and we cannot implement a sustainable and affordable food security system with imported food.

The first task is to protect the gains already made in improving the productivity and production of wheat, rice, maize and other crops. For the purpose of providing the technologies essential for safeguarding and strengthening the ecological foundations of an evergreen revolution, it will be advisable to set up as soon as possible a National Research and Training Centre for Sustainable Agriculture at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Such a centre should initiate a land and water care movement in Punjab in association with the farming community. The other urgent task is the promotion of appropriate changes in land use. Over 2.7 million hectares are under rice now, leading to the unsustainable exploitation of ground water. Our immediate aim should be to find alternative land use for about a 1,000,000 hectares now under rice. This will be possible only if farmers can get income similar to what they are now earning from rice. A possible alternative will be maize or arhar (pigeon pea). Quality protein maize will fetch a premium price from the poultry industry. Arhar being a legume will also enrich soil fertility. At the same time, there could be diversified basmati rice production in over a 1,000,000 hectares, in addition to Pusa Basmati 1121, which occupies the largest area now.

A four-pronged strategy may be useful. First, distribution through railway wagons could be expanded. Second, the present CAP godown storage system can be improved with a little more investment and planning. They cold be grouped and their infrastructure improved. Third, storage in modern silos, like the one put up at Moga by Adani Agri Logistics, should be promoted. This would help to adopt an end-to-end system from the point of view of procurement, cleaning, quantity assurance, safe storage and distribution. The cost of building silos to store 1,000,000 tonnes of food grains may be about

Rs 600 crore, if the land can be made available by state governments. Lastly, export options can be explored after taking steps to make food available to the hungry, as suggested by the Supreme Court.



(The writer is an agricultural scientist who led India’s green revolution)