Question

Define the green revolution. What are the main objectives of crop improvement?

Answer 1

Hint: Improvement in the field of technology has helped a lot in the food industry
The immense increase in production of food grains that resulted in the introduction of new, high-yielding varieties in the developing countries, beginning in the mid-20th century is called the green revolution. The green revolution resulted in a boom of agriculture leading to higher yield as it promoted the use of fertilizers, pesticides, genetically engineered seeds, and other scientifically modified products.

Complete answer: The main objectives of crop improvement are:
1. Achieving a higher yield of crops by developing high yielding variety of crops using hybridization and cross-breeding
2. Obtaining a more nutritious variety of crops such as improving baking quality in cereals and protein quality in pulses.
3. Synthesizing high resistance crops against biotic agents like insects and abiotic agents like heat, salinity, cold.
4. Procuring desirable agronomic traits to fight against the various threats during the production process.
5. Developing crops that are more adaptable to the environment hence helping in stabilizing the crop production.

Additional information: Advantages of the Green Revolution:
1. The agricultural industry was able to produce much larger quantities of food that made it possible to feed the growing human population.
2. It allowed to grow more crops on roughly the same amount of land with a similar amount of effort resulting in reduced production costs and hence leading to cheaper prices for food in the market.

Note:
M S Swaminathan is known as the "Father of Green Revolution in India". He introduced and developed high-yielding varieties of wheat in India