Question

Find out the negative effect of the green revolution
A. It has enabled us to have surplus food grains
B. The income of farmers has increased
C. It has led to an increase in employment and development of the nation
D. Fertility of soil and human health have been adversely affected

Answer 1

Hint: Green revolution introduced excessive use of fertilizers to increase yield and productivity. This enabled India to fight the battle against frequently occurring famines and there has been no famine after the Green Revolution. Fertilizers mainly consist of nitrogen and phosphorus compounds like ammonia, which makes the soil acidic.

Complete answer:
The green revolution came in India during the \[1960\] s and M S Swaminathan is known to be the father of the green revolution in India. This revolution was introduced in India to tackle the problem of food scarcity existing during contemporary times and to reduce the dependence of our country on the import of food grains from other countries. In short, to deal with the problem of 'ship to mouth' situation which means that the food used to be imported from other countries and used to be distributed straight away to the individuals. The country didn't have many capabilities to feed its entire population.
Hence as a solution to the problem of food scarcity green revolution was introduced which mainly focused on increasing the yield and productivity of crops mainly wheat and rice. It involved excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides and HYV seeds or High Yielding Variety seeds. Though the green revolution solved the problem of food scarcity and led India to produce surplus food grains it also simultaneously introduced the problem of soil infertility due to excessive use of fertilizers and groundwater depletion due to excessive use of water to irrigate the HYV seed crops. It has become the cause of concern primarily in the regions of Punjab and Haryana as these were the regions that were mainly benefited by the green revolution.
So, the correct answer is Option D.

Note: The main objective of the green revolution was to increase yield through fertilizers and pesticides, so that crop failure due to disease can be avoided. This is also the negative aspect of the green revolution, as prolonged use of chemicals made the soil less fertile.