What are the negative impacts of the Green Revolution?

The greatest challenges facing the nation in the coming years will be to provide safe food for the growing population in the country.

In this regard, organic farming, which is a holistic production management system for promoting and enhancing health of agro-ecosystem, has gained wide recognition as a valid alternative to conventional food products and ensures safe food for human consumption.

This farming system avoids or largely excludes the use of synthetically manufactured fertilizers, pesticides, growth regulators and livestock feed additives and relies on legumes, green manure, crop rotations, crop residues, animal manures, biofertilisers, biopesticides, bioherbicides etc.

Although the green revolution has played a leading role in making the country self-sufficient in foodgrains, it has created some adverse effects, which are of serious concern. The negative impact of the Green Revolution includes:

1. Disparity in consumption of fertilizers where the district-wise fertilizer consumption in the country varies from 50-200 kg/ha.

2. Excessive use of chemical fertilizer (150-200 kg/ha) as reported from some states like Punjab and Haryana causing destruction of useful microorganisms, insects and worms in soil.

3. Imbalance in nutrient status causing significant deficiency of N, P, K, Zn, S, Mo and B and disturbance of soil texture and its physicochemical properties.

4. Environmental degradation like depletion of stratospheric ozone, nitrate toxication etc. causing health hazards like cancer, methamoglobinemia respiratory illness, hypertension etc.

5. Pollution with heavy metals and pesticide chemicals causing serious damage to food quality from the safety point of view.