ABSTRACT

Ever since invention, agriculture has been the mainstay of human civilization. Domestication ofwild plants after onset of agriculture, led to surplus production of food grains which in turn supported morenumber of people in society. Innovation of new ways for food production in agriculture was revolutionary,as it allowed less number of people to be engaged for food production. In this way, society could deploymore persons to other activities which led to progress in the field of art, craft, science etc. Therefore, it hasalways been endeavor of every society of world to devise better varieties , process and ways to improveproduction, productivity and quality of agricultural produce so that pace of growth in agriculture may be

kept ahead of population growth. Our country is bestowed with diverse Agro-climatic resources which have massive potential forrich harvest of agricultural produce. However, at the time of independence, we were facing acute shortageof cereals and other agricultural products due to legacy of bad agricultural policies of British Government.In the backdrop of the food crisis that gripped India in the 1960s, the Government of India initiated the‘Green Revolution’ program. This was an attempt to become self-sufficient in production of food grains.Traditional farming methods gave way to farming with high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and pesticides. TheGreen Revolution nearly quadrupled the production of rice and wheat, transforming India’s fertile areas into‘granaries’. India has achieved a remarkable growth in agriculture, increasing food grain production from 83mt in 1960-61 to about 252.7 mt (fourth estimate) in 2014-15. Now, our country is not only self sufficient inproduction of food grain to meet food requirement of the country but agriculture is also contributing towardsforeign earning.