35 years of green revolution in india

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Evaluating 35 years of Green Revolution technology in villages ofBulandshahr district, western UP, North IndiaKathleen Bakera; Sarah Jewittb

a King's College London, London, UK b University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

To cite this Article Baker, Kathleen and Jewitt, Sarah(2007) 'Evaluating 35 years of Green Revolution technology invillages of Bulandshahr district, western UP, North India', Journal of Development Studies, 43: 2, 312 — 339To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/00220380601125180URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00220380601125180

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Evaluating 35 Years of Green RevolutionTechnology in Villages of BulandshahrDistrict, Western UP, North India

KATHLEEN BAKER* & SARAH JEWITT***King’s College London, London, UK, **University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Final version received July 2005

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the experiences of over 35 years of Green Revolution (GR)technology in villages of the Bulandshahr District, western UP. Fieldwork in three villagesrevealed that perceptions of GR were extremely positive because higher yields brought foodsecurity for all in the area, and financial security for many. Indirect benefits, such as urbandevelopment, have improved employment opportunities – which have benefited even the poorest –and rural electrification has transformed rural livelihoods, especially for women. Predictably, thebenefits of GR technology are not equally spread: the poorest are better off, but the gap betweenrich and poor is now greater than ever. As gently declining yields are paralleled by growingpopulations, farmers are interested in further increasing land productivity.

I. Introduction

The introduction of Green Revolution technology by the US to countries of theSouth in the mid 1960s provoked extensive and fierce debate in the internationalarena. Was it really possible for new high yielding varieties of wheat, rice and maizeto end centuries of food insecurity? Did the dependence of these crops on costlyinputs put them beyond the reach of the world’s poorest farmers, and were thereother effects of the technology that outweighed the benefits? Controversy on theimpact of the Green Revolution (GR) continued for decades but today the literatureis quieter on the subject, reflecting instead more pressing contemporary concerns –the Gene Revolution, for example (Atkins and Bowler, 2001). While academicdebates may have moved on, the transfer of GR technology has been continuing,quietly, in many parts of the developing world, and now mature and well-adapted tonew environments, it is central to agriculture in these areas. A reassessment of thelonger-term effects of GR technology is thus timely and the aim of this paper is toevaluate the experience of 30þ years of GR technology in villages of BulandshahrDistrict, Uttar Pradesh (UP), north India.

Correspondence Address: Kathleen Baker, Senior Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography,

King’s College London, Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS, UK. Email: [email protected]

Journal of Development Studies,Vol. 43, No. 2, 312–339, February 2007

ISSN 0022-0388 Print/1743-9140 Online/07/020312-28 ª 2007 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/00220380601125180

Downloaded By: [Swets Content Distribution] At: 12:42 21 October 2010

When India was struck by drought in 1965–66 approximately 12 million tonnes ofwheat were produced in the country. By 1968–69, after the HYVs had beenintroduced, wheat production jumped to around 16 mn tonnes, and by the early1980s it was double that of the mid 1960s (Swaminathan, 1996; Kapila and Kapila,2002). Most of this spectacular increase came initially from a limited area, from thewheat growing lands of Punjab, Haryana and western UP where irrigation facilitieswere well established (Whitcombe, 1972). Since the 1960s India’s indigenoustechnological capability has been expanded (Kapila and Kapila, 2002), and HYVsand their derivatives are more widely grown (Farmer, 1986).

Despite their sustained success in alleviating food shortages, the literature hasoften looked harshly on GR technology. Far from bringing about socioeconomicdevelopment, preliminary evidence suggested that GR technology was widening thegap between rich and poor. The earliest prognoses were most discouraging(Ladejinsky, 1969; Cleaver, 1972; Chakravarti, 1973; Pearse, 1980; Byres, 1981,1983), but predictions frequently miss their mark (Glaeser, 1987; Shiva, 1991) and itnow appears that some of the earliest forecasts were premature and to some extent,speculative (Hayami and Ruttan, 1985; Swaminathan, 1996; Morris and Byerlee,1998; Atkins and Bowler, 2001). In spite of this, Farmer’s argument that the GR inIndia has increased inter-regional disparities in agricultural production and, as aconsequence prosperity, cannot be ignored (Farmer, 1986). The GR has been of fargreater benefit in some areas than in others.

Detailed follow up studies on the longer-term effects of the GR are relatively few,but two studies are noteworthy in this respect: the North Arcot Study (Harriss, 1991;Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991) and the study of East Laguna village in the Philippines(Hayami and Kikuchi, 2000). These suggest that many of the negative predictionsdating back to the 1970s and 1980s have not been borne out; that GR technologymay have been more beneficial than was initially anticipated, that its effects havebeen more complex, and that isolating the socioeconomic and environmentalimpacts of GR technology has been complicated due to the simultaneous effects of arange of other location specific factors (Lipton and Longhurst, 1989; Hazell andRamaswamy, 1991; Harriss, 1991; Morris and Byerlee, 1998; Hayami and Kikuchi,2000).

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the longer-term effectsof the GR technology on rural communities by focusing on the experiences ofthree villages in Bulandshahr District, Western UP, North India (Figure 1). Theseformed part of a larger study conducted by Baker (1975) in six villages of theDistrict in 1972, and Baker’s study in its turn, was nested in a larger, District levelsurvey conducted by Allan, also in 1972 (Allan, 1973). Located in the GangaJamuna doab (land between two rivers), this part of western UP with its alluvialsoils is an area of vast agricultural potential and has been well supplied with canalirrigation since 1857 (Cautley, 1854; Atkinson, 1903; Whitcombe, 1972). As aconsequence, the area was one of the earliest recipients of GR technology throughthe High Yielding Varieties Programme in 1966 (Swaminathan, 1996), and the1972 studies revealed that within seven years of their introduction to the area, highyielding varieties of wheat had been widely adopted in Bulandshahr District, andhigh yielding maize and rice were growing in importance, though more slowly(Allan, 1973; Baker, 1975).

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 313


Two of Baker’s study villages, Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras, were revisitedin 2001 as part of a pilot study to evaluate the longer-term impact of theGreen Revolution in the District, and a third village, Chirchita, was visited in 2003(Figure 1). Three villages not involved in the 1972 study were also visited in 2001 –Nausana, Chola and Nai Basti – to ensure that Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras werenot significantly different in terms of local livelihood patterns. Our aim is to extendthe study to all six villages surveyed by Baker in 1972 to investigate the nature ofchange, and to evaluate, as far as is possible, the longer-term effects of GreenRevolution technology on rural livelihoods. Our recent fieldwork has focused onfour groups of people: the first three were landholders with large and medium sizedholdings (defined below), small landholders and landless people. Women constitutedthe fourth group of our enquiry, but limited space in this paper does not allow us toexplore the ways in which GR technology has affected their lives, as far as it canbe disentangled from other factors. We thus confine ourselves to the effects ofGR technology as far as they are discernible on large and medium, and smalllandholders, and on landless people.

II. Field Methods in 1972 and in 2001/2003

The substance of this paper is based largely on three periods of fieldwork; the first in1972, and more recently in 2001 and in 2003. In 1972 most of the information wasderived from questionnaires to 196 farmers; from observation; from the collection ofsoil and crop cutting samples, and from secondary source material (Baker, 1975).

Figure 1. Location of study villages in Bulandshahr District, UP

314 K. Baker & S. Jewitt


The data were collected in as rigorous a manner as possible, and where possible, wereanalysed with statistical tests. Although Baker was confident that the results of thefieldwork in 1972 could have been replicated within the study area, were the study tohave been repeated at that time, she found the approach far from satisfactory asthere was little scope for farmer participation (other than providing answers to thequestionnaires), once the pilot phase was complete. This was very much a study of itstime. Partly because of Baker’s frustration and disappointment with the fieldmethodology used in 1972, and partly because of developments in approaches tofieldwork both in geography and in development, the post 2000 follow up study haschosen to adopt a much more informal approach which has encouraged greaterinteraction between researchers, farmers and research assistants than did the 1972study.

Reflecting the success (particularly since the early 1980s) of agrarian ethnogra-phies in revealing indigenous environmental knowledge in context and insiderperspectives on agrarian change (Brokensha et al., 1980; Chambers, 1983; Richards,1985; Breman, 1985), our aim post 2000 has been to use qualitative methods,particularly Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to elucidate the dynamics ofchange in the fieldwork area. Our choice of methodology was driven largely by ourown, very positive experience of PRA in the field (Jewitt, 2002a; Baker andEdmonds, 2004), echoed in a growing literature on the subject deriving from a rangeof different disciplines and interests (Chambers, 1994, 1997; Oakley, 1991; Hinton,1996; Koopman, 1997; Goebel, 1998; Mahiri, 1998; Ira, 2001; World Bank, 2005).We have found PRA particularly beneficial when participants become deeplyinvolved in the questions being asked and take on a leading and advisory role in theresearch process. Although the following of such leads was not infallible, PRAallowed uncertainties to be challenged and disagreements to be aired in an open andrelaxed manner. Such sessions proved to be very valuable for both revealing theunequal impacts agrarian change on different socioeconomic and gender groups andfor helping to triangulate the information collected.

Informal discussions with key informants and with groups of people in the villagesproved a valuable introduction to the fieldwork. Once we had begun to understandlocal perceptions of the current farming scene and of change through GreenRevolution technology and other factors, a variety of participatory methods wereemployed and especially those which involved participants in producing diagrams,charts and ranked information. Secondary source information has also been used tosupplement our primary data and to assist with triangulation.

Critique of Field Methods

In spite of the attractiveness of a study such as this with a longitudinal component,the authors are in no way blind to its shortcomings (Menard, 1991; Ruspini, 2000).The first limitation was the decision by the authors to adopt a radically differentapproach to the fieldwork post-2000 from 1972. As a consequence, the results andanalysis take a very different form from the 1972 study which relied heavily on thestatistical analysis of questionnaire data. In our more recent study, results can beanalysed only with the aid of ranked information, diagrams and time lines, all ofwhich have been carefully confirmed by triangulation. In the authors’ opinions, lack



of precision in these data does not in the least diminish their value, quite thecontrary; the reflexive nature of the participatory approach gives the research addeddepth. Second, over a period of approximately 30 years one cannot compare likewith like: India has changed; the situation in the study area has changed; the villagepeople have changed (some 90 per cent of those interviewed in the study villages in1972 are now dead); the experiences, objectives and approaches to fieldwork by theresearchers have changed, and as a consequence, precise methods of comparison areseldom possible. A third limitation is that life moves on and variables which areimportant now may never have been considered 30 years ago. For example, womenplayed a relatively small role in managing the new technology in the 1960s but nowthey appear to be more involved. A fourth limitation concerns the use ofparticipatory methods in village studies. While we remain strongly in favour oftheir use as a means of data collection, we did encounter some of the difficultiesfaced by Mosse (1995) when attempting to use PRA with resource poor villagers.Conducting PRA with groups of Scheduled Caste villagers required much deter-mination and persistence on our part; not because such villagers were unwilling totalk to us (although we obviously had to fit in with their busy work schedules) butbecause senior members of village society were in constant attendance (possibly)influencing their responses and urging us to move to other sites. Nevertheless,participatory methods were considered preferable by the researchers to many othermethods of data collection. Participant observation would, perhaps, have yieldedmore detailed information but our time schedule did not permit this andquestionnaires would not permit the rich discussions and enthusiastic mapping/ranking sessions generated by PRA. In spite of the many inevitable limitations of thedata, we are confident that were we to re-run the studies in all the villages we havevisited, our findings would be much the same. We thus feel justified in presentingthem here.The paper proceeds by reviewing the main forms of material change in the villages

based on qualitative observation by Baker. Changes in cropping patterns are thenexamined to reveal the continued importance of HYVs and having established thatthese are now even more important in farm production than they were in 1972, weseek to assess the relative impacts of GR technology on farmers with larger holdings,farmers with small holdings, and landless people, both men and women. First,however, observations of change.

III. Qualitative Observations of Change

First impressions of the villages by Baker after 30 years were of astonishing materialimprovement. Kurwal Banaras, some 5 km from the centre of Bulandshahr, theDistrict capital, and Sabdalpur and Chirchita, each about 8 km from the same placewere now much ‘nearer’ the capital than they were 30 years ago. In 1972, it was abumpy bicycle ride along katcha (unmade) roads to each of the study villages butnow they are all linked to Bulandshahr by metalled roads. Vehicular traffic isplentiful on all roads, and in the villages, but the formerly ubiquitous bullock cart,once invaluable for transport and traction on the farm is almost totally absent,replaced by the stronger buffalo. Farm machinery is abundant whereas 30 years agoit was negligible. Houses are pukka and semi-pukka, brick built, more spacious than



the ancient huts of the past. The alleyways between the houses are mostly, thoughnot yet entirely brick paved, built with a camber to ensure that rain and other wastewater runs off into narrow drains on either side. These are a major improvement onformer pathways which were a quagmire in the rainy season and dissected by ruts inthe dry season. Unpleasant smells are also negligible. Open wells are rare and havebeen replaced by hand pumps in the majority of dwellings. Electricity cables, sagginginelegantly, reach almost every house; television aerials are numerous, and there wasone satellite dish in each village. Flowering plants and shrubs in the compounds ofsome, though not all houses, reflect care and attention. Gardens were more commonin Kurwal than in Chirchita, which still retains a more traditional rural atmosphere.Standards of dress are everywhere much higher, very few people are dressed in tornand ill-fitting clothes as they were 30 years ago, and it was gratifying that the eyeinfections and septic wounds so frequently evident on limbs in those days, werevirtually absent. Many more people were wearing prescription spectacles and thequality of teeth, particularly those of people over 30 years of age looked better thanin the past. All humanity, in all the villages seemed a great deal more healthy andbetter fed. First impressions after 30 years were most encouraging and althoughsubsequent fieldwork revealed that considerable differentiation continued to existwithin the villages, all socioeconomic groups insisted that conditions had improvedfor everybody.

Table 1 is a qualitative assessment by Baker of visible change in Sabdalpur,Kurwal Banaras and Chirchita over the past 30 years. Discussions with everyonewith whom we spoke, both men and women focused at some stage on changes in thequality of life over the past 30 years and those old enough to remember that far backconfirmed the changes described. When asked to explain the reasons for suchimprovements, the answer was always the same: high yielding seeds, and particularlywheat, adopted in the 1960s had seen the threat of famine abate and subsequently,higher yields had led to increased wealth and development. This concurred exactlywith Baker’s findings in the 1972 study (Baker, 1975). In addition to materialchanges, Baker had a strong impression that people’s attitudes and outlook had alsochanged since 1972. There was now much more evidence of technical progress and ofparticipation in the modern world. Although the elders in the village still claimedand received the respect of the majority, there was nonetheless a feeling that the clearordering of society along caste lines, so evident 30 years ago had perhaps lost a littleof its rigidity. People from different castes sat together for the discussion groupsmore readily than they did 35 years ago, and women were prepared to speak to usnow. In 1972 they were not much involved in the Green Revolution and had little tocontribute to discussions on the subject. Today they were more educated and morevocal, but we had to ask specifically to meet with them as men were always the firstto be involved in participatory discussions. It should be added that Bulandshahr, andneighbouring doab districts such as Meerut do not typify UP as a whole which is wellbelow the national average for a range of well-being indicators, a reflection ofgovernment inertia with regard to ‘public provisioning’ (Dreze and Gazdar, 1996:100).

It is unlikely, however, that all the material improvements in the study villages canbe attributed to GR technology. Many other factors directly and indirectly related tothe GR have probably also contributed to positive change so, as in Hayami and



Kikuchi’s study in the Philippines (2000), and as in Hazell and Ramasamy’s reporton North Arcot, it is difficult to distinguish the effects of the GR from other factorson the livelihoods of local people (Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991). The same isundoubtedly true of western UP where the effects of GR technology cannot beisolated from a web of other interrelated factors: a sustained programme of researchand development into agriculture alongside the GR (Kapila and Kapila, 2002) hasenabled the latter to prosper in prime agricultural areas such as Bulandshahr, thoughnot everywhere. In tandem with developments in crop technology, the physical andinstitutional infrastructure have been developed by the state government: ruralelectrification is now almost complete (personal communication, Agriculture School,

Table 1. Changes common to both Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras over a period of 30 years

1972 2001

Population High Noticeably higher, particularlymore children

Quality of buildings Almost all katcha Almost all pukka with the worstsemi-pukka, very few katcha

Lanes/alleys invillage betweenbuildings

Katcha, mud surface,frequently withstanding water

Most pukka brick paths,aesthetically pleasing, lessstanding water

Electricity Absent Electricity since early 1980sWells Numerous None in evidenceDomestic water supply Wells Hand pumps in approx. 70% of

housesHeavy machinery forland preparationand harvesting

Limited Plentiful within villages

Draught energy Animal power 80% Animal power 20–30%Diesel 20% Electricity/diesel 60–70%

Machinery to aid processingof agricultural produce:flour mills/chaff cutters

Rare Accessible to most

Cars/pickups/motorbikes Rare More commonQuality of dress Poor, mostly Indian style Much better quality, designer

fashions evidentEvidence of wealthTVs None 50þFridges None 20þWashing machines None 15þUse of LPG for cooking None 40% of householdsTelephones None One per villageEducation Most were uneducated

or had only attendedprimary school for awhile

Over the past 15–20 years allchildren (girls and boys) had beento either government or privateschools

Appearance of dwellings Pleasant but simple Many are elaborate and beautifullyconstructed, adorned by plantssuch as bougainvillea to enhancetheir appearance. Very few are asbasic as in 1972

Source: Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2001).



Bulandshahr, 2001) whereas in 1972 only one of the six study villages had access toelectricity. Availability of irrigation water, fertiliser, insecticide and pesticide andfarm machinery of all types have increased significantly (Kapila and Kapila, 2002).Thirty years ago these were in short supply, limiting factors on the uptake andsuccess of HYVs (Baker, 1975). The marketing structure is now more efficient thanit was 30 years ago, and alongside plant breeding programmes, animal breedinghas improved considerably (Kar, 2002).

Government investment in agricultural development, to some extent, has beendriven by the growing strength of the rural lobby. Following protests from the so-called ‘new farmers’ movements’ of the late 1970s and 1980s against attempts bygovernment to reduce subsidies on agricultural inputs, in particular fertiliser andfuel, central government has accepted that the influence of the rural lobby cannot beignored (Byres, 1981; Brass, 1995; Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). The Bhartiya KisanUnion (BKU) was active in western UP during the 1980s, and as Byres (1981: 49)observes, the dominant members of rural society ensured that the benefits of the newagricultural technology were directed towards serving their own interests. This bothsupports views in the study villages that it was GR technology that has led tomaterial success, and suggests that it was the strength of the farming lobby whichplayed a significant part in determining who the beneficiaries of GR technologywere.

Land reform has been another factor that has brought benefits to some. Therehave been several land reforms within UP, part of a wider Indian policy (Das, 2000),and land ceilings in UP have attempted to limit the accumulation of land by richer,larger land owners, at the expense of the poor (Das, 2000; Vyas, 2002). There hasbeen some loss of land by some of the largest landholders (below), but the mostsignificant change is the increasing number of small landholders who are mainlyfrom the poorest castes and classes. Providing land to the Scheduled Castes (SCs)and poorer classes in UP has been a focus of activity for the Bahujan Samaj Party,BSP, whose leader, Mayawati, is the only Dalit (SC) woman to have become chiefminister of any Indian state thus far (Jeffrey and Lerche, 2000). She has introducedlegislation directed at reducing caste based atrocities and discrimination, the resultbeing that people have been empowered and have more of a sense of honour(Corbridge and Harriss, 2000; Jeffrey, 2002). A key issue for the Mayawatigovernment is the Ambedkar village scheme launched in Uttar Pradesh duringAmbedkar Centenary year in 1990–91. Under this scheme, one village in each Blockwith a high proportion of SCs is selected for special government assistance whichincludes reconstruction of the houses of the poorest, provision of sanitation,provision of paid labour to construct a better environment, and through landreform, some redistribution of land (Corbridge and Harriss, 2000).

In recent years, liberalisation accompanying policies of economic stabilisation andstructural adjustment has brought about further change in rural India (Byres, 1998).Some of the most significant effects of structural adjustment have been the reductionof state control on marketing of crops, and the reduction of subsidies on agriculturalinputs, in particular fertiliser and fuel. These are undoubtedly affecting socio-economic development in rural areas and are independent of GR technology.

Numerous factors have thus played a part in influencing socioeconomic conditionsover the past 30þ years, nevertheless, when this was put to people in all three



villages, both men and women insisted that most improvements were linked directlyor indirectly to GR technology. For example, perceptions were that improvements toinfrastructure, particularly rural electrification, had been introduced with irrigationof HYVs in mind; education had become more affordable as a result of profits fromHYVs, and job opportunities in the District capital, Bulandshahr had increased,allegedly as a result of the prosperity brought by the HYVs. Jeffrey (2002) reachedsimilar conclusions in Meerut regarding increased employment opportunities.Alongside the positive reactions to GR technology there was a widely expressedfear that livelihood security derived from HYVs could be threatened by the scourgeof uncontrolled population growth. This, it was argued, was causing increased landfragmentation, and although the Green Revolution is allegedly scale neutral, thoughnot resource neutral (Rao, 1975), the benefits accruing to small farmers were fewerthan to large farmers. This will be considered after we have explored the currentcropping patterns to identify any major changes since 1972, and to gauge theimportance of HYVs, over 35 years since their introduction to the area.

IV. Changes in Cropping Patterns in Bulandshahr’s Study Villages

The farming year consists of two main seasons: the rabi or winter season (October–April), and the kharif or summer monsoon season (July–October). In 1972 wheat,mainly HYVs, dominated the rabi, while the kharif produced a wider variety ofcrops, including maize, rice, millet and lentils. Sugarcane, the growing period ofwhich extends beyond a single season was also of significance in the cropping patternand was in evidence throughout the year. In addition to the two dominant seasons,farmers also took catch crops of melon, tobacco, onions, chillies, beans, gram andother short duration crops in the zaid, a short season (late March/early April–June/July). The areal extent of zaid crops was limited both at a district level and in thestudy villages. Essentially, zaid crops gave flavour and variety to the diet, they werenot usually staples (Baker, 1975). The main change since 1972 has been that theirrigated area in both the rabi and kharif has been extended and so has theproduction of wheat, rice and sugarcane. This is due to the spread of ruralelectrification and to the increase in irrigation from boreholes.Tables 2 and 3 are based on changes in cropping patterns in two of the 1972 study

villages which have been revisited, Chirchita and Sabdalpur. It has not been possibleto include comparable data from the third village, Kurwal Banaras because some ofthese were found to be missing on our return. However, significant changes evidentin the tables for Chirchita and Sabdalpur are that in the rabi wheat productionjumped between the mid 1960s and 1972, the time of the village studies. In Chirchitawheat increased from 20 to 72 per cent over the same period; in Sabdalpurcomparable change was from 45 to 92 per cent, and in Kurwal Banaras, the areaunder wheat increased from 28 per cent to just over 75 per cent (Baker, 1975).Although there were no official statistics to show which varieties of wheat weregrown, it was shown by Baker that the increased area under wheat was entirelydevoted to HYVs and that this corresponded with a decline in deshi (traditionalvariety) cultivation. By 1972 only 16 per cent of the sample area of the study villageswas sown with deshi and after 1982 deshi wheat was no longer grown in the District(personal communication, R. B. Yadav, 2001).



Post-2000, fieldwork confirmed that wheat still dominated the rabi in the studyvillages. However, discussions in each of the villages as to whether deshi (indigenous)wheat was grown at all provoked unexpected responses. In Kurwal Banaras farmersasserted that all varieties grown were deshi as they were all produced in India. Whenasked whether anyone grew ancient varieties which predated HYVs, the answer wasfirmly ‘no’, in all the villages visited. These included former study villages and othersvisited as a control, to confirm in the minds of the authors that the former studyvillages were not significantly different for any reason. Some farmers rememberedthat deshi varieties had had an excellent flavour in comparison with the HYVs whenthey were first introduced, but the number of varieties currently in use gave farmerssuch a choice of characteristics that the deshi varieties to which we were referring hadvirtually been forgotten. Breeding programmes over the past 30 years have succeededin widening the genetic base of the HYVs (Kerr and Kolavalli, 1999) and haveproduced a diverse array of varieties. From these, farmers now make their selectionaccording to a whole range of criteria which include: yield capacity; length ofmaturation period; marketability; straw yield (related to length of stalk and ofimportance for fodder); resistance to pests and disease, and flavour. With suchindigenous developments in crop breeding, perhaps these ought to be referred to asmodern varieties, MVs, rather than HYVs.

In Chirchita the village pradhan (leader) confirmed that 95 per cent of the areacurrently sown in the rabi was under wheat – and all of it HYVs. The picture wassimilar in Sabdalpur in that the area under wheat had increased since 1972, butinformants in PRA discussion groups were keen to demonstrate that there wasconsiderable variation between the cropping strategies of large, medium and smallfarmers. The definition of these was provided by farmers in both Sabdalpur andChirchita and was as follows: small farmers cultivated less than three acres (1.22 ha);

Table 2. Changes in cropping patterns in Chirchita village

1965–66* 1971–72* 2003**

Per cent area sown

Main Rabi cropsWheat 20 72 95Wheatþ another crop 33 1 –Barley 22 17 –Pulses 14 7 –Other crops 11 3 –Berseem (fodder) – – 5Total 100 100 100

Main Kharif cropsRice 12 39 50Maize 25 17 25Millets (mainly jowar) 14 14 25Lentils 6 5 –Sugarcane 42 25 51Total 100 100 100

Sources: *Derived from Baker (1975), Figures 5.5 and 5.6; **Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2001,2003).



medium farmers 3–10 acres (1.22–4.01 ha) and larger farmers, 10–18 acres (4.01–7.35 ha). 18 acres (7.35 ha) was the ceiling imposed by the state for irrigated land,but there were indications that some of the largest farmers were cultivating areasfar in excess of this. In Sabdalpur large and medium farmers now sowed less thanhalf their land with wheat, investing more heavily in sugarcane, a major cash crop(Table 3). For both large and medium farmers a combination of wheat andsugarcane occupied two-thirds to some 90 per cent of the land they cultivated duringthe rabi. By contrast, small farmers sowed all their land with wheat, most of whichwas consumed. Cash income for small farmers was largely obtained from sellingtheir labour rather than their crops. A notable change evident in the tables is thedecline in intercropped wheat, in pulses, and in the range of rabi crops. In none ofthe three villages was the crop diversity as great, nor was the spread of crops as evenas it had been in 1965–66. Thus the advent of HYVs of wheat to the study villagessuggest a contraction in the range of crops cultivated, and from the data collected inSabdalpur, it was evident that small farmers had a narrower cropping base than theirlarger counterparts. This is of particular significance as the majority of farmers haveholdings of three acres and below.

Table 3. Changes in cropping patterns of farmers with large, medium and smallholdings inSabdalpur village

1965–66* 1971–72*2001–03**

Large2001–03**Medium

2001–03**Small (areafarmed)

Per cent Area sown

Main rabi cropsSugarcane 55 20 –Wheat 45 92 38 40 100Wheatþ anothercrop

8 4 Wheat in s’caneratoon 5

Barley 10 4Berseem (fodder) 5 – –Potatoesand others

2 – –

Oil seed –mustard

– 20 –

Pulses 26 – (masoor) 20 –Other 11 – – –Total 100 100 100 100 100

Main kharif cropsSugarcane 47 35 60 55 –Rice 3 4 35 40 100Millet (jowarfor fodder)

18 21 5 2 –

Maize 25 35 – 3 –Pulses 6 3 – – –Other 1 2 – – –Total 100 100 100 100 100

Sources: *Baker (1975); **Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2001, 2003).



The kharif also reflects changes in both villages (Tables 2 and 3). Rice hasincreased in importance in each village and is sown to about half the cultivated areain Chirchita. If aggregated, the Sabdalpur statistics are similar, but broken downthey reveal that larger farmers sow 35 per cent of their kharif fields to rice, mediumfarmers, 40 per cent, and small farmers, 100 per cent. Changes in the area sown withrice reflect several factors: first, the increased capacity for irrigation in both villages.This is also true of Kurwal Banaras. The second factor which is not entirely visiblefrom the data is the relative importance of rice and maize. According to the farmersthe dominance of rice is relatively recent, and stems from the release of ‘PusaBasmati’. First released by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in1989, Pusa Basmati 1 is a conventional pure line variety developed from hybridi-sation and it was this strain that farmers were growing. Pusa Basmati 1 has now beensuperseded by Pusa Rice Hybrid-10 (RH-10) which has the capacity to yield up toseven tonnes of paddy per hectare, well in excess of the 4–4.5 tonne per ha capabilityof Pusa 1 (The Hindu Business Line, 2001). The potential for yields to increase furtherthus exists. Formerly, maize was more important in all six villages visited but globalfactors in the form of increasing international demand for Basmati-type rice, coupledwith newly developed varieties has seen production soar. It is more profitable togrow rice these days than maize.

The relative importance of sugarcane and rice to the large and small farmers ofSabdalpur is also worth mentioning (Table 3). The larger farmers sow a higherproportion of their fields to sugarcane than to rice, though the absolute area underrice is usually greater than that sown by small farmers. However, small farmers grewvirtually no cane at all post 2000, rice being sold and used for subsistence purposes.In Chirchita the picture was slightly different (Table 2). Here very few people at allgrew sugarcane, the reason being that the cane factory took up to a year to pay forthe harvest, so farmers preferred to grow and sell rice. The entire village had stoppedgrowing cane in 1984. However, news that the cane factory was allegedly settlingaccounts more speedily these days had prompted a few farmers to experiment withsugarcane once more. Millet, or jowar is grown for animal feed, and here again, itwas clear from the Sabdalpur data that larger, rather than smaller farmers weregrowing fodder crops. Overall, the diversity of crops grown in the kharif still exceedsthat in the rabi, but diversity is lower than it was 30 years ago. More land is nowsown to fewer crop types in both rabi and kharif. Farmers in all villages lamented thereduction in production of pulses, and particularly gram. Land formerly sown withpulses was now cultivated with either wheat, rice, maize or sugarcane and peoplenoted a deterioration in the quality of their diet, and of their physical strength, withthe loss of peas, beans and gram. Only a very small proportion of the cultivated areawas now sown to these.

V. Evaluating the Impact of 30 Years of Green Revolution Technology

The 1972 study showed that the adoption and successful management of HYVs,particularly wheat, was very closely linked to caste and class (Baker, 1975). This boresome similarities to the work of Harriss (1982), who explained the structuring ofsociety along caste lines in North Arcot. Not all farmers in Baker’s study area wereHindu, some were Muslim and so the term class or social status is appropriate for



non-Hindus. The fieldwork from 1972 concluded that the earliest adopters were thehighest caste/class, most influential farmers, that it was they who had the best accessto resources such as money, seed of good quality, fertiliser and irrigation water, andit was they who generally had access to the largest areas of farm land. While allcastes did adopt the HYVs, nevertheless, it was access to resources which was criticalin determining which were the lead groups. In Sabdalpur, Rajputs and Muslims werethe first to adopt. This is one of the few villages where, in 1972, there were Muslimsof high social status, most of whom were large land holders. Poorer Muslim-Rajputsor Mewati Muslims1 (Ahmad, 2004) in Sabdalpur, and lower caste Hindus had alsoadopted HYVs of wheat, though slightly later, only a year or so after the largest,richest farmers. However, the area sown to HYVs by those slower to adopt wassmall, inevitably constrained by the size of their holdings. In Kurwal Banaras thepattern is similar. Rajputs were the innovators in the 1960s and well behind thesewere the Mewati Muslims and Chamars. The picture was similar in all the studyvillages (Baker, 1975).Although the statistics from different years cited in Tables 2 and 3 are not directly

comparable, they highlight that HYVs are even more important in the study villages,particularly in the kharif, than they were in 1972. Following the virtual completion ofrural electrification in the District there has been a vast increase in the number ofelectric tube wells and hence in the irrigated area of HYVs in both the rabi andkharif. The message given clearly by all to whom we spoke was that with the increasein food production, no one went to bed hungry any more, not even the poor, andthat GR technology was the source of this security.The doubling and trebling of HYV yields compared with those of traditional deshi

varieties were the main reasons for the adoption of HYVs of wheat in the 1960s and1970s (Baker, 1975). Farmers spoke of wheat yields having increased steadily foraround 15 years after the adoption of HYVs, but since the 1980s there wasagreement within the discussion groups, and deep concern, that there had been noreal improvement in yields. These findings are confirmed in All-India statistics whichhave shown an increase in wheat yields from around 1100 kg per hectare in 1967–68,to 2,400–2,500 kg per ha in the 1990s when the increase levelled off (Kapila andKapila, 2002). Furthermore, where farmers were not able to obtain good seed, yieldshad declined, in some cases by as much as 10 per cent. Comparing responsesobtained post 2000 with those from 1972 (Table 4), it would seem that there has beena significant increase in yield over the past 30 years for farmers large and small. In1972, the most progressive farmers, the top 15 per cent, harvested over 4,000 kg perhectare, whereas now the most progressive achieve yields nearer 5,000 kg perhectare. Average yields had also risen from around 3,400 to 4,000 kg per ha and eventhe lowest yields, at around 2,000 kg per hectare were now double what they were30 years ago and in line with average yields of 3,600 kg per hectare for the state(Jagran Research Centre, 2002).Yields may have increased significantly and food shortage is not the worry it was

some 40 years ago, but as the GR was introduced into a situation of significantsocioeconomic inequalities, its benefits have not been equally distributed. This wastrue 30 years ago (Baker, 1975) and it was our aim to see who were the mainbeneficiaries of the technology and who were not. As a consequence, the field workfocused on three groups of people: first, farmers with large and medium sized



holdings, over three acres; second, small farmers who cultivated less than threeacres; third, landless people, both men and women. Although the 1972 study inBulandshahr villages showed that higher caste, richer farmers had better access toresources and were more successful in cultivation of GR crops, it did not find thatanyone in the study area had been disadvantaged by GR technology (Baker, 1975).Our aim was therefore to discover who were large and who were small farmers. Werethese the same castes/classes as farmers 30 years ago, or had they changed? And asthe success of GR crops is much influenced by access to resources, we then focusedon access to two principal inputs, that of irrigation water and inorganic fertiliser forfarmers cultivating large and small plots of land.

VI. Large and Small Farmers’ Access to Resources

Holding Size and its Relationship with Caste, Class and Power

If we begin by looking at access to land it is clear that the distribution of land is nowmore positively skewed than it was in 1972. In Sabdalpur, average plot sizes werethree–four acres in 2001, approximately half the size of 30 years ago when theaverage size of holdings of the sample group of farmers was 8.74 acres (3.54 ha)(Baker, 1975). A similar picture of declining holding size was found at KurwalBanaras, Chola, Nausana, Nai Basti, and is evident at national level. According tothe National Sample Survey (cited in Vyas, 2002) over 60 per cent of India’s farmerswere classified as marginal in 1992–93, and were cultivating 0.01–2.49 acres. The fielddata revealed a similar picture. In all the villages visited over half the holdings wereclassified by the farmers as small, being less than three acres. In Sabdalpur andKurwal Banaras the majority of households cultivated between 1.0 and 1.5 acres.This was also the case in Chirchita where PRA with a group of farmers involving thepradhan provided more detailed information regarding changes in holding size andthe number of families involved in cultivation (Table 5).

While it is almost certainly correct that holding size is now more positively skewedthan it was 30þ years ago, there is also evidence in certain villages, particularlywhere descendants of former zamindars are to be found, that some of the largerfarmers had ways and means of avoiding the constraints of the land ceiling. Dreze

Table 4. Comparing wheat and rice yields in 1972 and post-2000

1972 2001–03

(kg/ha)

Wheat yields Progressive/large farmers 4,000–5,000 5,000–6,000Average yields 3,000 4,000Lowest yields 1,000 2,000

Rice yields Progressive/large farmers 3,400 5,000(with soil improvement)

Average yields 3,200 3,000–3,800

Sources: 1972 data derived from Baker (1975); 2001–03 data based on fieldwork by Baker andJewitt (2001, 2003).



and Gazdar (1996) assert that after Independence the UP government madeinadequate attempts to put land ceilings into effect, and that as a consequence, therewere more loopholes in the law in UP than in other states. These loopholes haveenabled former landlords to retain holdings of a significant size, though fieldworksuggested that the prices paid in social favours to their village communities wereconsiderable, in order that the true size of their land holdings remained undetectedby the authorities.Returning to the Green Revolution, predictions in the 1970s that the rich would

continue to get richer by buying up land from the poor, who could not affordessential inputs for their HYVs on a sustained basis, has not happened in UP, duelargely to the 18 acre (7.35 ha) land ceiling established in 1996. At this time, farmerswith more than 18 acres were obliged to surrender any excess, and a few farmers inthe villages lost land through this scheme. Land which had been surrendered,together with all land designated as ‘spare’ in the villages was distributed to theScheduled Castes and disadvantaged people in keeping with the Indian Constitu-tion’s commitment to social and economic justice (Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). Asa result, the numbers of different caste groups/classes who owned land had increased,and most of these were from among the poorest Hindus and Muslims. Table 6 showsthe proportions of the major caste/class groups in Chirchita and Sabdalpur in 1972and in 2003. The decline in the number of Rajputs and Jats is evident, as is theincreasing proportion of lower castes and/or Muslims.Patterns of land ownership have changed significantly since the 1972 study. At this

time power in the study villages lay very clearly with Brahmins and Rajputs, highercaste Hindu farmers, and in some villages, with wealthier Muslims. These powerfulfarmers also had the largest land holdings. The fieldwork revealed that over the past30 years many of the dominant Hindus, particularly the Rajputs and Jats had soldtheir land after profiting from the GR and moved to Bulandshahr or other urbanareas. According to Jeffrey (2002: 213) working in nearby Meerut, fragmentationencouraged the Jats to seek off-farm income, especially salaried employment in thepublic sector. In the study villages former Rajput and Jat land had been acquired byMuslims and by the lower and Scheduled Castes such as the Jatavs and Balmiki orChamars who are now numerically dominant among the Hindu farmers inSabdalpur, Chirchita and Kurwal Banaras. The fieldwork thus confirmed that therehad been no increased concentration of land in the hands of the richest, nor that

Table 5. Changes in number of families and holding size in Chirchita, 1972–2003

Holding size(acres)

1972No. offamilies

1972(% total)

2003No. offamilies

2003(% total)

Total 125 100 550 100Landless 15 12 50 951 acre 36 29 150 91–2.5 37 29 320 582.6–5.0 12 10 28 545.0 acres 25/26 20 2 51

Source: Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2003).



small landholders had suffered significant losses of land in any of the six villagesvisited. This is echoed by Hazell and Ramasamy (1991) and by Harriss (1991) inNorth Arcot, South India. In some cases in the study villages small parcels of landhad been acquired by the poorer members of society through purchase; throughgovernment schemes which allocate land to the poorest and most disadvantaged, andthrough a combination of these. Our findings thus contrast with those of Mukherjee(2002) who casts doubt on the extent to which the poorest can and do acquire land.Whether these smallest landholders are benefiting from land ownership is debatable.Ray (2002) argues that agrarian reorganisation has not significantly improved thesocioeconomic conditions of the working farmer in India but in spite of this everyonewished to be a landowner and derived confidence and pride from doing so. Therelative position of large and small landholders and landless people is consideredbelow.

Post-2000, the number of landholders in the study villages had increased. 50 percent of farming families in Sabdalpur are Muslim, and 50 per cent are Hindu, while

Table 6. Changes in the proportion of different Hindu caste groups and Muslims in Sabdalpurand Chirchita villages over 30 years

Caste

SABDALPUR1972: basedon recallby localfarmers atthat time

(%)

SABDALPUR2001: basedon PRA

discussions(%)

CHIRCHITA1972: basedon recall bylocal farmersat that time

(%)

CHIRCHITA2003: basedon PRA

discussions(%)

Brahmin 5 51Rajput 50 5 (sold land and

migrated tourban areas)

Jat 15–20 10 (soldland and

migrated tourban areas)

Harijan/SC 45 30 14Including: (details of all SCs

not provided)Kore (10)Gosai (7)Jatav (20) (25) (11)Dhobi (1) (1.5) (1.5)Balmiki/Chamars(sweepers)

(3) (3.5) (1.5)

*Mewati-Muslims/Muslim-Rajputs

51 5

Muslims 30 50 50 70

Source: Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2003).Note: *See Endnote 1 regarding Mewati-Muslims/Muslim-Rajputs.



in Chirchita 75 per cent are Muslim, including Mewati Muslims, and 25 per cent areHindu (Table 6). This represents a significant change from 1972. The most influentialmembers of both villages were still the wealthy Muslims and the few remainingBrahmin, Rajput and Jat families, and observation confirmed their dominantposition. However, it was emphasised in both Sabdalpur and Chirchita that althoughMuslims were numerous, they did not necessarily command the greatest proportionof resources. Poorer Muslims (and poorer Hindus) rarely practised birth control andas a result their numbers were increasing rapidly, their holdings, frequently less thanone acre were too small to support large families, and large families exacerbated landfragmentation. This was confirmed through participatory discussions with both richand poor, although concern amongst wealthy villagers seemed to be rooted primarilyin resentment over the recent redistribution of small land parcels from rich to poorhouseholds. Survival for the poorest Muslim families and for their Hinducounterparts, now depends on supplementing subsistence production with earningsfrom off-farm and non-farm employment by as many family members as possible.The proportion of landless was estimated at 30 to 40 per cent in each of the villagesand although the Pradhans confirmed that the proportion of SCs (Hindus) amongthe landless had declined relative to Muslims, (due to preferences for large familiesamongst the latter), in absolute terms the numbers of both these groups hadincreased significantly. It is worth mentioning that the proportion of SCs in thestudy villages was far higher than the proportion for India as a whole. Havingshown that there are many more small farmers in the villages visited than mediumand large farmers, we now examine resource accessibility by farmers with large andsmallholdings.

Availability of and Access to Irrigation Water

An adequate supply of water is arguably the most critical of all inputs for HYVs andin the early days of GR technology, access to irrigation water was the principalconstraint on the adoption of HYVs. However, availability of irrigation water hasimproved substantially since 1972 with the increased number of tube wells and someexpansion of the canal system. Increasing pressure from the farmers’ lobby hascontributed to this (Dreze and Gazdar, 1996; Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). It isdifficult to demonstrate from official statistics the extent of this change over the past30 years as the District boundary has changed. Part of the former BulandshahrDistrict has been lost to the newly formed Gautam Bodh Nagar District. Albeit notdirectly comparable, the statistics show that tube wells in the District now irrigatearound a quarter of a million hectares (Jagran Research Centre, 2002), comparedwith about 150,000 hectares in a larger district area in 1971 (Bulletin of AgriculturalStatistics for UP, cited in Baker, 1975). Thus the increased capacity for irrigationapparent in the study villages is also confirmed at district and state level, and reflectsheavy investment in increasing irrigation capacity, and particularly the utilisation ofgroundwater (Vaidyanathan, 1994).While the availability of irrigation water might have increased, the benefits are far

from evenly spread and, usually, irrigation water is more expensive for the poor thanfor the rich. Tube well water is more expensive than canal water in spite of thesubsidy on electricity (Gulati and Sharma, 2002) and this is a major burden for



smaller farmers, especially where their land is distant from canals and where theyhave no option but to depend on tube well water for irrigation of their HVYs. Thegovernment does offer some help with the cost of tube well installation but if theinitial subsidised tube well does not function properly for any reason, for examplethe bore has not been appropriately positioned, or the pump set has failed, thefarmers are given no further help (personal communication, village Pradhans).Farmers who, for whatever reason, had access to neither canal water, nor owned apump set, but had to depend on tube wells owned by other farmers were invariablythe smallest, poorest farmers. Most of these applied less than optimal quantities ofirrigation water. It was no surprise that they harvested lower yields than those whohad access to their own pump sets and tube wells, or to canal water. Table 7 showsthe comparative cost of water for those who had access to canals or owned their owntube wells, and those who did not. This was based on participatory discussions inSabdalpur, Chirchita and Nai Basti, and the data speak for themselves.

Access to and Use of Fertiliser

In 1972, fertiliser and irrigation water were both in limited supply. Soil samplescollected from the fields of farmers in the 1972 study were tested for their soil organiccarbon content in order to assess the quantity of urea, calcium ammonium nitrate(CAN) or other fertilisers which should have been applied to the soil. At that timefarmers did have the opportunity to send soil samples to the Indian AgriculturalResearch Institute (IARI) in Delhi, but few did so. The results collected by Bakerfrom the study farmers’ fields showed that the soil was receiving, on average, 169 kgof urea/ha, far more than was recommended by the Government Package ofPractices for wheat cultivation, but far less than local soil conditions warranted,

Table 7. Comparison of cost of irrigation from canal and from tube well in study villages

Irrigation by canal

Cost irrigations (any number) dependent on crop Rs 175–350/acre(Approx. cost of irrigating sugarcane and rice) (Rs 350/acre)(Approx. cost of irrigating jowar, pigeon pea and other pulses) (Rs 175/acre)

Irrigation by tube well

. For farmers owning a pump set:Cost of each irrigation Rs 125/acreCost of six irrigations Rs 750/acre

. For farmers not owning a pump set (usually smaller/poorer):Cost of purchasing each irrigation Rs 200/acreCost of six irrigations Rs 1200/acre

. Therefore, extra paid by smaller/poorer farmers:Per irrigation Rs 75/acrePer six irrigation Rs 450/acre

Relative cost of irrigating from tube well rather than canal (approx.)

For larger farmers owning pump sets 3–4 times costlierFor smaller/poorer farmers not owning pump sets 46 times costlier

Source: Baker and Jewitt fieldwork (2001, 2003).



according to the IARI. Of 196 farmers involved in the sample in 1972, only 28 percent used adequate fertiliser, according to the prescriptions of the IARI, and thesewere higher caste farmers with larger farms (Baker, 1975).There are similarities with the situation today. Sabdalpur farmers with large and

medium sized holdings, (over three acres) were applying urea at a rate of 100–125 kg/acre (approx. 250 kg/ha to 310 kg/ha), well above the recommended dose of84 kg/acre (210 kg/ha). By comparison, small farmers with less than three acres ofland, and many with less than one acre, mostly obtained fertiliser from their richerneighbours, usually in exchange for work, rather than from a source whichguaranteed good quality of fertiliser. As a consequence, these small farmers had littlechoice but to accept whatever fertiliser was ‘given’ to them by larger farmers. Mostused only one type of fertiliser, NNP, regardless of whether or not it was appropriatefor their soil. These farmers were applying only 75–80 per cent of the quantity ofNNP recommended by the current Government Package of Practices (personalcommunication, R. B. Yadav, 2001), and this almost certainly contributed to therelatively low yields they harvested in comparison with the larger farmers. Thesewere the same farmers who were unable to apply sufficient irrigation water to theircrops.The use of excessive quantities of fertiliser by the larger and medium sized farmers

signals one of the major problems currently facing agriculture in the area, and that isstatic and declining yields. Two of many possible explanations for this are first, thatsoils may be becoming increasingly sodic, a condition which results in salt depositionat or near the surface as a result of high levels of moisture in the soil. This frequentlyoccurs in canal irrigated areas, and particularly near the canals where seepage maybe a problem. There is currently an extensive World Bank project in Uttar Pradeshinvolved in the improvement of sodic soils (World Bank Group, 2004), as it is usuallythese reclaimed soils which are distributed to new land owners who arepredominantly among the lowest castes/classes. The authors’ experiences of suchsodic soils suggested that these were not a major problem in the study villages. Ifanything, they are less of a problem now than in 1972 due to the development of arange of soil improvement techniques.A second, and more likely explanation for declining crop yields in the face of

increasing inputs of inorganic fertiliser is the low level of soil micronutrients, whichin turn may be related to low levels of soil organic matter (Gaur et al., 1984;Nambiar, 1994, Ghildyal et al., 2002). Farmers were quick to identify the inadequacyof soil organic matter as a cause of stagnant yields, but measurements taken in thesevillages in 1972, compared with recent results of soil analyses conducted by theAgricultural Development Office in Bulandshahr reveal that the organic fractionwhich was approximately 0.7 per cent in 1972, remains much the same. However,increasing the organic input into the soil could well have positive effects on yield byincreasing the micronutrient status and improving the soil structure. For one or twolarge farmers who invested in compost production, wheat yields were over 5,000 kgper ha, compared with the more usual 3–4,000 kg per ha or less (Table 4). Resolvingthe stagnation in crop yields in the face of a rapidly growing population thusrepresents a major challenge to farmers in the doab and in much of India in thefuture. There is scope for planting green manures and also for applying animal dungto the fields but at present, during the dry months virtually all dung produced in the



villages is mixed with chaff by women, made into dung cakes, dried, and used as fuel.Any dung cakes surplus to household requirements are sold. This is an importantsource of income for many women and especially for those from families with smallplots or of landless families. There is understandable reluctance to lose a viablesource of income although the use of dung on the fields could lead to higher cropyields, income and sustainability of agriculture. The likelihood of food shortage iscurrently viewed as little more than a small, dark cloud on the horizon, but if yieldscontinue to deteriorate, then pressure to divert organic matter to the soil will almostcertainly increase to remedy the situation.

The potential of organic manures is also important for another reason: fertiliserhas been heavily subsidised in India, and despite attempts by new farmers’movements to prevent the reduction of subsidies, dating back to the late 1970sand 1980s, liberalisation will require existing subsidies to be phased out. Almostcertainly, the cost of fertiliser to the farmer will increase, and usage could fall. Butthis need not spell disaster. A reduction in the use of inorganic fertiliser, if coupledwith organic manure could, in theory, increase crop yields as the organic inputscould remedy what are believed to be a decline in soil micronutrients. The benefits oforganic manures combined with limited quantities of inorganic fertiliser have beendemonstrated in East Asia, and Taiwanese technical aid missions are currentlypromoting such methods in Africa (Baker and Edmonds, 2004).

From the use of two key inputs of water and inorganic fertiliser, it is evident thatsmall farmers are at a disadvantage in the production of HYVs compared with theirlarger counterparts. This difference was also evident with regard to other variables:most small farmers were unable to afford seed of good quality and depended onlarger farmers for their supplies. This they often paid for with their labour and hadlittle control over the quality of seed they received, or the price they paid for it interms of their time. Furthermore, rarely were these the newest and most high yieldingvarieties. Usually, small farmers were not perceived as credit worthy by banks, sohad to pay high levels of interest to richer neighbours in the village in order toborrow money. Again, the means of repaying debts was through their labour, whichfrequently left them short of time on their own fields. For these and many otherreasons, the gap between large and small farmers had widened over the past 30 years,though as we were frequently reminded, no one in the villages went hungry anymore.

VII. Investigating the Gap between Large and Small Farmers Further

Population growth, not GR technology, emerged as the main factor explaining thewidening income gap between the larger, richer farmers; smaller, poorer farmers, andthe landless, though GR technology and particularly access to HYVs was the reasonfor the survival of those with the smallest plots.

Participatory discussions with farmers with larger and smaller plots of land, andwith landless people, resulted in Figure 2 which was drawn in the sand by one groupof participants in Sabdalpur, and which evaluated changes in the proportion ofvillage wealth ‘owned’ by each group over the past 30 years. This proved to be a realexample of local people taking over ‘the stick’ with conviction (Chambers, 1994).The substance of the diagram was checked with several other groups and Figure 2



confirmed our expectations that the proportion of wealth controlled by medium andlarger farmers, cultivating over three acres of land, had increased relative to others,confirming the views of Byres (1981). In 1972 this group owned an estimated 45–50per cent of village wealth, compared with 75 per cent in 2001. Small farmers, thosewith holdings of less than three acres owned some 40 per cent of village wealth in1972 but only about 20 per cent now. The fortunes of small farmers contrastednotably with the landless. They were still the poorest as a group but while theyowned virtually nothing in 1972, allegedly, they now possessed 10–15 per cent of thewealth of the village. While the position of the landless may look remarkably healthyfrom Figure 2, it must be stressed that these benefits have been experienced by only asmall proportion of a growing number of landless people. Most continue theirexistence in poverty.Considerable effort was made during the fieldwork to confirm the information in

this diagram and we were able to do this at Chirchita in 2003 where farmersproduced a diagram which was remarkably similar. And yet, there was conflictinginformation: everyone wanted land, even a tiny farm, despite the alleged declining

Figure 2. Estimated changes in wealth of large and medium farmers, small farmers andlandless people. Source: Field work by the authors, 2001



financial position of the smallest farmers. It is our intention to pursue this questionfurther in future fieldwork.

VIII. Green Revolution Technology and the Landless

Informal discussions were held with members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), andalso with landless families in all three villages. It was difficult to get close to thepoorest, but we were particularly successful in conducting informal discussionsand PRA with both men and women from the Balmiki in Chirchita. The Balmikiare a sweeper caste and are socially one of the lowest groups among the SCs.Initially, some of the participants were reluctant to talk to us but they becamemore relaxed with time. The men were much more prepared to talk than thewomen who were shy and inhibited at first, but even their confidence grew asthey became involved in PRA sessions. Were it not for the persistence of ourIndian agronomist partner, Dr R. B. Yadav, this element of the study might havebeen forsaken.

The quality of life for the Balmiki is clearly poorer than that of other groups in thevillage, including other SC groups. They were shabbier in appearance, their clothingwas poor; the children looked dirty, unkempt, and frequently wore the minimum ofclothing; eye complaints and skin sores were more in evidence than elsewhere in thevillage and the general appearance of this group was reminiscent of village people 30years ago. Most lived in katcha houses at present; few had their own hand pump forwater and most used the communal government hand pump near their houses. Butimprovements are taking place: being an Ambedkar village pukka and semi-pukkahouses are now being built for the SCs; mud paths to their houses are being pavedwith brick; the communal hand pump has replaced an open well quite recently, andrudimentary sanitation is being installed. In December 2003, 40 per cent of the workfor the Ambedkar project has been completed in Chirchita and further fieldwork ayear later confirmed that progress was being made. But this is not to say that theenvironment of the Scheduled Castes was being raised to the same standards ashigher caste people in the village. A marked difference still existed, but advances werebeing made.

With regard to material possessions among the group of around 25 Balmiki whomwe met in Chirchita there was one television, four radios, everyone who worked inBulandshahr owned a bicycle, and all families kept poultry and goats as most hadlittle space for larger animals. None of the households possessed a sewing machine;none of the women could knit, sew or crochet, and no one had gas on which to cook.None of the Balmiki to whom we spoke, either men or women, had received formaleducation. Opportunities were available for the education of SC children, and forthose parents who registered their children in full time education they were eligiblefor a subsidy of Rs 340 for each child placed in school, and a supplement of 34 kg ofgrain (personal communication, Chirchita pradhan, 2003). In spite of this, severalBalmiki women chose not to send their children to school. Their relative materialpoverty in the village was glaringly apparent.

Regardless of their poverty, all members of the Scheduled Castes to whom wespoke, including the Balmiki were emphatic that GR technology had benefitedeveryone, even the SCs. Increased agricultural production as a result of the HYVs



had been followed by growth and prosperity, and increasing job opportunities,particularly in the District capital, Bulandshahr, which was easily accessible fromthe study villages. However, most of employment opportunities open to theBalmiki were for men who pulled cycle rickshaws, or who were sweepers andlabourers in hotels, banks and offices. None of the Balmiki to whom we spokewere employed as agricultural labour in the village. The benefits to be had fromworking in Bulandshahr were clearly greater. Those members of other SCs whowere employed as agricultural labour in the villages confirmed that increasedmechanisation had seen a decline in demand for labour for some tasks such asploughing, but an increase in labour demand for tasks such as weeding and seedsorting. Village wage rates had also increased as a result of rising cost of urbanwage labour and the brunt of this was mostly borne by the largest farmers whocould afford hired labour. That HYVs have probably increased labour demand isthe conclusion reached by Jeffrey (2002) in Meerut, Singh (1993) in North Bihar,and Harriss (1982, 1991) in North Arcot, though in the case of the latter this islargely because the use of tractors and mechanical threshers had not increased tothe point where labour were displaced, and also because the area under HYVs ofrice had increased.Opportunities for Balmiki women in Bulandshahr were fewer and most worked

as sweepers and cleaners of latrines in Chirchita and the neighbouring villages.Traditionally, they would head load excrement from the households to the fieldand they continued to do this although the government had banned head-loadingof such material. Where households possessed a rudimentary cesspit or septictank their task was made easier, but where there was none, they had noalternative but to head load the excrement. Some were outspoken in theirloathing for this work, wishing that they could escape from rural drudgery asmany of their employers had done. Each Balmiki woman acted as sweeper forapproximately 10 houses. For this the rate of pay was currently 20 kg of wheatevery six months, equivalent to approx. Rs 125 per 180 days, or less than Rs 1per day. However, their wages had doubled in the past decade as the increasedcost of labour in urban areas had pushed up rural wage rates. They used to bepaid 10 kg of wheat every six months; half the current rate. Among other SCgroups of higher status than the Balmiki, both men and women foundemployment in sugarcane processing factories, in the countless brick makingplants and in the construction industry. Increased non-farm employmentopportunities meant that the poorest could earn enough money, and no onewas starving or short of food. Wage labour, we were told by landless women hadrisen from Rs 5 per day in the 1970s to Rs 30 per day in 1990 and Rs 60 per daynow (without accounting for inflation). These were well in advance of wages paidto Balmiki women who worked as sweepers in the villages. Living costs had risenas well, but all agreed to having more disposable income.In addition to paid employment, some landless women reared female buffalo

calves for sale to larger farmers. These they fed on weeds gathered from the fieldsand also on the residues from the sugarcane harvest. They were entitled to the latteras long as they harvested the cane for no cost to the owner. There is an irony aboutthis as the cane producers are usually the largest, richest farmers. Some landless menwere also involved in selling milk and keeping buffaloes through the batai2 system.



This was not evident from the Balmiki’s material possessions but PRA revealed thatmuch of the increased income was spent not on material goods, but on celebrationsand festivals.

To conclude this section, it would appear that the quality of life for SCs hasimproved because of increased employment opportunities in Bulandshahr and itsenvirons. It is likely that the growth of agricultural productivity resulting from theintroduction of HYVs has contributed to the growth of Bulandshahr, but otherfactors may also have played a part, not least the inclusion of the study villages in theAmbedkar scheme. Whatever the reasons, SCs are apparently better off than theywere; the poorest among them, the Balmiki, claim to have enough not to be hungry,though their material assets are still meagre in comparison with those of their highercaste neighbours.

IX. Conclusions

The fieldwork left the authors in no doubt that the material progress, so plain tosee in the study villages over the past 30þ years, had been set in train by theadoption of GR technology in the mid to late 1960s. HYVs had averted hungerand famine which was threatening at that time, and subsequent increases in cropyields, and the increase in the area under these crops had added to livelihoodsecurity. However, the benefits from GR technology were not equally distributedand the research revealed a widening gap between rich and poor, even though the‘bottom line’ was encouragingly higher than it used to be. In 1972 the rich tendedto cultivate the largest farms and to have access to a wide range of resources.Today, the same is true, but many of the larger, richer farmers, formerly Brahmins,Rajputs and some Jats, who had benefited from years of GR technology, had soldtheir farms, taken their profits and moved away to urban areas. Their land had notbeen absorbed by the remaining large farmers on account of the land ceiling.Instead, it had been acquired by lower caste Hindu farmers and by poorer Muslimswho now dominated farming in terms of numbers in the study villages. As aconsequence there had been a significant change in the social structure of thevillages since 1972.

The landless had also benefited from GR technology: the growth of Bulandshahrhad stimulated the non-farm economy and had seen demand for labour rise. As aconsequence, employment opportunities for both men and women had increased, ashad wage rates. Despite these positive changes many of the poorest castes/classes stilllived in poverty, but it was asserted that no one went to bed hungry any more. Thedozens of people to whom we spoke in the villages were unwavering in their viewthat advances in material well being had been driven by little other than the HYVs,accompanied by their input packages. Nevertheless, as in North Arcot, (Harriss,1991; Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991) and in Laguna village in the Philippines (Hayamiand Kikuchi, 2000), it was evident that many other factors ranging from local toglobal had reinforced the socioeconomic improvements triggered by the introductionof HYVs over 35 years ago.

Two remaining points must be made: first, these findings are specific to thethree study villages, and we can also claim them for the other villages visitedwithin the vicinity of Bulandshahr. We cannot extend our conclusions beyond the



study area, but it must be emphasised that for much of India, GR technology stillremains inaccessible. The second point is that although we have focused on thebenefits of GR technology, the fieldwork revealed an awareness among the farmingcommunities of problems linked to the sustained use of the technology. These must bementioned though space does not allow their discussion in full. We have alreadymentioned declining crop yields in the face of increasing inputs of fertiliser, a situationwhich could probably be reversed by careful soil management, not least by increasingthe organic fraction (Sanchez, 1976; Beets, 1990). High also on the list of perceivednegative effects of GR technology were increases in formerly unknown ailments suchas stress, strokes, heart disease and ‘mystery illnesses’, particularly of children. Thesewere attributed to the poisoning of water supplies by overuse of chemical fertilisers,insecticides and pesticides. More research is necessary, however, to establish thevalidity of such perceived links.Overall, the benefits of the Green Revolution were perceived in all six villages

to far outweigh any negative effects. There was, however, an awareness thatcontinued population increase could threaten food security in the future as cropproduction had reached a plateau. Biotechnology could provide a solution todeclining agricultural production, but if this approach still raises too manyquestions and concerns (Shiva, 2002), then an East Asian alternative whichfocuses on the abiotic rather than biotic components of the agroecosystem mightbe preferable. This would involve raising the level of soil organic matter, andhence fertility through heavy composting (Baker and Edmonds, 2004). Althoughlaborious for the farmer, this would be feasible and could prove ecologicallysound, cheap, and sustainable. It might also extend further the benefits conferredby 35 years of GR technology.

Acknowledegments

The authors wish to acknowledge the significant contribution made to the researchby numerous people, and to thank them for their generous assistance and kindness.We particularly thank our research assistant, close associate and friend, Dr R. B.Yadav, Assistant Professor of Agronomy, Sri Vallab Bhai University, Meerut for sogenerously sharing his wealth of knowledge about the study area; for his goodhumour and his tireless commitment to the fieldwork. Thanks are also due to thepeople in all the villages visited who participated so willingly in the fieldwork. Wewould wish to thank especially the people of Sabdalpur, Chirchita and KurwalBanaras for their time, their kindness and good humour and the warmth of theirwelcome after a gap of some 30 years. We are also indebted to Mr M. P. Singh,Deputy Director, Extension, The Agricultural School, Bulandshahr, for his generoushelp in the early stages of our work.

Notes

1. Muslim Rajputs, otherwise known as Mewati Muslims were descended from Meos, Rajput tribes living

in Mewat, a Gantgetic plateau in northern India. These Meos converted to Islam in twelfth and

thirteenth centuries. At that time they retained many of the socio-religious practices from their Hindu

past. Many kept their old Hindu names, worshipped Hindu deities, celebrated Hindu festivals and



based birth, marriage and death rituals on Hindu customs. Islamisation of Mewati Muslims was

brought about by the teachings and work of Mawlana Ilyas in the Mewati region in the 1920s (Ahmad,

2004). Some still refer to themselves as Muslim-Rajputs or Mewati-Muslims.

2. Batai system: This is a form of partnership between rich and poor, in buffalo ownership and

maintenance. Buffaloes are extremely valuable while lactating, but once the milk supply dwindles they

can be costly to maintain. At this stage, poorer households owning buffaloes may give their animals

into the care of a wealthier farmer until the animals calve. When a calf is born, the poorer farmer pays a

pre-agreed sum to the richer farmer who has fed the buffalo for several months, and the poorer farmer

takes the adult animal back as it is again lactating. The calf remains with the richer farmer. The system

enables the poor to own productive animals and to shelve most of the cost of maintaining them in that

part of the year when they are not productive.

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