Riya Chhikara
Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
Download PDF
http://doi.org/10.37648/ijrst.v11i02.005
In the aftermath of the food crisis in India during 1965-66, and the neglect of the agrarian sector in the initial Five- Year Plans, a nation whose economy benefited mainly from primary sector suffered hardships. The New Agriculture policy, which sought to eradicate and limit these national problems, was profit oriented and technology- oriented. While the government's response sought to focus on rapid production, market pricing mechanisms underwent interesting changes. The resultant effect of market forces driven in a single direction towards rice and wheat failed to provide nutritional security by focusing on ‘food security’. The hidden hands of the capitalist market, then, and the motives are sought to be examined. The paper attempts to analyze the Indian experience of the Green Revolution and its influences on the pricing mechanism, which hampered the growth of the ‘untargeted’ crops. The dominant presence of two crops, Rice and wheat, and the consequent surplus generated is attempted to be studied through Marx's Capital. The industrial extraction from nature which culminated in an environmental crisis was harmful to both the soil and labourer. This active relation of man to nature, enabled by scientific ideas and technology in the capitalist society, then shows the destructive potential of capitalism and its inherent instability.
Keywords: Green Revolution; Nutrition security; Food security; Five year plans; Agrarian studies; applied social research.
Disclaimer: All papers published in IJRST will be indexed on Google Search Engine as per their policy.
