Green Revolution and growth of Capitalistic Farming in Indian Agriculture

The green revolution necessitated the heavy public expenditure in the seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and water domains of economy. From the farmer’s side, it implied use of better and improved inputs of agriculture which needed more capital. Making investments in tube wells, pump sets, fertilizers and farm machinery was beyond the capacity of small and medium farmers. Despite of efforts of the government; Green Revolution helped growth of capitalist farming in India and it led to concentration of wealth in the hands of large farmers. The benefits of green revolution hardly trickled down to poor and marginal farmers.

The most glaring example of this was Punjab. This state saw a sudden rise of “Gentlemen farmers”, the people such as retired servicemen, retired civil servants, and businessmen etc. who adopted farming as profession. Further, during and after green revolution; the need for institutional reforms in agriculture was not recognized. There was a need to take urgent measures on land reforms and tenancy reforms but that did not happen. Since bulk of the peasant population did not enjoy the ownership rights; they were forced to accept share cropping rather than being cultivator themselves. A typical capitalist principle of profit maximisation was put in place in which the owner-farmers reaped profit much more than the tenant cultivators. This ultimately resulted in widening of the disparities between the large farmers and landless labourers / tenant farmers.