UPSC Mains 2017 GS Paper 3 Q4: model answer
Explain various types of revolutions, took place in Agriculture after independence in India. How these revolutions have helped in poverty alleviation and food security in India?
What the question wants
Explain the agricultural 'revolutions' since independence and how they helped poverty reduction and food security.
How to structure it
List, then link.
- Green
- White
- Blue and others
- Poverty effect
- Food security effect
- Limits
How to think it through
Green (wheat and rice, 1960s), White (milk, Operation Flood, 1970), Blue (fish), Yellow (oilseeds, 1986), Golden (horticulture and honey), Pink (meat), Silver (eggs), Round (potato). Effects: food self-sufficiency, cheaper grain, buffer stocks for PDS, rural jobs. Limits: regional bias, ecological cost.
Model answer
In 1966 India imported over 10 million tonnes of grain. Today it is a leading rice exporter. That change came through a series of farm 'revolutions'.
The revolutions
- Green (1960s): high-yielding wheat and rice, irrigation and fertiliser; M.S. Swaminathan and Norman Borlaug.
- White (from 1970): Operation Flood, led by Verghese Kurien, made India the largest milk producer.
- Blue: fisheries; now the Blue Revolution scheme and PMMSY.
- Yellow (1986): Technology Mission on Oilseeds.
- Golden: horticulture and honey; Silver: eggs; Pink: meat and poultry.
Effect on poverty
- Cheaper grain and higher farm wages in irrigated regions.
- Dairy gave landless and women regular income.
- Cheap food lifted real wages of urban workers too.
Effect on food security
- Buffer stocks that support the PDS and the NFSA.
- Diverse sources of protein through milk, eggs and fish.
Limits
- Gains were concentrated in Punjab, Haryana and western UP; rainfed eastern India and pulses were left behind.
- They cost soil health and groundwater, and pushed a cereal-heavy diet.
The revolutions filled India's granary; the next one has to fill its plate with nutrition.
Draw: A rainbow strip with each colour labelled by product and year.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Green Revolution, HYV, Operation Flood, Verghese Kurien, Blue Revolution, PMMSY, TMO 1986, NFSA, buffer stock.
Where most answers lose marks
- Listing colours without linking them to poverty and food security.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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