India's high yielding varieties programme in wheat 1966-67 to 1971-72

Abstract

The remarkable increase in wheat production in India since mid-sixties merits a close look. An explanation of the phenomenon of major breakthrough in wheat production, which sharply contrasts with relative stagnation in production of other cereals, is likely to provide valuable lessons fot future agricultural development. In this report an attempt has been made to underline the factors which have made this breakthrough possible and highlight the problems and issues which are yet to be tackled. The report is divided in three parts. PArt one briefly traces the history of efforts to increase agricultural production in India during the first three plan periods (1951-65), suggests reasons for the acceptance (in mid-sixties) of the strategy of agricultural development revolving round high-yielding varieties of seeds and describes the administrative and other measures to facilitate geographical spread of the new varieties. Part two, which is the core of the report, discusses the factors responsible for the rapid spread of the new varieties as well as their actual performance with the help of a set of micro level studies. Part three highlights some of the unresolved problems and the prospects for the future growth. The implications of this "wheat revolution" in terms of income distribution and employment generation have not been discussed in this review. This is mainaly because the latter issues, often described as "second generation problems", have been widely commented upon. On the other hand, the first generation problems, i.e., problems connected with the extesion of new varieties and measures to exploit their potentialities to the maximun, have not been subjected to detailed scrutiny and examination.