• Abstract

•  sharma.ar@rediffmail.com

Adoption of green revolution technologies during 1960s led to increased productivity and elimination of acute foodgrain shortages in India. These technologies primarily involved growing of high-yielding dwarf varieties of rice and wheat, increased use of chemical fertilizers and other agrochemicals, and spread of irrigation facilities. This was also accompanied by the other so called modern methods of cultivation, which included maximum tilling of land, virtually clean cultivation with complete removal of crop residues and other biomass from the field, fixed crop rotations mostly involving cereals, and elimination of fertility-restoring pulses and oilseed crops in the high productive north-western plain zone of the country....