# The Green Revolution begins
**हरित क्रांति का आरंभ**

- Canonical page: https://indianepics.online/event/green-revolution-1966/
- Chapter: [The Republic and its states](https://indianepics.online/chapter/republic.md)
- Track: evidence (archaeology and documents)
- When: 1966 CE – 1972 CE
- Where: Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana (30.9, 75.8)
- Tags: science, trade

## Summary

Mexican dwarf wheat, tube wells and fertiliser lift Punjab's wheat harvest from 1.9 to 5.6 million tonnes between 1965 and 1972.

मैक्सिको के बौने गेहूँ, नलकूपों और उर्वरक से 1965 से 1972 के बीच पंजाब की गेहूँ पैदावार 19 लाख से बढ़कर 56 लाख टन हो गई।

## Account

Semi-dwarf wheats bred by Norman Borlaug in Mexico were imported in 1965 and 1966 and adapted at the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana and the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Delhi. With tube-well water and fertiliser, Punjab's wheat harvest nearly tripled in seven years, and India's dependence on American food aid had ended by the early 1970s.

The costs came later: falling water tables, heavy chemical use and a narrowing of crops. The same years saw the Punjab Reorganisation Act of 1966, which carved Haryana out of the old state and gave its hill districts to Himachal Pradesh.

## Sources

- Singh and Kohli, 'The Green Revolution in Punjab, India: The Economics of Technological Change', Journal of Punjab Studies 12(2), 2005 — https://punjab.global.ucsb.edu/sites/default/files/sitefiles/journals/volume12/no2/12.2_Singh_Kohli.pdf
- Swaminathan, M. S., Wheat Revolution: A Dialogue (1993)

## Image

Wheat field in Phagwara Punjab India. Sixtybolts, CC BY-SA 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0), via Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AWheat_field_in_Phagwara_Punjab_India.jpg

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