The farmer protests have led to questions being raised on the extensive cultivation of paddy and wheat, especially in Punjab.
What is the extent of paddy-wheat monoculture in Punjab?
Punjab’s gross cropped area in 2018-19 was estimated at 78.30 lakh hectares, out of which around 86% is cropped with paddy and wheat only.
The Green Revolution wheat varieties such as KalyanSona and Sonalika have been grown extensively.
Green Revolution
The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, is the set of research technology transfer initiatives occurring between 1950 and the late 1960s.
The initiatives resulted in the adoption of new technologies, including High-Yielding Varieties (HYVs) of cereals, especially dwarf wheat and rice.
It was associated with chemical fertilizers, agrochemicals, and controlled water-supply and newer methods of cultivation, including mechanization.
Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution", received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.
MankombuSambasivanSwaminathan (M S Swaminathan) has been called the "Father of Green Revolution in India".
What is monoculture and how it has caused such a problem?
The growing of a single crop in a particular area is known as monoculture.
In Punjab, Wheat replaced chana, masur, mustard and sunflower, while cotton, maize, groundnut and sugarcane area got diverted to paddy.
It has caused a lost to crop diversification.
Growing the same crops year after year on the same land increases vulnerability to pest and disease attacks.
The more the crop and genetic diversity, the more difficult it is for insects and pathogens to device way to pierce through plant resistance.
Wheat and paddy cannot also, unlike pulses and legumes, fix nitrogen from the atmosphere.
Their continuous cultivation leads to depletion of soil nutrients and growing dependence on chemical fertilisers and pesticides.
