South Asia: India, Giant of the Subcontinent - Dragons and Tigers: A Geography of South, East and Southeast Asia - page 231

Uttar Pradesh, where one in six Indians reside, has
seen variable consequences of the Green Revolution.
Uttar Pradesh is India' is largest grain producer, yet yields
are only half those in Punjab. One government and
World Bank-supported countermeasure is the reclama-
tion of sodic land—land where crusts of salt or other
alkalis prevent nutrients and water from going below
the surface. Application of gypsum and flushing with
water can bring such soils into production. Farmers are
given free gypsum, loans to buy water pumps, and
counseling on crop and farm management.
Agricultural improvements have not erased food
import requirements, which are now at 14.1 million
tons (as of 2010). Food imports are expected to increase
by at least 2 million tons in each subsequent year. These
requirements reflect the needs of an ever-increasing
population, deceleration of crop yield improvements,
economic growth and increased consumption, and
greater consumption of non-vegetarian foods. Such
factors pose challenges to Indian agriculture that does
not make the best use of its land in terms of potential
productivity . Storage, packaging, and shipping to
avoid losses and disease are further issues to be
grappled with.
At the same time, India is an international exporter
of food but must continue to increase crop yields to feed
its own ever-growing population. However, there are
obstacles. How can India sustain increased yields? Will
there be an endless supply of ever-better HYV seeds?
Policies regarding the ownership and use of HYV seeds
have become a global issue. How far can biotechnology go?
Nearly 500 transgenic plants (human-made) were
developed in 1994-1995. Will these be available to Indian
farmers? Would Indians even want to eat these products?
(Think of the beautiful tomato developed to be machine
picked; it looks great but has no taste.) Who would
buy India' s exported food of a transgenic nature?
Several countries in Asia have already banned human-
engineered foods.
Bio-tech (BT) brinjal (eggplant or aubergine ) seeds
were introduced in 2010 by Mayco—an Indian hybrid-
seed company , and Monsanto—an American biotech
giant. BT brinjal is genetically modified with a soil
bacterium ( Bacillus thuringiensis ). This is purported to
cut insect damage in half and reduce fertilizer require-
ments by 80 percent. However, environmental groups
claim that cross-pollination could wipe out thousands
of indigenous brinjal varieties. India' s Environment
Minister has declared that BT brinjal will not be grown
until independent studies show that it would have no

impact on human health, the environment, or biodiver-
sity . Half of India' s states have now concurred with this
decision.

WOMEN AND THE WHITE REVOLUTION
Millions of rural Indian women work in agriculture, and
93 percent of them are involved in the country' s White
Revolution as its dairy industry undergoes transforma-
tion. Western planners introduced new techniques to
increase milk yields as they had improved crop yields.
The development plan, introduced in 1970, was called
Operation Flood (OF). India has more than 240 million
bovines including cattle and water buffalo. Here, 18 percent
of the world' s cattle stock produces only 6 percent of the
world' s milk. OF determined that India had too many
low-milk-yielding zebu cattle and that new breeds and
dairy processing plants should be introduced. The results
are mixed.
Urban dwellers now consume more milk, but rural
people often cannot afford higher prices and therefore
drink less. New cattle breeds require grain, and this
means less grain is available for human consumption.
Moreover, women who frequently tend and milk zebu
were deprived of this central role. Women traditionally
collect milk and make ghee (clarified butter), curds,
buttermilk, and cottage cheese, which they can sell.
Dairy processing plants deny women these activities.
Farmers take their milk to the factory , where it is reduced to
products for purchase by the urban elite. Thus, nutritional
sources are diverted from rural areas.
New breeds and cross-breeds are not always suited
to tropical or even subtropical environments and an
investment can be easily lost to disease and death. Dairy
cattle require high-quality feed and clean water—items
not available to millions of people. They more easily suc-
cumb to parasites. Further, milk cows are not well suited
as draft animals.
The sacred zebu is well suited to India' is environmen-
tal conditions. It does give some milk, but more impor-
tant, it provides dung for fertilizer and fuel, and it is
India' s main beast of burden. Further, it devours anything
from straw to newspapers (Figure 8-12).
The goal of getting more milk from an animal fails
to recognize the whole animal and its integral role in
traditional cultural complexes. Many scholars attack
this reductionist approach to development. While OF
claims to have “emancipated” millions of women, in
fact it has eliminated an important role and source of
income for them. Very few women are directly involved