RAS question
The 'Green Revolution' in agriculture is primarily associated with the development of which type of seeds?
Correct answer: (B) High-Yielding Variety (HYV) seeds.
The Green Revolution in agriculture is primarily associated with High-Yielding Variety seeds, especially high-yielding wheat and rice varieties.
Explanation
The Green Revolution of the 1960s-70s was driven by the development and wide adoption of High-Yielding Variety seeds. The NCERT source describes the Green Revolution of the mid-1960s as a technology that increased output from the field and introduced high-yielding wheat and rice varieties to Indian agriculture. This matches the standard explanation: semi-dwarf wheat developed by Norman Borlaug in Mexico and the Indian effort led by M.S. Swaminathan made HYV seeds central to the production breakthrough. The key idea is not merely a new farming label, but seed technology that could deliver much higher yields when supported by inputs such as irrigation and fertilisers.
Why the other options are wrong
- (A) GM seeds belong to the later biotechnology phase of the 1990s-2000s, whereas the Green Revolution discussed here was centred on HYV wheat and rice seeds in the 1960s-70s.
- (C) The Green Revolution's HYV package needed more assured irrigation and fertilisers, so seeds requiring no irrigation misstate the technology.
- (D) Organic open-pollinated seeds describe traditional pre-Green Revolution seed use, while the Green Revolution specifically depended on a shift to high-yielding varieties.
Concept
This tests the agricultural geography concept of technological change in farming, especially how seed varieties shaped productivity. It recurs in RAS because the Green Revolution links crops, inputs, regional agricultural change and India's food-security story.