Journal of Development Studies, Vol. 43, No.

2, 312339, February 2007

Evaluating 35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in Villages of Bulandshahr District, Western UP, North India
KATHLEEN BAKER* & SARAH JEWITT**
*Kings College London, London, UK, **University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Final version received July 2005

ABSTRACT This paper analyses the experiences of over 35 years of Green Revolution (GR) technology in villages of the Bulandshahr District, western UP. Fieldwork in three villages revealed that perceptions of GR were extremely positive because higher yields brought food security for all in the area, and nancial security for many. Indirect benets, such as urban development, have improved employment opportunities which have beneted even the poorest and rural electrication has transformed rural livelihoods, especially for women. Predictably, the benets of GR technology are not equally spread: the poorest are better o, but the gap between rich and poor is now greater than ever. As gently declining yields are paralleled by growing populations, farmers are interested in further increasing land productivity.

I. Introduction The introduction of Green Revolution technology by the US to countries of the South in the mid 1960s provoked extensive and erce debate in the international arena. Was it really possible for new high yielding varieties of wheat, rice and maize to end centuries of food insecurity? Did the dependence of these crops on costly inputs put them beyond the reach of the worlds poorest farmers, and were there other eects of the technology that outweighed the benets? Controversy on the impact of the Green Revolution (GR) continued for decades but today the literature is quieter on the subject, reecting instead more pressing contemporary concerns the Gene Revolution, for example (Atkins and Bowler, 2001). While academic debates may have moved on, the transfer of GR technology has been continuing, quietly, in many parts of the developing world, and now mature and well-adapted to new environments, it is central to agriculture in these areas. A reassessment of the longer-term eects of GR technology is thus timely and the aim of this paper is to evaluate the experience of 30 years of GR technology in villages of Bulandshahr District, Uttar Pradesh (UP), north India.
Correspondence Address: Kathleen Baker, Senior Lecturer in Geography, Department of Geography, Kings College London, Strand Campus, London WC2R 2LS, UK. Email: kathy.baker@kcl.ac.uk ISSN 0022-0388 Print/1743-9140 Online/07/020312-28 2007 Taylor & Francis DOI: 10.1080/00220380601125180

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 313 When India was struck by drought in 196566 approximately 12 million tonnes of wheat were produced in the country. By 196869, after the HYVs had been introduced, wheat production jumped to around 16 mn tonnes, and by the early 1980s it was double that of the mid 1960s (Swaminathan, 1996; Kapila and Kapila, 2002). Most of this spectacular increase came initially from a limited area, from the wheat growing lands of Punjab, Haryana and western UP where irrigation facilities were well established (Whitcombe, 1972). Since the 1960s Indias indigenous technological capability has been expanded (Kapila and Kapila, 2002), and HYVs and their derivatives are more widely grown (Farmer, 1986). Despite their sustained success in alleviating food shortages, the literature has often looked harshly on GR technology. Far from bringing about socioeconomic development, preliminary evidence suggested that GR technology was widening the gap between rich and poor. The earliest prognoses were most discouraging (Ladejinsky, 1969; Cleaver, 1972; Chakravarti, 1973; Pearse, 1980; Byres, 1981, 1983), but predictions frequently miss their mark (Glaeser, 1987; Shiva, 1991) and it now appears that some of the earliest forecasts were premature and to some extent, speculative (Hayami and Ruttan, 1985; Swaminathan, 1996; Morris and Byerlee, 1998; Atkins and Bowler, 2001). In spite of this, Farmers argument that the GR in India has increased inter-regional disparities in agricultural production and, as a consequence prosperity, cannot be ignored (Farmer, 1986). The GR has been of far greater benet in some areas than in others. Detailed follow up studies on the longer-term eects of the GR are relatively few, but two studies are noteworthy in this respect: the North Arcot Study (Harriss, 1991; Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991) and the study of East Laguna village in the Philippines (Hayami and Kikuchi, 2000). These suggest that many of the negative predictions dating back to the 1970s and 1980s have not been borne out; that GR technology may have been more benecial than was initially anticipated, that its eects have been more complex, and that isolating the socioeconomic and environmental impacts of GR technology has been complicated due to the simultaneous eects of a range of other location specic factors (Lipton and Longhurst, 1989; Hazell and Ramaswamy, 1991; Harriss, 1991; Morris and Byerlee, 1998; Hayami and Kikuchi, 2000). The aim of this paper is to contribute to the literature on the longer-term eects of the GR technology on rural communities by focusing on the experiences of three villages in Bulandshahr District, Western UP, North India (Figure 1). These formed part of a larger study conducted by Baker (1975) in six villages of the District in 1972, and Bakers study in its turn, was nested in a larger, District level survey conducted by Allan, also in 1972 (Allan, 1973). Located in the Ganga Jamuna doab (land between two rivers), this part of western UP with its alluvial soils is an area of vast agricultural potential and has been well supplied with canal irrigation since 1857 (Cautley, 1854; Atkinson, 1903; Whitcombe, 1972). As a consequence, the area was one of the earliest recipients of GR technology through the High Yielding Varieties Programme in 1966 (Swaminathan, 1996), and the 1972 studies revealed that within seven years of their introduction to the area, high yielding varieties of wheat had been widely adopted in Bulandshahr District, and high yielding maize and rice were growing in importance, though more slowly (Allan, 1973; Baker, 1975).

314 K. Baker & S. Jewitt

Figure 1. Location of study villages in Bulandshahr District, UP

Two of Bakers study villages, Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras, were revisited in 2001 as part of a pilot study to evaluate the longer-term impact of the Green Revolution in the District, and a third village, Chirchita, was visited in 2003 (Figure 1). Three villages not involved in the 1972 study were also visited in 2001 Nausana, Chola and Nai Basti to ensure that Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras were not signicantly dierent in terms of local livelihood patterns. Our aim is to extend the study to all six villages surveyed by Baker in 1972 to investigate the nature of change, and to evaluate, as far as is possible, the longer-term eects of Green Revolution technology on rural livelihoods. Our recent eldwork has focused on four groups of people: the rst three were landholders with large and medium sized holdings (dened below), small landholders and landless people. Women constituted the fourth group of our enquiry, but limited space in this paper does not allow us to explore the ways in which GR technology has aected their lives, as far as it can be disentangled from other factors. We thus conne ourselves to the eects of GR technology as far as they are discernible on large and medium, and small landholders, and on landless people. II. Field Methods in 1972 and in 2001/2003 The substance of this paper is based largely on three periods of eldwork; the rst in 1972, and more recently in 2001 and in 2003. In 1972 most of the information was derived from questionnaires to 196 farmers; from observation; from the collection of soil and crop cutting samples, and from secondary source material (Baker, 1975).

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 315 The data were collected in as rigorous a manner as possible, and where possible, were analysed with statistical tests. Although Baker was condent that the results of the eldwork in 1972 could have been replicated within the study area, were the study to have been repeated at that time, she found the approach far from satisfactory as there was little scope for farmer participation (other than providing answers to the questionnaires), once the pilot phase was complete. This was very much a study of its time. Partly because of Bakers frustration and disappointment with the eld methodology used in 1972, and partly because of developments in approaches to eldwork both in geography and in development, the post 2000 follow up study has chosen to adopt a much more informal approach which has encouraged greater interaction between researchers, farmers and research assistants than did the 1972 study. Reecting the success (particularly since the early 1980s) of agrarian ethnographies in revealing indigenous environmental knowledge in context and insider perspectives on agrarian change (Brokensha et al., 1980; Chambers, 1983; Richards, 1985; Breman, 1985), our aim post 2000 has been to use qualitative methods, particularly Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) to elucidate the dynamics of change in the eldwork area. Our choice of methodology was driven largely by our own, very positive experience of PRA in the eld (Jewitt, 2002a; Baker and Edmonds, 2004), echoed in a growing literature on the subject deriving from a range of dierent disciplines and interests (Chambers, 1994, 1997; Oakley, 1991; Hinton, 1996; Koopman, 1997; Goebel, 1998; Mahiri, 1998; Ira, 2001; World Bank, 2005). We have found PRA particularly benecial when participants become deeply involved in the questions being asked and take on a leading and advisory role in the research process. Although the following of such leads was not infallible, PRA allowed uncertainties to be challenged and disagreements to be aired in an open and relaxed manner. Such sessions proved to be very valuable for both revealing the unequal impacts agrarian change on dierent socioeconomic and gender groups and for helping to triangulate the information collected. Informal discussions with key informants and with groups of people in the villages proved a valuable introduction to the eldwork. Once we had begun to understand local perceptions of the current farming scene and of change through Green Revolution technology and other factors, a variety of participatory methods were employed and especially those which involved participants in producing diagrams, charts and ranked information. Secondary source information has also been used to supplement our primary data and to assist with triangulation. Critique of Field Methods In spite of the attractiveness of a study such as this with a longitudinal component, the authors are in no way blind to its shortcomings (Menard, 1991; Ruspini, 2000). The rst limitation was the decision by the authors to adopt a radically dierent approach to the eldwork post-2000 from 1972. As a consequence, the results and analysis take a very dierent form from the 1972 study which relied heavily on the statistical analysis of questionnaire data. In our more recent study, results can be analysed only with the aid of ranked information, diagrams and time lines, all of which have been carefully conrmed by triangulation. In the authors opinions, lack

316 K. Baker & S. Jewitt of precision in these data does not in the least diminish their value, quite the contrary; the reexive nature of the participatory approach gives the research added depth. Second, over a period of approximately 30 years one cannot compare like with like: India has changed; the situation in the study area has changed; the village people have changed (some 90 per cent of those interviewed in the study villages in 1972 are now dead); the experiences, objectives and approaches to eldwork by the researchers have changed, and as a consequence, precise methods of comparison are seldom possible. A third limitation is that life moves on and variables which are important now may never have been considered 30 years ago. For example, women played a relatively small role in managing the new technology in the 1960s but now they appear to be more involved. A fourth limitation concerns the use of participatory methods in village studies. While we remain strongly in favour of their use as a means of data collection, we did encounter some of the diculties faced by Mosse (1995) when attempting to use PRA with resource poor villagers. Conducting PRA with groups of Scheduled Caste villagers required much determination and persistence on our part; not because such villagers were unwilling to talk to us (although we obviously had to t in with their busy work schedules) but because senior members of village society were in constant attendance (possibly) inuencing their responses and urging us to move to other sites. Nevertheless, participatory methods were considered preferable by the researchers to many other methods of data collection. Participant observation would, perhaps, have yielded more detailed information but our time schedule did not permit this and questionnaires would not permit the rich discussions and enthusiastic mapping/ ranking sessions generated by PRA. In spite of the many inevitable limitations of the data, we are condent that were we to re-run the studies in all the villages we have visited, our ndings would be much the same. We thus feel justied in presenting them here. The paper proceeds by reviewing the main forms of material change in the villages based on qualitative observation by Baker. Changes in cropping patterns are then examined to reveal the continued importance of HYVs and having established that these are now even more important in farm production than they were in 1972, we seek to assess the relative impacts of GR technology on farmers with larger holdings, farmers with small holdings, and landless people, both men and women. First, however, observations of change. III. Qualitative Observations of Change First impressions of the villages by Baker after 30 years were of astonishing material improvement. Kurwal Banaras, some 5 km from the centre of Bulandshahr, the District capital, and Sabdalpur and Chirchita, each about 8 km from the same place were now much nearer the capital than they were 30 years ago. In 1972, it was a bumpy bicycle ride along katcha (unmade) roads to each of the study villages but now they are all linked to Bulandshahr by metalled roads. Vehicular trac is plentiful on all roads, and in the villages, but the formerly ubiquitous bullock cart, once invaluable for transport and traction on the farm is almost totally absent, replaced by the stronger bualo. Farm machinery is abundant whereas 30 years ago it was negligible. Houses are pukka and semi-pukka, brick built, more spacious than

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 317 the ancient huts of the past. The alleyways between the houses are mostly, though not yet entirely brick paved, built with a camber to ensure that rain and other waste water runs o into narrow drains on either side. These are a major improvement on former pathways which were a quagmire in the rainy season and dissected by ruts in the dry season. Unpleasant smells are also negligible. Open wells are rare and have been replaced by hand pumps in the majority of dwellings. Electricity cables, sagging inelegantly, reach almost every house; television aerials are numerous, and there was one satellite dish in each village. Flowering plants and shrubs in the compounds of some, though not all houses, reect care and attention. Gardens were more common in Kurwal than in Chirchita, which still retains a more traditional rural atmosphere. Standards of dress are everywhere much higher, very few people are dressed in torn and ill-tting clothes as they were 30 years ago, and it was gratifying that the eye infections and septic wounds so frequently evident on limbs in those days, were virtually absent. Many more people were wearing prescription spectacles and the quality of teeth, particularly those of people over 30 years of age looked better than in the past. All humanity, in all the villages seemed a great deal more healthy and better fed. First impressions after 30 years were most encouraging and although subsequent eldwork revealed that considerable dierentiation continued to exist within the villages, all socioeconomic groups insisted that conditions had improved for everybody. Table 1 is a qualitative assessment by Baker of visible change in Sabdalpur, Kurwal Banaras and Chirchita over the past 30 years. Discussions with everyone with whom we spoke, both men and women focused at some stage on changes in the quality of life over the past 30 years and those old enough to remember that far back conrmed the changes described. When asked to explain the reasons for such improvements, the answer was always the same: high yielding seeds, and particularly wheat, adopted in the 1960s had seen the threat of famine abate and subsequently, higher yields had led to increased wealth and development. This concurred exactly with Bakers ndings in the 1972 study (Baker, 1975). In addition to material changes, Baker had a strong impression that peoples attitudes and outlook had also changed since 1972. There was now much more evidence of technical progress and of participation in the modern world. Although the elders in the village still claimed and received the respect of the majority, there was nonetheless a feeling that the clear ordering of society along caste lines, so evident 30 years ago had perhaps lost a little of its rigidity. People from dierent castes sat together for the discussion groups more readily than they did 35 years ago, and women were prepared to speak to us now. In 1972 they were not much involved in the Green Revolution and had little to contribute to discussions on the subject. Today they were more educated and more vocal, but we had to ask specically to meet with them as men were always the rst to be involved in participatory discussions. It should be added that Bulandshahr, and neighbouring doab districts such as Meerut do not typify UP as a whole which is well below the national average for a range of well-being indicators, a reection of government inertia with regard to public provisioning (Dreze and Gazdar, 1996: 100). It is unlikely, however, that all the material improvements in the study villages can be attributed to GR technology. Many other factors directly and indirectly related to the GR have probably also contributed to positive change so, as in Hayami and

318 K. Baker & S. Jewitt

Table 1. Changes common to both Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras over a period of 30 years 1972 Population Quality of buildings Lanes/alleys in village between buildings Electricity Wells Domestic water supply Heavy machinery for land preparation and harvesting Draught energy High Almost all katcha Katcha, mud surface, frequently with standing water Absent Numerous Wells Limited 2001 Noticeably higher, particularly more children Almost all pukka with the worst semi-pukka, very few katcha Most pukka brick paths, aesthetically pleasing, less standing water Electricity since early 1980s None in evidence Hand pumps in approx. 70% of houses Plentiful within villages Animal power 2030% Electricity/diesel 6070% Accessible to most More common Much better quality, designer fashions evident 50 20 15 40% of households One per village Over the past 1520 years all children (girls and boys) had been to either government or private schools Many are elaborate and beautifully constructed, adorned by plants such as bougainvillea to enhance their appearance. Very few are as basic as in 1972

Animal power 80% Diesel 20% Machinery to aid processing Rare of agricultural produce: our mills/cha cutters Cars/pickups/motorbikes Rare Quality of dress Poor, mostly Indian style Evidence of wealth TVs Fridges Washing machines Use of LPG for cooking Telephones Education None None None None None Most were uneducated or had only attended primary school for a while Pleasant but simple

Appearance of dwellings

Source: Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2001).

Kikuchis study in the Philippines (2000), and as in Hazell and Ramasamys report on North Arcot, it is dicult to distinguish the eects of the GR from other factors on the livelihoods of local people (Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991). The same is undoubtedly true of western UP where the eects of GR technology cannot be isolated from a web of other interrelated factors: a sustained programme of research and development into agriculture alongside the GR (Kapila and Kapila, 2002) has enabled the latter to prosper in prime agricultural areas such as Bulandshahr, though not everywhere. In tandem with developments in crop technology, the physical and institutional infrastructure have been developed by the state government: rural electrication is now almost complete (personal communication, Agriculture School,

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 319 Bulandshahr, 2001) whereas in 1972 only one of the six study villages had access to electricity. Availability of irrigation water, fertiliser, insecticide and pesticide and farm machinery of all types have increased signicantly (Kapila and Kapila, 2002). Thirty years ago these were in short supply, limiting factors on the uptake and success of HYVs (Baker, 1975). The marketing structure is now more ecient than it was 30 years ago, and alongside plant breeding programmes, animal breeding has improved considerably (Kar, 2002). Government investment in agricultural development, to some extent, has been driven by the growing strength of the rural lobby. Following protests from the socalled new farmers movements of the late 1970s and 1980s against attempts by government to reduce subsidies on agricultural inputs, in particular fertiliser and fuel, central government has accepted that the inuence of the rural lobby cannot be ignored (Byres, 1981; Brass, 1995; Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). The Bhartiya Kisan Union (BKU) was active in western UP during the 1980s, and as Byres (1981: 49) observes, the dominant members of rural society ensured that the benets of the new agricultural technology were directed towards serving their own interests. This both supports views in the study villages that it was GR technology that has led to material success, and suggests that it was the strength of the farming lobby which played a signicant part in determining who the beneciaries of GR technology were. Land reform has been another factor that has brought benets to some. There have been several land reforms within UP, part of a wider Indian policy (Das, 2000), and land ceilings in UP have attempted to limit the accumulation of land by richer, larger land owners, at the expense of the poor (Das, 2000; Vyas, 2002). There has been some loss of land by some of the largest landholders (below), but the most signicant change is the increasing number of small landholders who are mainly from the poorest castes and classes. Providing land to the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and poorer classes in UP has been a focus of activity for the Bahujan Samaj Party, BSP, whose leader, Mayawati, is the only Dalit (SC) woman to have become chief minister of any Indian state thus far (Jerey and Lerche, 2000). She has introduced legislation directed at reducing caste based atrocities and discrimination, the result being that people have been empowered and have more of a sense of honour (Corbridge and Harriss, 2000; Jerey, 2002). A key issue for the Mayawati government is the Ambedkar village scheme launched in Uttar Pradesh during Ambedkar Centenary year in 199091. Under this scheme, one village in each Block with a high proportion of SCs is selected for special government assistance which includes reconstruction of the houses of the poorest, provision of sanitation, provision of paid labour to construct a better environment, and through land reform, some redistribution of land (Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). In recent years, liberalisation accompanying policies of economic stabilisation and structural adjustment has brought about further change in rural India (Byres, 1998). Some of the most signicant eects of structural adjustment have been the reduction of state control on marketing of crops, and the reduction of subsidies on agricultural inputs, in particular fertiliser and fuel. These are undoubtedly aecting socioeconomic development in rural areas and are independent of GR technology. Numerous factors have thus played a part in inuencing socioeconomic conditions over the past 30 years, nevertheless, when this was put to people in all three

320 K. Baker & S. Jewitt villages, both men and women insisted that most improvements were linked directly or indirectly to GR technology. For example, perceptions were that improvements to infrastructure, particularly rural electrication, had been introduced with irrigation of HYVs in mind; education had become more aordable as a result of prots from HYVs, and job opportunities in the District capital, Bulandshahr had increased, allegedly as a result of the prosperity brought by the HYVs. Jerey (2002) reached similar conclusions in Meerut regarding increased employment opportunities. Alongside the positive reactions to GR technology there was a widely expressed fear that livelihood security derived from HYVs could be threatened by the scourge of uncontrolled population growth. This, it was argued, was causing increased land fragmentation, and although the Green Revolution is allegedly scale neutral, though not resource neutral (Rao, 1975), the benets accruing to small farmers were fewer than to large farmers. This will be considered after we have explored the current cropping patterns to identify any major changes since 1972, and to gauge the importance of HYVs, over 35 years since their introduction to the area. IV. Changes in Cropping Patterns in Bulandshahrs Study Villages The farming year consists of two main seasons: the rabi or winter season (October April), and the kharif or summer monsoon season (JulyOctober). In 1972 wheat, mainly HYVs, dominated the rabi, while the kharif produced a wider variety of crops, including maize, rice, millet and lentils. Sugarcane, the growing period of which extends beyond a single season was also of signicance in the cropping pattern and was in evidence throughout the year. In addition to the two dominant seasons, farmers also took catch crops of melon, tobacco, onions, chillies, beans, gram and other short duration crops in the zaid, a short season (late March/early AprilJune/ July). The areal extent of zaid crops was limited both at a district level and in the study villages. Essentially, zaid crops gave avour and variety to the diet, they were not usually staples (Baker, 1975). The main change since 1972 has been that the irrigated area in both the rabi and kharif has been extended and so has the production of wheat, rice and sugarcane. This is due to the spread of rural electrication and to the increase in irrigation from boreholes. Tables 2 and 3 are based on changes in cropping patterns in two of the 1972 study villages which have been revisited, Chirchita and Sabdalpur. It has not been possible to include comparable data from the third village, Kurwal Banaras because some of these were found to be missing on our return. However, signicant changes evident in the tables for Chirchita and Sabdalpur are that in the rabi wheat production jumped between the mid 1960s and 1972, the time of the village studies. In Chirchita wheat increased from 20 to 72 per cent over the same period; in Sabdalpur comparable change was from 45 to 92 per cent, and in Kurwal Banaras, the area under wheat increased from 28 per cent to just over 75 per cent (Baker, 1975). Although there were no ocial statistics to show which varieties of wheat were grown, it was shown by Baker that the increased area under wheat was entirely devoted to HYVs and that this corresponded with a decline in deshi (traditional variety) cultivation. By 1972 only 16 per cent of the sample area of the study villages was sown with deshi and after 1982 deshi wheat was no longer grown in the District (personal communication, R. B. Yadav, 2001).

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 321

Table 2. Changes in cropping patterns in Chirchita village 196566* 197172* Per cent area sown Main Rabi crops Wheat Wheat another crop Barley Pulses Other crops Berseem (fodder) Total Main Kharif crops Rice Maize Millets (mainly jowar) Lentils Sugarcane Total 20 33 22 14 11 100 12 25 14 6 42 100 72 1 17 7 3 100 39 17 14 5 25 100 95 5 100 50 25 25 51 100 2003**

Sources: *Derived from Baker (1975), Figures 5.5 and 5.6; **Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2001, 2003).

Post-2000, eldwork conrmed that wheat still dominated the rabi in the study villages. However, discussions in each of the villages as to whether deshi (indigenous) wheat was grown at all provoked unexpected responses. In Kurwal Banaras farmers asserted that all varieties grown were deshi as they were all produced in India. When asked whether anyone grew ancient varieties which predated HYVs, the answer was rmly no, in all the villages visited. These included former study villages and others visited as a control, to conrm in the minds of the authors that the former study villages were not signicantly dierent for any reason. Some farmers remembered that deshi varieties had had an excellent avour in comparison with the HYVs when they were rst introduced, but the number of varieties currently in use gave farmers such a choice of characteristics that the deshi varieties to which we were referring had virtually been forgotten. Breeding programmes over the past 30 years have succeeded in widening the genetic base of the HYVs (Kerr and Kolavalli, 1999) and have produced a diverse array of varieties. From these, farmers now make their selection according to a whole range of criteria which include: yield capacity; length of maturation period; marketability; straw yield (related to length of stalk and of importance for fodder); resistance to pests and disease, and avour. With such indigenous developments in crop breeding, perhaps these ought to be referred to as modern varieties, MVs, rather than HYVs. In Chirchita the village pradhan (leader) conrmed that 95 per cent of the area currently sown in the rabi was under wheat and all of it HYVs. The picture was similar in Sabdalpur in that the area under wheat had increased since 1972, but informants in PRA discussion groups were keen to demonstrate that there was considerable variation between the cropping strategies of large, medium and small farmers. The denition of these was provided by farmers in both Sabdalpur and Chirchita and was as follows: small farmers cultivated less than three acres (1.22 ha);

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Table 3. Changes in cropping patterns of farmers with large, medium and smallholdings in Sabdalpur village 200103** Large Per cent Area sown Main rabi crops Sugarcane Wheat Wheat another crop Barley Berseem (fodder) Potatoes and others Oil seed mustard Pulses Other Total Main kharif crops Sugarcane Rice Millet (jowar for fodder) Maize Pulses Other Total 55 38 Wheat in scane ratoon 5 5 2 26 11 100 47 3 18 25 6 1 100 100 60 35 5 100 20 40 100 200103** Medium 200103** Small (area farmed)

196566*

197172*

45 8 10

92 4 4

20 (masoor) 20 100 55 40 2 3 100

100 100 100

100 35 4 21 35 3 2 100

Sources: *Baker (1975); **Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2001, 2003).

medium farmers 310 acres (1.224.01 ha) and larger farmers, 1018 acres (4.01 7.35 ha). 18 acres (7.35 ha) was the ceiling imposed by the state for irrigated land, but there were indications that some of the largest farmers were cultivating areas far in excess of this. In Sabdalpur large and medium farmers now sowed less than half their land with wheat, investing more heavily in sugarcane, a major cash crop (Table 3). For both large and medium farmers a combination of wheat and sugarcane occupied two-thirds to some 90 per cent of the land they cultivated during the rabi. By contrast, small farmers sowed all their land with wheat, most of which was consumed. Cash income for small farmers was largely obtained from selling their labour rather than their crops. A notable change evident in the tables is the decline in intercropped wheat, in pulses, and in the range of rabi crops. In none of the three villages was the crop diversity as great, nor was the spread of crops as even as it had been in 196566. Thus the advent of HYVs of wheat to the study villages suggest a contraction in the range of crops cultivated, and from the data collected in Sabdalpur, it was evident that small farmers had a narrower cropping base than their larger counterparts. This is of particular signicance as the majority of farmers have holdings of three acres and below.

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 323 The kharif also reects changes in both villages (Tables 2 and 3). Rice has increased in importance in each village and is sown to about half the cultivated area in Chirchita. If aggregated, the Sabdalpur statistics are similar, but broken down they reveal that larger farmers sow 35 per cent of their kharif elds to rice, medium farmers, 40 per cent, and small farmers, 100 per cent. Changes in the area sown with rice reect several factors: rst, the increased capacity for irrigation in both villages. This is also true of Kurwal Banaras. The second factor which is not entirely visible from the data is the relative importance of rice and maize. According to the farmers the dominance of rice is relatively recent, and stems from the release of Pusa Basmati. First released by the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in 1989, Pusa Basmati 1 is a conventional pure line variety developed from hybridisation and it was this strain that farmers were growing. Pusa Basmati 1 has now been superseded by Pusa Rice Hybrid-10 (RH-10) which has the capacity to yield up to seven tonnes of paddy per hectare, well in excess of the 44.5 tonne per ha capability of Pusa 1 (The Hindu Business Line, 2001). The potential for yields to increase further thus exists. Formerly, maize was more important in all six villages visited but global factors in the form of increasing international demand for Basmati-type rice, coupled with newly developed varieties has seen production soar. It is more protable to grow rice these days than maize. The relative importance of sugarcane and rice to the large and small farmers of Sabdalpur is also worth mentioning (Table 3). The larger farmers sow a higher proportion of their elds to sugarcane than to rice, though the absolute area under rice is usually greater than that sown by small farmers. However, small farmers grew virtually no cane at all post 2000, rice being sold and used for subsistence purposes. In Chirchita the picture was slightly dierent (Table 2). Here very few people at all grew sugarcane, the reason being that the cane factory took up to a year to pay for the harvest, so farmers preferred to grow and sell rice. The entire village had stopped growing cane in 1984. However, news that the cane factory was allegedly settling accounts more speedily these days had prompted a few farmers to experiment with sugarcane once more. Millet, or jowar is grown for animal feed, and here again, it was clear from the Sabdalpur data that larger, rather than smaller farmers were growing fodder crops. Overall, the diversity of crops grown in the kharif still exceeds that in the rabi, but diversity is lower than it was 30 years ago. More land is now sown to fewer crop types in both rabi and kharif. Farmers in all villages lamented the reduction in production of pulses, and particularly gram. Land formerly sown with pulses was now cultivated with either wheat, rice, maize or sugarcane and people noted a deterioration in the quality of their diet, and of their physical strength, with the loss of peas, beans and gram. Only a very small proportion of the cultivated area was now sown to these. V. Evaluating the Impact of 30 Years of Green Revolution Technology The 1972 study showed that the adoption and successful management of HYVs, particularly wheat, was very closely linked to caste and class (Baker, 1975). This bore some similarities to the work of Harriss (1982), who explained the structuring of society along caste lines in North Arcot. Not all farmers in Bakers study area were Hindu, some were Muslim and so the term class or social status is appropriate for

324 K. Baker & S. Jewitt non-Hindus. The eldwork from 1972 concluded that the earliest adopters were the highest caste/class, most inuential farmers, that it was they who had the best access to resources such as money, seed of good quality, fertiliser and irrigation water, and it was they who generally had access to the largest areas of farm land. While all castes did adopt the HYVs, nevertheless, it was access to resources which was critical in determining which were the lead groups. In Sabdalpur, Rajputs and Muslims were the rst to adopt. This is one of the few villages where, in 1972, there were Muslims of high social status, most of whom were large land holders. Poorer Muslim-Rajputs or Mewati Muslims1 (Ahmad, 2004) in Sabdalpur, and lower caste Hindus had also adopted HYVs of wheat, though slightly later, only a year or so after the largest, richest farmers. However, the area sown to HYVs by those slower to adopt was small, inevitably constrained by the size of their holdings. In Kurwal Banaras the pattern is similar. Rajputs were the innovators in the 1960s and well behind these were the Mewati Muslims and Chamars. The picture was similar in all the study villages (Baker, 1975). Although the statistics from dierent years cited in Tables 2 and 3 are not directly comparable, they highlight that HYVs are even more important in the study villages, particularly in the kharif, than they were in 1972. Following the virtual completion of rural electrication in the District there has been a vast increase in the number of electric tube wells and hence in the irrigated area of HYVs in both the rabi and kharif. The message given clearly by all to whom we spoke was that with the increase in food production, no one went to bed hungry any more, not even the poor, and that GR technology was the source of this security. The doubling and trebling of HYV yields compared with those of traditional deshi varieties were the main reasons for the adoption of HYVs of wheat in the 1960s and 1970s (Baker, 1975). Farmers spoke of wheat yields having increased steadily for around 15 years after the adoption of HYVs, but since the 1980s there was agreement within the discussion groups, and deep concern, that there had been no real improvement in yields. These ndings are conrmed in All-India statistics which have shown an increase in wheat yields from around 1100 kg per hectare in 196768, to 2,4002,500 kg per ha in the 1990s when the increase levelled o (Kapila and Kapila, 2002). Furthermore, where farmers were not able to obtain good seed, yields had declined, in some cases by as much as 10 per cent. Comparing responses obtained post 2000 with those from 1972 (Table 4), it would seem that there has been a signicant increase in yield over the past 30 years for farmers large and small. In 1972, the most progressive farmers, the top 15 per cent, harvested over 4,000 kg per hectare, whereas now the most progressive achieve yields nearer 5,000 kg per hectare. Average yields had also risen from around 3,400 to 4,000 kg per ha and even the lowest yields, at around 2,000 kg per hectare were now double what they were 30 years ago and in line with average yields of 3,600 kg per hectare for the state (Jagran Research Centre, 2002). Yields may have increased signicantly and food shortage is not the worry it was some 40 years ago, but as the GR was introduced into a situation of signicant socioeconomic inequalities, its benets have not been equally distributed. This was true 30 years ago (Baker, 1975) and it was our aim to see who were the main beneciaries of the technology and who were not. As a consequence, the eld work focused on three groups of people: rst, farmers with large and medium sized

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 325

Table 4. Comparing wheat and rice yields in 1972 and post-2000 1972 (kg/ha) Wheat yields Rice yields Progressive/large farmers Average yields Lowest yields Progressive/large farmers Average yields 4,0005,000 3,000 1,000 3,400 3,200 5,0006,000 4,000 2,000 5,000 (with soil improvement) 3,0003,800 200103

Sources: 1972 data derived from Baker (1975); 200103 data based on eldwork by Baker and Jewitt (2001, 2003).

holdings, over three acres; second, small farmers who cultivated less than three acres; third, landless people, both men and women. Although the 1972 study in Bulandshahr villages showed that higher caste, richer farmers had better access to resources and were more successful in cultivation of GR crops, it did not nd that anyone in the study area had been disadvantaged by GR technology (Baker, 1975). Our aim was therefore to discover who were large and who were small farmers. Were these the same castes/classes as farmers 30 years ago, or had they changed? And as the success of GR crops is much inuenced by access to resources, we then focused on access to two principal inputs, that of irrigation water and inorganic fertiliser for farmers cultivating large and small plots of land.

VI. Large and Small Farmers Access to Resources Holding Size and its Relationship with Caste, Class and Power If we begin by looking at access to land it is clear that the distribution of land is now more positively skewed than it was in 1972. In Sabdalpur, average plot sizes were threefour acres in 2001, approximately half the size of 30 years ago when the average size of holdings of the sample group of farmers was 8.74 acres (3.54 ha) (Baker, 1975). A similar picture of declining holding size was found at Kurwal Banaras, Chola, Nausana, Nai Basti, and is evident at national level. According to the National Sample Survey (cited in Vyas, 2002) over 60 per cent of Indias farmers were classied as marginal in 199293, and were cultivating 0.012.49 acres. The eld data revealed a similar picture. In all the villages visited over half the holdings were classied by the farmers as small, being less than three acres. In Sabdalpur and Kurwal Banaras the majority of households cultivated between 1.0 and 1.5 acres. This was also the case in Chirchita where PRA with a group of farmers involving the pradhan provided more detailed information regarding changes in holding size and the number of families involved in cultivation (Table 5). While it is almost certainly correct that holding size is now more positively skewed than it was 30 years ago, there is also evidence in certain villages, particularly where descendants of former zamindars are to be found, that some of the larger farmers had ways and means of avoiding the constraints of the land ceiling. Dreze

326 K. Baker & S. Jewitt

Table 5. Changes in number of families and holding size in Chirchita, 19722003 Holding size (acres) Total Landless 51 acre 12.5 2.65.0 45.0 acres 1972 No. of families 125 15 36 37 12 25/26 1972 (% total) 100 12 29 29 10 20 2003 No. of families 550 50 150 320 28 2 2003 (% total) 100 9 9 58 5 51

Source: Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2003).

and Gazdar (1996) assert that after Independence the UP government made inadequate attempts to put land ceilings into eect, and that as a consequence, there were more loopholes in the law in UP than in other states. These loopholes have enabled former landlords to retain holdings of a signicant size, though eldwork suggested that the prices paid in social favours to their village communities were considerable, in order that the true size of their land holdings remained undetected by the authorities. Returning to the Green Revolution, predictions in the 1970s that the rich would continue to get richer by buying up land from the poor, who could not aord essential inputs for their HYVs on a sustained basis, has not happened in UP, due largely to the 18 acre (7.35 ha) land ceiling established in 1996. At this time, farmers with more than 18 acres were obliged to surrender any excess, and a few farmers in the villages lost land through this scheme. Land which had been surrendered, together with all land designated as spare in the villages was distributed to the Scheduled Castes and disadvantaged people in keeping with the Indian Constitutions commitment to social and economic justice (Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). As a result, the numbers of dierent caste groups/classes who owned land had increased, and most of these were from among the poorest Hindus and Muslims. Table 6 shows the proportions of the major caste/class groups in Chirchita and Sabdalpur in 1972 and in 2003. The decline in the number of Rajputs and Jats is evident, as is the increasing proportion of lower castes and/or Muslims. Patterns of land ownership have changed signicantly since the 1972 study. At this time power in the study villages lay very clearly with Brahmins and Rajputs, higher caste Hindu farmers, and in some villages, with wealthier Muslims. These powerful farmers also had the largest land holdings. The eldwork revealed that over the past 30 years many of the dominant Hindus, particularly the Rajputs and Jats had sold their land after proting from the GR and moved to Bulandshahr or other urban areas. According to Jerey (2002: 213) working in nearby Meerut, fragmentation encouraged the Jats to seek o-farm income, especially salaried employment in the public sector. In the study villages former Rajput and Jat land had been acquired by Muslims and by the lower and Scheduled Castes such as the Jatavs and Balmiki or Chamars who are now numerically dominant among the Hindu farmers in Sabdalpur, Chirchita and Kurwal Banaras. The eldwork thus conrmed that there had been no increased concentration of land in the hands of the richest, nor that

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 327

Table 6. Changes in the proportion of dierent Hindu caste groups and Muslims in Sabdalpur and Chirchita villages over 30 years SABDALPUR 1972: based on recall by local farmers at that time (%) 50 CHIRCHITA 1972: based on recall by local farmers at that time (%) 5 5 (sold land and migrated to urban areas) 1520 10 (sold land and migrated to urban areas) 14

Caste Brahmin Rajput Jat

SABDALPUR 2001: based on PRA discussions (%)

CHIRCHITA 2003: based on PRA discussions (%) 51

Harijan/SC Including: Kore Gosai Jatav Dhobi Balmiki/ Chamars (sweepers) *MewatiMuslims/ MuslimRajputs Muslims (10) (7)

45 (details of all SCs not provided) (20) (1) (3)

30

(25) (1.5) (3.5) 51

(11) (1.5) (1.5) 5

30

50

50

70

Source: Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2003). Note: *See Endnote 1 regarding Mewati-Muslims/Muslim-Rajputs.

small landholders had suered signicant losses of land in any of the six villages visited. This is echoed by Hazell and Ramasamy (1991) and by Harriss (1991) in North Arcot, South India. In some cases in the study villages small parcels of land had been acquired by the poorer members of society through purchase; through government schemes which allocate land to the poorest and most disadvantaged, and through a combination of these. Our ndings thus contrast with those of Mukherjee (2002) who casts doubt on the extent to which the poorest can and do acquire land. Whether these smallest landholders are beneting from land ownership is debatable. Ray (2002) argues that agrarian reorganisation has not signicantly improved the socioeconomic conditions of the working farmer in India but in spite of this everyone wished to be a landowner and derived condence and pride from doing so. The relative position of large and small landholders and landless people is considered below. Post-2000, the number of landholders in the study villages had increased. 50 per cent of farming families in Sabdalpur are Muslim, and 50 per cent are Hindu, while

328 K. Baker & S. Jewitt in Chirchita 75 per cent are Muslim, including Mewati Muslims, and 25 per cent are Hindu (Table 6). This represents a signicant change from 1972. The most inuential members of both villages were still the wealthy Muslims and the few remaining Brahmin, Rajput and Jat families, and observation conrmed their dominant position. However, it was emphasised in both Sabdalpur and Chirchita that although Muslims were numerous, they did not necessarily command the greatest proportion of resources. Poorer Muslims (and poorer Hindus) rarely practised birth control and as a result their numbers were increasing rapidly, their holdings, frequently less than one acre were too small to support large families, and large families exacerbated land fragmentation. This was conrmed through participatory discussions with both rich and poor, although concern amongst wealthy villagers seemed to be rooted primarily in resentment over the recent redistribution of small land parcels from rich to poor households. Survival for the poorest Muslim families and for their Hindu counterparts, now depends on supplementing subsistence production with earnings from o-farm and non-farm employment by as many family members as possible. The proportion of landless was estimated at 30 to 40 per cent in each of the villages and although the Pradhans conrmed that the proportion of SCs (Hindus) among the landless had declined relative to Muslims, (due to preferences for large families amongst the latter), in absolute terms the numbers of both these groups had increased signicantly. It is worth mentioning that the proportion of SCs in the study villages was far higher than the proportion for India as a whole. Having shown that there are many more small farmers in the villages visited than medium and large farmers, we now examine resource accessibility by farmers with large and smallholdings. Availability of and Access to Irrigation Water An adequate supply of water is arguably the most critical of all inputs for HYVs and in the early days of GR technology, access to irrigation water was the principal constraint on the adoption of HYVs. However, availability of irrigation water has improved substantially since 1972 with the increased number of tube wells and some expansion of the canal system. Increasing pressure from the farmers lobby has contributed to this (Dreze and Gazdar, 1996; Corbridge and Harriss, 2000). It is dicult to demonstrate from ocial statistics the extent of this change over the past 30 years as the District boundary has changed. Part of the former Bulandshahr District has been lost to the newly formed Gautam Bodh Nagar District. Albeit not directly comparable, the statistics show that tube wells in the District now irrigate around a quarter of a million hectares (Jagran Research Centre, 2002), compared with about 150,000 hectares in a larger district area in 1971 (Bulletin of Agricultural Statistics for UP, cited in Baker, 1975). Thus the increased capacity for irrigation apparent in the study villages is also conrmed at district and state level, and reects heavy investment in increasing irrigation capacity, and particularly the utilisation of groundwater (Vaidyanathan, 1994). While the availability of irrigation water might have increased, the benets are far from evenly spread and, usually, irrigation water is more expensive for the poor than for the rich. Tube well water is more expensive than canal water in spite of the subsidy on electricity (Gulati and Sharma, 2002) and this is a major burden for

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 329 smaller farmers, especially where their land is distant from canals and where they have no option but to depend on tube well water for irrigation of their HVYs. The government does oer some help with the cost of tube well installation but if the initial subsidised tube well does not function properly for any reason, for example the bore has not been appropriately positioned, or the pump set has failed, the farmers are given no further help (personal communication, village Pradhans). Farmers who, for whatever reason, had access to neither canal water, nor owned a pump set, but had to depend on tube wells owned by other farmers were invariably the smallest, poorest farmers. Most of these applied less than optimal quantities of irrigation water. It was no surprise that they harvested lower yields than those who had access to their own pump sets and tube wells, or to canal water. Table 7 shows the comparative cost of water for those who had access to canals or owned their own tube wells, and those who did not. This was based on participatory discussions in Sabdalpur, Chirchita and Nai Basti, and the data speak for themselves. Access to and Use of Fertiliser In 1972, fertiliser and irrigation water were both in limited supply. Soil samples collected from the elds of farmers in the 1972 study were tested for their soil organic carbon content in order to assess the quantity of urea, calcium ammonium nitrate (CAN) or other fertilisers which should have been applied to the soil. At that time farmers did have the opportunity to send soil samples to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in Delhi, but few did so. The results collected by Baker from the study farmers elds showed that the soil was receiving, on average, 169 kg of urea/ha, far more than was recommended by the Government Package of Practices for wheat cultivation, but far less than local soil conditions warranted,

Table 7. Comparison of cost of irrigation from canal and from tube well in study villages Irrigation by canal Cost irrigations (any number) dependent on crop (Approx. cost of irrigating sugarcane and rice) (Approx. cost of irrigating jowar, pigeon pea and other pulses) Irrigation by tube well . For farmers owning a pump set: Cost of each irrigation Cost of six irrigations . For farmers not owning a pump set (usually smaller/poorer): Cost of purchasing each irrigation Cost of six irrigations . Therefore, extra paid by smaller/poorer farmers: Per irrigation Per six irrigation Relative cost of irrigating from tube well rather than canal (approx.) For larger farmers owning pump sets For smaller/poorer farmers not owning pump sets Source: Baker and Jewitt eldwork (2001, 2003). Rs 175350/acre (Rs 350/acre) (Rs 175/acre)

Rs 125/acre Rs 750/acre Rs 200/acre Rs 1200/acre Rs 75/acre Rs 450/acre 34 times costlier 46 times costlier

330 K. Baker & S. Jewitt according to the IARI. Of 196 farmers involved in the sample in 1972, only 28 per cent used adequate fertiliser, according to the prescriptions of the IARI, and these were higher caste farmers with larger farms (Baker, 1975). There are similarities with the situation today. Sabdalpur farmers with large and medium sized holdings, (over three acres) were applying urea at a rate of 100 125 kg/acre (approx. 250 kg/ha to 310 kg/ha), well above the recommended dose of 84 kg/acre (210 kg/ha). By comparison, small farmers with less than three acres of land, and many with less than one acre, mostly obtained fertiliser from their richer neighbours, usually in exchange for work, rather than from a source which guaranteed good quality of fertiliser. As a consequence, these small farmers had little choice but to accept whatever fertiliser was given to them by larger farmers. Most used only one type of fertiliser, NNP, regardless of whether or not it was appropriate for their soil. These farmers were applying only 7580 per cent of the quantity of NNP recommended by the current Government Package of Practices (personal communication, R. B. Yadav, 2001), and this almost certainly contributed to the relatively low yields they harvested in comparison with the larger farmers. These were the same farmers who were unable to apply sucient irrigation water to their crops. The use of excessive quantities of fertiliser by the larger and medium sized farmers signals one of the major problems currently facing agriculture in the area, and that is static and declining yields. Two of many possible explanations for this are rst, that soils may be becoming increasingly sodic, a condition which results in salt deposition at or near the surface as a result of high levels of moisture in the soil. This frequently occurs in canal irrigated areas, and particularly near the canals where seepage may be a problem. There is currently an extensive World Bank project in Uttar Pradesh involved in the improvement of sodic soils (World Bank Group, 2004), as it is usually these reclaimed soils which are distributed to new land owners who are predominantly among the lowest castes/classes. The authors experiences of such sodic soils suggested that these were not a major problem in the study villages. If anything, they are less of a problem now than in 1972 due to the development of a range of soil improvement techniques. A second, and more likely explanation for declining crop yields in the face of increasing inputs of inorganic fertiliser is the low level of soil micronutrients, which in turn may be related to low levels of soil organic matter (Gaur et al., 1984; Nambiar, 1994, Ghildyal et al., 2002). Farmers were quick to identify the inadequacy of soil organic matter as a cause of stagnant yields, but measurements taken in these villages in 1972, compared with recent results of soil analyses conducted by the Agricultural Development Oce in Bulandshahr reveal that the organic fraction which was approximately 0.7 per cent in 1972, remains much the same. However, increasing the organic input into the soil could well have positive eects on yield by increasing the micronutrient status and improving the soil structure. For one or two large farmers who invested in compost production, wheat yields were over 5,000 kg per ha, compared with the more usual 34,000 kg per ha or less (Table 4). Resolving the stagnation in crop yields in the face of a rapidly growing population thus represents a major challenge to farmers in the doab and in much of India in the future. There is scope for planting green manures and also for applying animal dung to the elds but at present, during the dry months virtually all dung produced in the

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 331 villages is mixed with cha by women, made into dung cakes, dried, and used as fuel. Any dung cakes surplus to household requirements are sold. This is an important source of income for many women and especially for those from families with small plots or of landless families. There is understandable reluctance to lose a viable source of income although the use of dung on the elds could lead to higher crop yields, income and sustainability of agriculture. The likelihood of food shortage is currently viewed as little more than a small, dark cloud on the horizon, but if yields continue to deteriorate, then pressure to divert organic matter to the soil will almost certainly increase to remedy the situation. The potential of organic manures is also important for another reason: fertiliser has been heavily subsidised in India, and despite attempts by new farmers movements to prevent the reduction of subsidies, dating back to the late 1970s and 1980s, liberalisation will require existing subsidies to be phased out. Almost certainly, the cost of fertiliser to the farmer will increase, and usage could fall. But this need not spell disaster. A reduction in the use of inorganic fertiliser, if coupled with organic manure could, in theory, increase crop yields as the organic inputs could remedy what are believed to be a decline in soil micronutrients. The benets of organic manures combined with limited quantities of inorganic fertiliser have been demonstrated in East Asia, and Taiwanese technical aid missions are currently promoting such methods in Africa (Baker and Edmonds, 2004). From the use of two key inputs of water and inorganic fertiliser, it is evident that small farmers are at a disadvantage in the production of HYVs compared with their larger counterparts. This dierence was also evident with regard to other variables: most small farmers were unable to aord seed of good quality and depended on larger farmers for their supplies. This they often paid for with their labour and had little control over the quality of seed they received, or the price they paid for it in terms of their time. Furthermore, rarely were these the newest and most high yielding varieties. Usually, small farmers were not perceived as credit worthy by banks, so had to pay high levels of interest to richer neighbours in the village in order to borrow money. Again, the means of repaying debts was through their labour, which frequently left them short of time on their own elds. For these and many other reasons, the gap between large and small farmers had widened over the past 30 years, though as we were frequently reminded, no one in the villages went hungry any more. VII. Investigating the Gap between Large and Small Farmers Further Population growth, not GR technology, emerged as the main factor explaining the widening income gap between the larger, richer farmers; smaller, poorer farmers, and the landless, though GR technology and particularly access to HYVs was the reason for the survival of those with the smallest plots. Participatory discussions with farmers with larger and smaller plots of land, and with landless people, resulted in Figure 2 which was drawn in the sand by one group of participants in Sabdalpur, and which evaluated changes in the proportion of village wealth owned by each group over the past 30 years. This proved to be a real example of local people taking over the stick with conviction (Chambers, 1994). The substance of the diagram was checked with several other groups and Figure 2

332 K. Baker & S. Jewitt conrmed our expectations that the proportion of wealth controlled by medium and larger farmers, cultivating over three acres of land, had increased relative to others, conrming the views of Byres (1981). In 1972 this group owned an estimated 4550 per cent of village wealth, compared with 75 per cent in 2001. Small farmers, those with holdings of less than three acres owned some 40 per cent of village wealth in 1972 but only about 20 per cent now. The fortunes of small farmers contrasted notably with the landless. They were still the poorest as a group but while they owned virtually nothing in 1972, allegedly, they now possessed 1015 per cent of the wealth of the village. While the position of the landless may look remarkably healthy from Figure 2, it must be stressed that these benets have been experienced by only a small proportion of a growing number of landless people. Most continue their existence in poverty. Considerable eort was made during the eldwork to conrm the information in this diagram and we were able to do this at Chirchita in 2003 where farmers produced a diagram which was remarkably similar. And yet, there was conicting information: everyone wanted land, even a tiny farm, despite the alleged declining

Figure 2. Estimated changes in wealth of large and medium farmers, small farmers and landless people. Source: Field work by the authors, 2001

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 333 nancial position of the smallest farmers. It is our intention to pursue this question further in future eldwork. VIII. Green Revolution Technology and the Landless Informal discussions were held with members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs), and also with landless families in all three villages. It was dicult to get close to the poorest, but we were particularly successful in conducting informal discussions and PRA with both men and women from the Balmiki in Chirchita. The Balmiki are a sweeper caste and are socially one of the lowest groups among the SCs. Initially, some of the participants were reluctant to talk to us but they became more relaxed with time. The men were much more prepared to talk than the women who were shy and inhibited at rst, but even their condence grew as they became involved in PRA sessions. Were it not for the persistence of our Indian agronomist partner, Dr R. B. Yadav, this element of the study might have been forsaken. The quality of life for the Balmiki is clearly poorer than that of other groups in the village, including other SC groups. They were shabbier in appearance, their clothing was poor; the children looked dirty, unkempt, and frequently wore the minimum of clothing; eye complaints and skin sores were more in evidence than elsewhere in the village and the general appearance of this group was reminiscent of village people 30 years ago. Most lived in katcha houses at present; few had their own hand pump for water and most used the communal government hand pump near their houses. But improvements are taking place: being an Ambedkar village pukka and semi-pukka houses are now being built for the SCs; mud paths to their houses are being paved with brick; the communal hand pump has replaced an open well quite recently, and rudimentary sanitation is being installed. In December 2003, 40 per cent of the work for the Ambedkar project has been completed in Chirchita and further eldwork a year later conrmed that progress was being made. But this is not to say that the environment of the Scheduled Castes was being raised to the same standards as higher caste people in the village. A marked dierence still existed, but advances were being made. With regard to material possessions among the group of around 25 Balmiki whom we met in Chirchita there was one television, four radios, everyone who worked in Bulandshahr owned a bicycle, and all families kept poultry and goats as most had little space for larger animals. None of the households possessed a sewing machine; none of the women could knit, sew or crochet, and no one had gas on which to cook. None of the Balmiki to whom we spoke, either men or women, had received formal education. Opportunities were available for the education of SC children, and for those parents who registered their children in full time education they were eligible for a subsidy of Rs 340 for each child placed in school, and a supplement of 34 kg of grain (personal communication, Chirchita pradhan, 2003). In spite of this, several Balmiki women chose not to send their children to school. Their relative material poverty in the village was glaringly apparent. Regardless of their poverty, all members of the Scheduled Castes to whom we spoke, including the Balmiki were emphatic that GR technology had beneted everyone, even the SCs. Increased agricultural production as a result of the HYVs

334 K. Baker & S. Jewitt had been followed by growth and prosperity, and increasing job opportunities, particularly in the District capital, Bulandshahr, which was easily accessible from the study villages. However, most of employment opportunities open to the Balmiki were for men who pulled cycle rickshaws, or who were sweepers and labourers in hotels, banks and oces. None of the Balmiki to whom we spoke were employed as agricultural labour in the village. The benets to be had from working in Bulandshahr were clearly greater. Those members of other SCs who were employed as agricultural labour in the villages conrmed that increased mechanisation had seen a decline in demand for labour for some tasks such as ploughing, but an increase in labour demand for tasks such as weeding and seed sorting. Village wage rates had also increased as a result of rising cost of urban wage labour and the brunt of this was mostly borne by the largest farmers who could aord hired labour. That HYVs have probably increased labour demand is the conclusion reached by Jerey (2002) in Meerut, Singh (1993) in North Bihar, and Harriss (1982, 1991) in North Arcot, though in the case of the latter this is largely because the use of tractors and mechanical threshers had not increased to the point where labour were displaced, and also because the area under HYVs of rice had increased. Opportunities for Balmiki women in Bulandshahr were fewer and most worked as sweepers and cleaners of latrines in Chirchita and the neighbouring villages. Traditionally, they would head load excrement from the households to the eld and they continued to do this although the government had banned head-loading of such material. Where households possessed a rudimentary cesspit or septic tank their task was made easier, but where there was none, they had no alternative but to head load the excrement. Some were outspoken in their loathing for this work, wishing that they could escape from rural drudgery as many of their employers had done. Each Balmiki woman acted as sweeper for approximately 10 houses. For this the rate of pay was currently 20 kg of wheat every six months, equivalent to approx. Rs 125 per 180 days, or less than Rs 1 per day. However, their wages had doubled in the past decade as the increased cost of labour in urban areas had pushed up rural wage rates. They used to be paid 10 kg of wheat every six months; half the current rate. Among other SC groups of higher status than the Balmiki, both men and women found employment in sugarcane processing factories, in the countless brick making plants and in the construction industry. Increased non-farm employment opportunities meant that the poorest could earn enough money, and no one was starving or short of food. Wage labour, we were told by landless women had risen from Rs 5 per day in the 1970s to Rs 30 per day in 1990 and Rs 60 per day now (without accounting for ination). These were well in advance of wages paid to Balmiki women who worked as sweepers in the villages. Living costs had risen as well, but all agreed to having more disposable income. In addition to paid employment, some landless women reared female bualo calves for sale to larger farmers. These they fed on weeds gathered from the elds and also on the residues from the sugarcane harvest. They were entitled to the latter as long as they harvested the cane for no cost to the owner. There is an irony about this as the cane producers are usually the largest, richest farmers. Some landless men were also involved in selling milk and keeping bualoes through the batai2 system.

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 335 This was not evident from the Balmikis material possessions but PRA revealed that much of the increased income was spent not on material goods, but on celebrations and festivals. To conclude this section, it would appear that the quality of life for SCs has improved because of increased employment opportunities in Bulandshahr and its environs. It is likely that the growth of agricultural productivity resulting from the introduction of HYVs has contributed to the growth of Bulandshahr, but other factors may also have played a part, not least the inclusion of the study villages in the Ambedkar scheme. Whatever the reasons, SCs are apparently better o than they were; the poorest among them, the Balmiki, claim to have enough not to be hungry, though their material assets are still meagre in comparison with those of their higher caste neighbours. IX. Conclusions The eldwork left the authors in no doubt that the material progress, so plain to see in the study villages over the past 30 years, had been set in train by the adoption of GR technology in the mid to late 1960s. HYVs had averted hunger and famine which was threatening at that time, and subsequent increases in crop yields, and the increase in the area under these crops had added to livelihood security. However, the benets from GR technology were not equally distributed and the research revealed a widening gap between rich and poor, even though the bottom line was encouragingly higher than it used to be. In 1972 the rich tended to cultivate the largest farms and to have access to a wide range of resources. Today, the same is true, but many of the larger, richer farmers, formerly Brahmins, Rajputs and some Jats, who had beneted from years of GR technology, had sold their farms, taken their prots and moved away to urban areas. Their land had not been absorbed by the remaining large farmers on account of the land ceiling. Instead, it had been acquired by lower caste Hindu farmers and by poorer Muslims who now dominated farming in terms of numbers in the study villages. As a consequence there had been a signicant change in the social structure of the villages since 1972. The landless had also beneted from GR technology: the growth of Bulandshahr had stimulated the non-farm economy and had seen demand for labour rise. As a consequence, employment opportunities for both men and women had increased, as had wage rates. Despite these positive changes many of the poorest castes/classes still lived in poverty, but it was asserted that no one went to bed hungry any more. The dozens of people to whom we spoke in the villages were unwavering in their view that advances in material well being had been driven by little other than the HYVs, accompanied by their input packages. Nevertheless, as in North Arcot, (Harriss, 1991; Hazell and Ramasamy, 1991) and in Laguna village in the Philippines (Hayami and Kikuchi, 2000), it was evident that many other factors ranging from local to global had reinforced the socioeconomic improvements triggered by the introduction of HYVs over 35 years ago. Two remaining points must be made: rst, these ndings are specic to the three study villages, and we can also claim them for the other villages visited within the vicinity of Bulandshahr. We cannot extend our conclusions beyond the

336 K. Baker & S. Jewitt study area, but it must be emphasised that for much of India, GR technology still remains inaccessible. The second point is that although we have focused on the benets of GR technology, the eldwork revealed an awareness among the farming communities of problems linked to the sustained use of the technology. These must be mentioned though space does not allow their discussion in full. We have already mentioned declining crop yields in the face of increasing inputs of fertiliser, a situation which could probably be reversed by careful soil management, not least by increasing the organic fraction (Sanchez, 1976; Beets, 1990). High also on the list of perceived negative eects of GR technology were increases in formerly unknown ailments such as stress, strokes, heart disease and mystery illnesses, particularly of children. These were attributed to the poisoning of water supplies by overuse of chemical fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides. More research is necessary, however, to establish the validity of such perceived links. Overall, the benets of the Green Revolution were perceived in all six villages to far outweigh any negative eects. There was, however, an awareness that continued population increase could threaten food security in the future as crop production had reached a plateau. Biotechnology could provide a solution to declining agricultural production, but if this approach still raises too many questions and concerns (Shiva, 2002), then an East Asian alternative which focuses on the abiotic rather than biotic components of the agroecosystem might be preferable. This would involve raising the level of soil organic matter, and hence fertility through heavy composting (Baker and Edmonds, 2004). Although laborious for the farmer, this would be feasible and could prove ecologically sound, cheap, and sustainable. It might also extend further the benets conferred by 35 years of GR technology. Acknowledegments The authors wish to acknowledge the signicant contribution made to the research by numerous people, and to thank them for their generous assistance and kindness. We particularly thank our research assistant, close associate and friend, Dr R. B. Yadav, Assistant Professor of Agronomy, Sri Vallab Bhai University, Meerut for so generously sharing his wealth of knowledge about the study area; for his good humour and his tireless commitment to the eldwork. Thanks are also due to the people in all the villages visited who participated so willingly in the eldwork. We would wish to thank especially the people of Sabdalpur, Chirchita and Kurwal Banaras for their time, their kindness and good humour and the warmth of their welcome after a gap of some 30 years. We are also indebted to Mr M. P. Singh, Deputy Director, Extension, The Agricultural School, Bulandshahr, for his generous help in the early stages of our work.

Notes
1. Muslim Rajputs, otherwise known as Mewati Muslims were descended from Meos, Rajput tribes living in Mewat, a Gantgetic plateau in northern India. These Meos converted to Islam in twelfth and thirteenth centuries. At that time they retained many of the socio-religious practices from their Hindu past. Many kept their old Hindu names, worshipped Hindu deities, celebrated Hindu festivals and

35 Years of Green Revolution Technology in India 337

based birth, marriage and death rituals on Hindu customs. Islamisation of Mewati Muslims was brought about by the teachings and work of Mawlana Ilyas in the Mewati region in the 1920s (Ahmad, 2004). Some still refer to themselves as Muslim-Rajputs or Mewati-Muslims. 2. Batai system: This is a form of partnership between rich and poor, in bualo ownership and maintenance. Bualoes are extremely valuable while lactating, but once the milk supply dwindles they can be costly to maintain. At this stage, poorer households owning bualoes may give their animals into the care of a wealthier farmer until the animals calve. When a calf is born, the poorer farmer pays a pre-agreed sum to the richer farmer who has fed the bualo for several months, and the poorer farmer takes the adult animal back as it is again lactating. The calf remains with the richer farmer. The system enables the poor to own productive animals and to shelve most of the cost of maintaining them in that part of the year when they are not productive.

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