Revision summary
Green chemistry cuts hazard in the design of farm chemicals. It can reduce poisoning, residue and water pollution. Labourers who spray gain if toxicity falls. Export and soil quality can thicken a healthier commercial agriculture. Without access for smallholders it becomes a rich-peasant brand.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Green chemistry designs chemicals and processes that cut hazard at source. For Indian agrarian transformation it promises safer fields, soils, and exportable harvests, not only a new brand of pesticide.
Body
Benefits on the field
- Safer synthesis of inputs can lower residue and farmer poisoning in Green Revolution belts where chemical intensity is already high.
- Bio-based solvents, better catalysts, and targeted molecules can mean less runoff into canals and village wells.
- Soil microbes and pollinators survive better than under a blanket spray, which matters for long-run yield, not only for this season’s quintal.
Agrarian class and health
- Mazdoors who mix and spray, often Dalit and landless, gain most if toxicity falls. A. R. Desai’s labour question is a chemical question too.
- Women’s weeding and storage work meets fewer residues in the household grain.
Transformation, not a slogan
- Green chemistry supports diversification and quality standards that mandis and exports now demand.
- It fails as transformation if only rich peasants buy patented ‘green’ packets while smallholders stay on cheap hazardous stock.
- It should sit with MSP, extension, and water, not replace land reform.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD GC[Green chemistry] --> S[Safer inputs less residue] S --> H[Farmer labour health] S --> T[Quality soil transformation] CL[Class access] --> T
Conclusion
Green chemistry benefits agrarian transformation by cutting poison, protecting soil, and raising produce quality. The social benefit is real only if labourers and smallholders get the safer toolkit, not merely a premium market for the already commercial farmer.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Do you think MSP (Minimum Support Price) Scheme for ag can help in rural development? Elaborate your response with suitable examples.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q6(b)). View answer →
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Is organic farming the same as green chemistry?
Organic is a farming system. Green chemistry is a design of safer molecules and processes that can also serve integrated farming.
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Will it raise costs?
It can. Public extension and cooperatives decide whether transformation is inclusive.
Same topic · past papers
UPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2022 · Q4(b) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Explain how land reforms brought about desired agrarian transformation. -
2020 · Q8(c) · Sociology GS 2 · 15 marks
Point out the main causes of child labour' in India. How far the State policies have succeeded in its elimination?
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