Revision summary
Green Revolution technology raised yields and a commercial farmer class. Labour became more hired and mobile. Gains were regional and caste-land skewed. Later machines and seeds continue differentiation. Technology changes the farm; it does not by itself calm rural unrest.
Model answer
Copper italics in this answer — like this — are the key facts. Each one is unpacked in the Facts & figures rail.
Introduction
Agrarian technology in India has changed who grows what, who hires whom, and who captures surplus. The Green Revolution is the classic case; machines, seeds, and phones now extend that story.
Body
Green Revolution package
- HYV seeds, fertiliser, irrigation, and later tractors raised yields in Punjab, Haryana, and western Uttar Pradesh.
- A rich-peasant class thickened; labour became more hired and seasonal, recasting Thorner’s malik–kisan–mazdoor map.
- Dominant castes with land rode the technology; dryland and Adivasi tracts were left as another agrarian India.
Later technologies
- Tube wells, GM and hybrid seeds, and market apps change risk and information, but debt and procurement politics remain social facts.
- Mechanisation cuts some labour demand and feeds circular migration, which COVID reverse flows then revealed in reverse.
Sociological role
- Technology is not a neutral tool. It is a class and region sorter inside planned development.
- Unrest over prices and farm laws shows that technology without secure bargaining still leaves the countryside tense.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD T[HYV irrigation machines] --> Y[Yield surplus] Y --> RP[Rich peasant mechanisation] Y --> LAB[Hired migrant labour] REG[Irrigated vs dryland] --> UNEV[Uneven agrarian change]
Conclusion
Technology’s role in Indian agrarian change has been to raise surplus and differentiate classes and regions. It transformed the farm without equalising the village.
Quick related
Students also ask
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Point out the benefits of 'green chemistry' for agrarian transformation in India.
Next question on this syllabus topic (2020 · Q5(a)). View answer →
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Did technology end food shortage?
It raised grain in some regions. Nutrition and dryland poverty are not the same question.
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Is digital farming the next Green Revolution?
It may cut information gaps. Land and caste still decide who benefits.
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