1. Importance of agriculture can be measured by the share of agriculture in national income and employment pattern etc. Knowing the importance of agriculture, agriculture sector can be related with the industrial sector.

2. Share of Agriculture in National Income:

Agricultural share in India’s GDP was 14.02 per cent on 2010-11. India’s GDP shown robust growth (never less than 5 per cent since 1990-91) which shows that non-agricultural sectors (particularly to service sector) have grown at the expense of agriculture. This is a trend that takes place the fundamentals of the Indian economy closer to the developed economies.

3. Indian Agriculture and Pattern of Employment:

Very high proportion of working population in India is engaged in agriculture. According to India’s census figure, 66 per cent of India’s working population is engaged in agriculture. Where as in U.K. and U.S.A. 2 to 3 per cent, in France 7 per cent and in Australia 6 per cent of working population is engaged in agriculture.

4. Importance of Agriculture for Industrial Development:

Indian Agriculture has been source of supply of raw materials to our leading industry. Cotton, Jute, textile industry, Sugar, vanaspati and plantation depend upon agriculture directly.

5. There are many other industries which depend on agriculture in indirect manner. Many of our small and cottage industries, handloom, oil industry, rice mills and sugar mills depend upon agriculture for their raw materials. They account for 50 per cent of income generated in manufacturing sector in India.

6. However in recent years the importance of food processing industry is being recognised both for generation of income and employment opportunities.

The image on the right hand side showcases the major crops and their producers:

The term "Green Revolution" is a general one that is applied to successful agricultural experiments in many Third World countries. It is NOT specific to India. But it was most successful in India.

It is generally used to describe the spectacular increase that took place during 1968 and is continuing in the production of food-grains in India .

2. The components of Green Revolution are
(a) High yield variety seeds
(b) Irrigation
(c) Use of fertilisers
(d) Use of insecticide and pesticide
(e) Command area development programme
(f) Consolidation of holdings
(g) Land reforms
(h) Supply of agricultural credit
(i) Rural electrification
(j) Rural roads and marketing
(k) Farm mechanisation
(I) Agricultural universities

1. The world's worst recorded food disaster happened in 1943 in British-ruled India. Known as the Bengal Famine, an estimated four million people died of hunger that year alone in eastern India (that included today's Bangladesh).

2. The initial theory put forward to 'explain' that catastrophe was that there as an acute shortfall in food production in the area.

3. However, Indian economist Amartya Sen (recipient of the Nobel Prize for Economics, 1998) has established that while food shortage was a contributor to the problem, a more potent factor was the result of hysteria related to World War II which made food supply a low priority for the British rulers.

4. The hysteria was further exploited by Indian traders who hoarded food in order to sell at higher prices.

5. Nevertheless, when the British left India four years later in 1947, India continued to be haunted by memories of the Bengal Famine.

6. It was therefore natural that food security was a paramount item on free India's agenda. This awareness led, on one hand, to the Green Revolution in India and, on the other, legislative measures to ensure that businessmen would never again be able to hoard food for reasons of profit.

1. Continued expansion of farming areas

As mentioned above, the area of land under cultivation was being increased right from 1947. But this was not enough in meeting with rising demand. Other methods were required. Yet, the expansion of cultivable land also had to continue. So, the Green Revolution continued with this quantitative expansion of farmlands. However, this is NOT the most striking feature of the Revolution.

2. Double-cropping existing farmland

Double-cropping was a primary feature of the Green Revolution. Instead of one crop season per year, the decision was made to have two crop seasons per year. The one-season-per-year practice was based on the fact that there is only natural monsoon per year. This was correct. So, there had to be two "monsoons" per year. One would be the natural monsoon and the other an artificial 'monsoon.'

The artificial monsoon came in the form of huge irrigation facilities. Dams were built to arrest large volumes of natural monsoon water which were earlier being wasted. Simple irrigation techniques were also adopted.

3. Using seeds with superior genetics

This was the scientific aspect of the Green Revolution. The Indian Council for Agricultural Research (which was established by the British in 1929 but was not known to have done any significant research) was re-organized in 1965 and then again in 1973. It developed new strains of high yield value (HYV) seeds, mainly wheat and rice but also millet and corn. The most noteworthy HYV seed was the K68 variety for wheat. The credit for developing this strain goes to Dr. M.P. Singh who is also regarded as the hero of India's Green revolution.

(1) The Green Revolution resulted in a record grain output of 131 million tons in 1978-79. This established India as one of the world's biggest agricultural producers. No other country in the world which attempted the Green Revolution recorded such level of success. India also became an exporter of food grains around that time.

(2) Yield per unit of farmland improved by more than 30 per cent between 1947 (when India gained political independence) and 1979 when the Green Revolution was considered to have delivered its goods.

(3) The crop area under HYV varieties grew from seven per cent to 22 per cent of the total cultivated area during the 10 years of the Green Revolution. More than 70 per cent of the wheat crop area, 35 per cent of the rice crop area and 20 per cent of the millet and corn crop area, used the HYV seeds.

The Green Revolution created plenty of jobs not only for agricultural workers but also industrial workers by the creation of lateral facilities such as factories and hydro-electric power stations as explained above.

(1) India transformed itself from a starving nation to an exporter of food. This earned admiration for India in the comity of nations, especially in the Third World.

(2) The Green Revolution was one factor that made Mrs. Indira Gandhi (1917-84) and her party, the Indian National Congress, a very powerful political force in India (it would however be wrong to say that it was the only reason).