Introduction

• GR refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives, occurring between the 1940s and the late 1970s.
• It increased agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.
• The initiatives, led by Dr. Norman E Borlaug, the “Father of the Green Revolution” credited with saving over a billion people from starvation, involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to the farmers.

• The term “Green Revolution” was first used in 1968 by former United States Agency for International Development (USAID) director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies.
• Development of modern plant breeding program, improved production technologies and the development of inorganic fertilizers and modern pesticides industries fueled these advances.
• Scientists were starting to develop plants that were more responsive to plant nutrients and that had shorter, stiffer straw to support the weight of heavier panicles to get higher yield.
• They also started to develop short duration and photo period insensitive varieties that can mature early and grow at any time of the year, thereby permitting to increase crop intensification.
• In 1960, the Government of Philippines with Ford and Rockefeller Foundations established International Rice Research Institute (IRRI).
• First a rice crossing between Dee-Geo-woo-gen   (Chinese      )  and Peta (Indonesian var.) was done at IRRI in 1962.
• In 1966, one of the breeding lines a semi-dwarf rice cultivar IR-8 developed as a first best cultivar.
• IR-8 had potentiality higher yield compared to other traditional varieties using high number of fertilizers, irrigation and pesticides.
• According to S.K. De Datta, 1968 findings that IR-8 rice yielded about 5 tons ha-1 with no fertilizer, and almost 10 tons ha-1 under optimal conditions. It was 10 times higher yield than traditional rice varieties.
• IR-8 was a success throughout Asia, and dubbed the “Miracle Rice”.
• In the 1970s, rice cost was about 550 US$ per ton where as in 2001, the cost was reduced to 200 $ per ton. At this period, India became one of the world’s most successful rice producers, and a major rice exporter.
• Similar achievements were made for wheat after Norman Borlaug (Nobel Laureate in 1970) crossed Japanese semi-dwarf wheat cultivar (Norin 10) at International Center for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT) in Mexico which was instrumental in developing Green Revolution wheat cultivars.