In her address to the nation on the eve of Republic Day, President Mrs Pratibha Patil stressed on the need of second green revolution. She asked agro-scientists to come forward and usher one more green revolution. For last two years, eminent agro-scientist Dr MS Swaminathan too is stressing on the need of second green evolution. Current state of agriculture also supports his views, as production is almost stagnant for last many years. There are reports of farmers' suicides from all parts of the country. Agriculture infrastructure is crumbling. Contribution of agriculture in GDP has come down from 38% in 1975 to 19% in 2005; still 60% of the population is dependent on agriculture for its sustenance. Taking cue from Dr Swaminathan, political class is also clamouring for second green revolution. Government organized a special session of National Development Council and Prime Minister fixed the agriculture growth rate target at 4%.

This country believes in making grand announcements in hurry and forgetting them at leisure. Amidst this clamour for another green revolution, no one is willing to look at the results of original green revolution.

When original green revolution had happened it was presented as scientific farming through which farmers will mint gold. Socialist government of the day was gung ho about it. Everyone was made to believe that bad days of farmers will be over and country will not be dependent on foreigners for its need of farm produce. Things went smoothly for sometime and then they started going downhill. Today when we look at farmers and farming sector, we find that things have gone from bad to worse. Situation is out of control, not only for farmers but for government too. Will second green revolution be able to bring the desired change, where first failed?

When we look at original green revolution, we find that there was nothing scientific in it. Only pockets, with abundance of water due to newly constructed dams, benefited from it. There was no scientific management of resources. In the hurry to increase production, stress was only on exploitation of resources. No scientific knowledge was given to farmers. They were just asked to use high yield seeds and put more fertilizers and pesticides. Results of this practice were quick and bountiful. This was a model which was heavy on inputs and high on cost. Areas with natural resources were targeted as this model was water guzzling. Farmers of those areas were given high yield seeds. Since country had begun from very low base of productivity, progress was in leaps and bounds. This combination of lots of water chemical fertilizers and pesticides proved deadly. After sometime, soil started losing its natural fertility and to maintain the production levels, farmers had to use more fertilizers. Now a stage of diminishing returns has reached. Apart from rising cost, natural resources like water also started depleting. Now a stage has come where yesterday's fertile land is in danger of being converted into desert. Ground water has gone down to alarming depth. Due to uninformed and unbridled use of pesticides, pests have become resistant to them. Now more lethal and costly pesticides are needed to control them.

So called scientific farming of green revolution had no place of scientific management of resources. In many states soil has become so infertile that state governments are forced to give incentives of minimum assured return to farmers to change the crop cycle to increase the fertility of soil. Even after 60 years of independence, country doesn't have any water policy and agro scientists keep pushing the use of water guzzling variety of seeds. India is a country where large areas are still dependent on rains for farming. In such case the use of water intensive seeds is creating havoc. In our hurry to adopt this model of farming, we pushed aside our traditional ways of farming, which were no less scientific. Due to this reason we lost local variety of seeds which were most suited for local conditions of the area.

In the large area of country, fruits of this green revolution never reached as they were rain fed. Since they didn't have irrigation facilities, they were saved from this havoc. Scientists, however, did nothing to take science to these people. Seeds, which could suit to those conditions, were not developed. They were left to their destiny. Since the grain demand of the country was being met from small, irrigated and developed area, no one ever thought about the large but mainly rain fed area.

In this perspective, will Dr. Swami Nathan tell the crores of farmers of India about his plan of next green revolution? When he uses term "second green revolution", does he mean greater havoc than the first one? Instead of pushing for the second green revolution, why not he goes for the path correction of first revolution? What are his plans to correct the soil and water degeneration, brought by first revolution? When land holding of 60% households of rural India is less than one hectare, can this model of heavy input and high cost be successful? Can his model be successful in Indian social scene or it is still borrowed from some other country as was the case in first revolution? Will his model work out of his labs and beyond pilot projects? It is high time that polity of the country should sit with real farmers and bring as many revolutions as it wants. Those revolutions, however, should help farmers and public, not the selected groups of people.