GREEN REVOLUTION

& LAND REFORMS

Lecture: 4

Hamna Ahmed

Readings

1.

2.

Chp: 3 - The Green Revolution & Land

Reforms, Issues in Pakistan Economy, S.
Akbar Zaidi
Chp: 11 - Green Revolution, Contemporary
Economic Issues in Pakistan, Muhammad
Aslam

Background

Objective:

To study two important events; Green

Revolution and Land Reforms which resulted in
the transformation of the agricultural sector

Green Revolution:

Refers to the phenomenon of the spectacular

rise in agricultural production (particularly the
production of wheat and rice in the late 60s and
early 70s) as a result of the introduction of
HYVs

Green Revolution

Green Revolution

Dismal performance of agriculture in the

formative years; 1949-58

Average annual growth rate was 1.43%,

less than half of the population growth rate.

Marked change in performance during

60s.

Green Revolution

Decade of 60s: Spectacular growth in

agriculture took place in two phases:

FY60-FY64: Average annual grow rate: 3.7%

Main

cause: Increase in irrigation facilities,

mainly tube-wells
B/w FY61 and FY65; 25000 new tube-wells were
installed.
Farm area serviced by tube-wells doubled

Green Revolution

FY1965 to FY 70: Average annual growth rate

was 6.3%
Main
1.
2.
3.

cause: irrigation was supplemented with:

HYV seeds for wheat and rice

Chemical fertilizers
Pesticides

Green revolution was at its peak between

FY67-FY68.

Overall: Most important ingredient of the

Green Revolutions technology package was
availability of water, as and when required.

Green Revolution

HYV Seeds for Wheat:

International Wheat and Maize Improvement

Center established in Mexico in 1943
Developed the dwarf high yielding variety of
wheat, which tripled Mexican wheat production
between 1944 and 1967
Wheat acreage under HYVs, in UDCs, increased
from 10,000 hectares in 1965 to over 17 million in
1973.
Provided impetus for adoption of HYVs in food
deficit countries (e.g. India, Pakistan, Turkey etc.)
Mexi-Pak wheat seed experimented and
reproduced across large areas.

Green Revolution

HYV Seeds for Rice:

International Rice Research Institute (IRRI)

founded in Philippines in 1962.
Lester Brown discovered the high yielding
miracle dwarf variety of rice, known as IRRI6
Rice acreage under the HYV, in UDCs,
increased from 49,000 hectares in 1965 to
16 million in 1973

Green Revolution in
Pakistan

Green revolution a resounding success as far

as production, growth and output are
concerned;
Wheat production increased by 91% b/w
1960-70
Rice production increased by 141% over the
same period.
Production of other crops- not related to HYV
seeds also increased because of non-seed
factors in the technology package.

The Green Revolution in

Pakistan

The First Plan: accorded low priority to

agriculture

2nd Plan: agricultural development accorded

a higher priority
1960 65: all important food and cash crops
(wheat, rice, cotton, sugarcane) recorded
meaningful productivity gains

1965 70 shows phenomenal growth rates:

food grains: 18% p.a.

Cotton: 6%
Sugarcane: 8%

The Green Revolution in Pakistan

The idea of capitalist farming gains

popularity: farmers become receptive to
price changes and to the improved seedfertilizer-water technology package

Rural activity increased, resulting in an

unprecedented surge of prosperity

Factors behind the Revolution

Prime vehicles of change:
the massive switch over to HYVs

Consumption of fertilizers: three fold increase from

111.8 thousand tonnes to 381.9 thousand tonnes
(1967 72)

Area covered by plant protection: 1.7 million spray

acres to 4.14 million (1967 72)

Tubewells: 58% increase in the area irrigated over

the same time span

Tractors: 13,764 in 1968 to 27,329 in 1975.

Factors behind the Revolution

Agricultural Price Policy:

Heavy subsidies given on tractors, tube wells,

pesticides and fertilizers: low input policy
High output price policy for food and cash crops
to correct the balance in favor of the agricultural
sector: support prices raised substantially

Increased credit availability

Five fold increase in credit disbursement by ADBP

Commercial banks also start lending more

Impact of the Green

Revolution
1.

2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.

Increase in productivity and avoidance of

economic stagnation
An alternative to Land Reforms
Direct and Indirect Employment Benefits
Impact on Income distribution
Impact on Regional Disparities
Employment displacing impact
Effect on peoples diet and nutrition
Effect on nature.

Increase in productivity

Increases in productivity in various food crops,

which helped overcome food crisis in many
developing countries

Averted possible famines and large-scale

starvation in Asia and Africa

Increased marketable surplus, which was used

to meet the increasing demands of urban
consumers => avoided economic stagnation

An alternative to Land
Reforms

Apart from the revolution, land reforms

was the only other way to increase
production and reduce rural poverty

Western interests: increased profits of

multi-nationals who were doing business
in agricultural inputs

Direct and Indirect Employment

Benefits

Created more jobs for agricultural laborers

Real wages of permanent and casual agricultural labor

increased by 2.6% and 2.8% p.a. respectively from 1966
73.

Reduced underemployment by providing more

employment to village artisans such as carpenters,
blacksmiths, potters etc.

Indirect benefits extended to non-rural groups:

increased demand of consumption and investment
goods by farmers, which are produced in the urban
industrial sector.

Impact on Income
distribution

Negative influence on income distribution

The success of HYVs depended on optimal and
simultaneous use of fertilizers, water and
pesticides
Small farmers did not have resources to
purchase these inputs.
Large farmers had easier access to credit, canal
water supplies and other extension services
1968: only about 4% of the total tube wells were
installed by small farmers (13 acres of land),
while 70% were owned by farmers possessing
more than 25 acres.

Impact on Regional
Disparities

The areas selected for experimentation were the

most fertile, most optimally irrigated and most
prosperous.

Since new technologies were concentrated in

affluent areas, regional disparities were
aggravated

Pakistan: Baluchistan and NWFP failed to reap the

benefits of modern inputs

Burki: it was the farmers who owned b/w 50 and

100 acres of land, almost all of them in the Punjab,
who produced Pakistans Green Revolution

Employment Displacing
Effect

Greater mechanization of the agricultural

process => employment displacing

Partly neutralized the employment

generating effect

WB-ADBP report: the introduction of a new

tractor on average displaced 10 manual
workers => 60,000 job lost during 1968
72.

Tubewells

Most important ingredient in the

technology package was water since the
HYV seeds and fertilizer package were
critically dependant on it

Tubewells increased from few hundred in

1960 to 75,000 in 1968 and 156,000 in
1975.

Tubewells
Issues:
High concentration in rich districts with
91% in 1968 in Punjab

Caused interregional disparities to grow

Given size and cost, mainly installed by

landowners with over 25 acrs of land

Depended on ability to borrow money

Tractorization
Encouraged by:
The provision of cheap credit (though ADBP)
Overvalued exchange rate made tractors cheap
Increased productivity

As a result tractors increased from 2,000 in

1959 to 18,909 in 1968
58% in Lahore, Multan and Bhawalpur districts
Close link between tubewell and tractor
ownership 75%

1973 77: Green Rev runs out of

Steam

Causes:

Deterioration in the quality of seed due to non-rotation

of the seed over different regions

Defective pattern of adoption: farmers were

handicapped due to financial and management
constraints

Water requirement of the new technology not fully met

Water-logging and salinity in the Punjab

Background

Land Reforms:

Important mechanism for changing

ownership and wealth patterns.
Implies a redistribution of land away from
large landholders to those who are often
landless.
Two sets of land reforms have occurred in
Pakistan.

Land Reforms

A long history of land reform attempts.

Reason for failure:

Landlords was the most significant class in

the Muslim League
50%

of councilmen in Punjab were large

landlords
60% of councilmen in Sind were large
landlords.

Land Reforms - 1959

Put ceilings on landholdings

Small amount of land handed over; Moreover
most was uncultivated land
Important feature: resumed land to be sold to
landless tenants
Loopholes: intra-family and intra-households
transfers allowed.
Effects:

Burki: precursor to the dynamic middle-class

farmer
Alavi: maintained hold of the landlord

Land Reforms - 1972

Ceilings further lowered

Small amount of land handed over;
Moreover most was uncultivated land
Important feature: land resumed would
not receive any compensation and land
to be given free to landless tenants
Only 1% of landless benefited from the
reforms

Land Reforms

Highly skewed land ownership is the single most retarding

factor in agriculture

Land ownership structure has not changed despite land

reforms of 59 and 72

Land reforms largely neutralized due to transfer of land in

favor of relatives, b/c ceilings were fixed per person
rather than per family

Land surrendered was largely fallow and barren

Additional land reforms do not seem politically possible at

the moment