Spatio-Temporal Analysis of Inorganic Farming and Organic Farming: A Comparative Case Study of Haryana and Maharashtra, India

Abstract

India is an agricultural nation. More than 70 per cent of India’s population is involved in agricultural activities. After Independence, India was facing the problem of food shortage, to feed up their large population. India adopted the Green Revolution technology in late 1960s to deal with the food crisis of the country. The adoption of High Yielding Varieties with heavy use of chemical fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides, use of machinery on a large scale and development of irrigation facilities, increased the agricultural production, mainly the crops of wheat and rice at a very fast rate in the states of North-Western India like Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh. The present paper basically explores the inter-state variation in agricultural techniques of two states of India, that is, Haryana and Maharashtra. The study is mainly based on secondary data that is collected from various governmental, quasi-governmental and non-governmental sources and we use the statistical techniques for computing this data. The state of Haryana is facing many agricultural as well as environmental problems like lowering and contamination of underground and surface water, land degradation, soil and air pollution, water logging due to the adoption of this new agricultural technology in post Green Revolution period. On the other hand, the state of Maharashtra is still adopting organic farming along with new agricultural technological advancement. The present study provides some solutions to overcome the adverse impacts of Green Revolution technology on agro-ecosystem.