Critically examine the key elements of Green Revolution in India, throwing lights on its impact on India's crops and cropping pattern.

Hint: Key Elements of Green Revolution are increase area under cultivation; HYV seeds, Chemical fertilizers; Irrigation facilities; Government subsidy and support prices; and a brave farmer who took the risk of adopting new technologies.
The green revolution brought a paradigm change in India’s cropping patterns as far as some food grains such as rice, wheat, maize, bajra are concerned. Earlier, a farmer used to go for only one crop as per monsoon season; but availability of inputs and irrigation allowed him to go for Double Cropping, that allowed him to produce surplus marketable crops instead of production that allowed only his own subsistence. Further, there was rise in production of commercial crops such as sugarcane, cotton, oilseeds, pulses also but that was too late and too insignificant in those days. Further, the rice-wheat cropping pattern became the key feature of agriculture in Indo-gangetic plain and slowly it degraded the soil health, depleted groundwater in this region. [155 words]

Topics: GS-III: Major Crops Cropping Patterns in Various Parts of India