Which of the following movements created regional disparities between large and small farmers in India?

Correct — B. The Green Revolution is the movement the stem describes.

It arrived in the mid-1960s as a package — high-yielding variety seeds, chemical fertiliser, pesticide and assured irrigation — and every part of that package cost money.

Farmers with large holdings, tubewells and access to credit could buy all of it. Small and marginal farmers could not, so yields and incomes rose fastest for them and in the areas already irrigated, chiefly Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.

Gains that were uneven both between farm sizes and between regions are exactly what option (b) names.

Why the others are wrong

• (a)
  Yellow revolution — The yellow revolution names the drive to raise oilseeds output. It is a commodity programme, not the seed-and-irrigation package that turned landholding size into an advantage.
• (c)
  Pink revolution — The pink revolution is used for the growth of India's meat and poultry processing sector. It concerns an agro-industry rather than foodgrain technology on the farm.
• (d)
  Blue revolution — The blue revolution covers fisheries and aquaculture. Its beneficiaries are fishing and fish-farming households, not irrigated wheat and rice growers.

The Green Revolution was India's answer to the food crisis of the mid-1960s: HYV seeds of wheat, and later of rice, backed by fertiliser, pesticide and irrigation.

Output rose sharply and dependence on imported foodgrain fell. The gains, though, followed the inputs.

Where canal or tubewell irrigation already existed, and where a farmer could finance seed and fertiliser, yields jumped.

Rainfed tracts and small holders were left behind, which is why the growth in foodgrains afterwards is described as disproportionate — the word SSC keys at 18 Sep 2024, 12:30, GA Q1.

Key facts

• The Green Revolution began in India in the mid-1960s with high-yielding variety seeds of wheat.
• Its gains were concentrated in irrigated north-western India, chiefly Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh.
• The input package needed irrigation, fertiliser and credit, which favoured larger landholders.
• Other colour codes: yellow for oilseeds, blue for fisheries, white for milk under Operation Flood.

Common traps

• Reading regional disparity as a geography clue and picking a revolution by its colour
• Mixing up the colour codes, especially yellow for oilseeds against pink

No directly related past PYQ was found.