High-yielding varieties

Also called: High-yielding variety seeds, HYV seeds, HYVs · Topic: Land Use, Farming Systems and Cropping Seasons in India · NCERT: Class 7, Ch 1 "The Story of Indian Farming"; Class 8, Ch 1 "Natural Resources and Their Use"; Class 12, Ch 3 "Land Resources and Agriculture"

Meaning

High-yielding varieties (HYVs) are crop varieties bred to give much more grain per hectare than traditional seeds, but only when they get enough water and fertiliser. In India, they were dwarf wheat from Mexico and rice (IR-8) from the Philippines. Both were available by the mid-1960s. HYVs were the main part of the Green Revolution, which turned India from a food-importing country into one that is self-reliant in food grains.

Explanation

How HYVs give more grain

• The problem with traditional wheat and rice: they have tall, thin stems.
• When farmers add a lot of fertiliser, the plant grows a taller stem rather than more grain.

• A heavy head of grain can make the stem fall over. This is called lodging, and the fallen crop is damaged.

• The dwarf solution: HYVs have a short, strong stem.

• The short stem holds a heavy head of grain without falling over.

• So the plant can take heavy fertiliser doses and turn them into grain instead of extra stem.

• Result: much more grain from each hectare of land.

The two original HYVs

Crop	Origin country	Institution	Key person / variety
Dwarf wheat	Mexico	CIMMYT (International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center)	Norman Borlaug
Rice	Philippines	IRRI (International Rice Research Institute, Los Baños)	IR-8 ("miracle rice")

• In India, M.S. Swaminathan worked with Borlaug to bring HYVs to Indian fields. He is called the architect of India's Green Revolution and was given the Bharat Ratna in 2024.

What HYVs need

• Assured irrigation: water must reach the field at the right time, every time, and not only when it rains.

• This is why HYVs worked only where there were canals or tube-wells.

• Heavy chemical fertiliser: without it, HYVs give little or no extra grain.

• Fertiliser use in India has risen about 15 times since the mid-1960s (NCERT).

• Protection from pests: HYVs are highly susceptible to pests, which means insects and diseases attack them easily.

• Farmers sprayed more pesticide to protect the crop.

• So pesticide use rose sharply.

• In short: an HYV seed is not enough by itself. It works only as part of a package of seed, fertiliser, irrigation and, later, farm machinery.

Why HYVs arrived when they did

• Partition (1947): about one-third of the irrigated land of undivided India went to Pakistan.
• Food output stagnated (stopped growing) in the late 1950s.
• The 1965 and 1966 droughts: two failed monsoons in a row led to food imports under PL-480, a US food-aid law.
• The package idea was already tested: IADP (1960-61) and IAAP (1964-65) had given selected districts credit, better seeds, fertiliser and extension (government workers who teach farmers new methods) at the same time.
• Result: HYVs fitted into this package and started the Green Revolution from the mid-1960s.

Where it occurs

• Where HYVs were bred:
• Mexico: dwarf wheat, at CIMMYT.

• Philippines: rice IR-8, at IRRI, Los Baños.

• Where HYVs were first used in India: the irrigated areas of:

• Punjab
• Haryana
• Western Uttar Pradesh
• Andhra Pradesh (the irrigated delta lands)

• Gujarat

• Crop bias: HYVs were first used mostly for wheat in the irrigated north-west.

• Rainfed areas were left out, and so were pulses, millets and rainfed rice.

• Later spread: after the 1970s, the technology slowly spread to eastern and central India and to rice.

• BGREI (Bringing Green Revolution to Eastern India) is a later push to take it east.

• Where the costs are now seen: Punjab.

• 115 of Punjab's 153 assessment units (75.16%) are over-exploited, which means more groundwater is pumped out than can be safely taken out (GWRA-2024) [3].
• The stage of groundwater extraction is 156.87% [3].
• Cancer clusters have been reported in the Malwa region, south of the Sutlej: Bathinda, Mansa, Faridkot and nearby districts. This is linked to the "cancer train" that runs from Bathinda to Bikaner.

Don't confuse with

• Green Revolution: this is the whole package (HYV seeds + chemical fertilisers + irrigation, and later machinery) and the big rise in food-grain output that came from it. HYVs are only one input in that package.
• Traditional (indigenous) seeds: these are tall local varieties that give less grain but can grow in rainfed fields with little fertiliser. HYVs give much more grain but need assured irrigation and heavy fertiliser.
• IADP (1960-61): this was a package programme of credit, better seeds, fertiliser and extension in chosen districts. It began before the HYV seeds arrived in the mid-1960s, so IADP is not an HYV programme.
• Genetically modified (GM) crops: these are made by putting a gene from another organism into a plant. The first HYVs were made by conventional plant breeding, which means crossing plants of the same crop.

Prelims Hooks

• Dwarf wheat came from Mexico (CIMMYT, Norman Borlaug). Rice IR-8 came from the Philippines (IRRI). A common trap swaps the two countries.
• Both HYVs were available in India by the mid-1960s. This was after IADP (1960-61) and IAAP (1964-65).
• HYVs need assured irrigation and heavy fertiliser, and they are highly susceptible to pests. "HYVs are drought-resistant" or "HYVs reduced pesticide use" are false statements.
• HYVs were first adopted in Punjab, Haryana, western UP, Andhra Pradesh and Gujarat. They did not start in eastern India (Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal).
• HYVs first helped wheat more than rice, and irrigated areas more than rainfed areas.
• M.S. Swaminathan, who brought HYVs to Indian fields with Borlaug, received the Bharat Ratna in 2024.

Mains Points

• Why HYVs were needed and what they achieved (GS-I/GS-III):
• Cause: Partition took away irrigated land, output stagnated in the late 1950s, and the 1965-66 droughts forced India to depend on PL-480 imports.

• Result: HYVs within the package approach made India self-reliant in food grains. Output reached a record 357.73 million tonnes in 2024-25 [2]. HYVs also boosted agro-input industries (fertiliser, pesticide, seed, tractor) and agro-processing industries (flour and rice mills).

• Regional disparity (GS-I):

• Cause: HYVs need assured irrigation, so only canal-fed or tube-well areas could use them.
• Result: Punjab and Haryana moved far ahead of rainfed, eastern and central India.

• Policy responses: the spread to the east and to rice after the 1970s, the rainfed-area focus of the 1980s, agro-climatic planning (1988) and BGREI.

• Environmental costs of HYV farming (GS-III):

• Soil impoverishment: growing wheat and rice on the same land year after year, with heavy fertiliser, uses up organic matter and micronutrients. Yields stop rising even when more fertiliser is added.
• Groundwater depletion: Punjab draws out 27.66 bcm against an extractable resource of 17.63 bcm (GWRA-2024) [3].
• Agrochemical contamination: in Punjab groundwater samples, nitrate was above 45 mg/L in 12.58% and uranium was above 30 ppb in 32.6% [3]. Pesticides also kill bees and other pollinators.
• Way forward: crop diversification away from paddy, micro-irrigation and balanced fertiliser use.

Related concepts

• Intensive Agricultural District Programme
• Green Revolution

Read more

• Agricultural development since 1947 and the Green Revolution