High Yielding Varieties Definition
Crops that have been bred or fertilized and can be produced by genetic modifications to increase the production rate are known as High Yielding Varieties. In 1966, the high-yielding programme was launched in some areas of India for the first time during the Kharif season of that year. These crops are resistant to any diseases or insects which can affect the normal variety of crops. Therefore, they offer improved quality and productivity to the farmers. Generally, they are also resistant to drought and floods, enhancing their building capacity.
The most important High Yielding Varieties (HYVs) are in wheat, corn, soybean, rice, potato, and cotton. They are heavily used in commercial and plantation farms. HYVs became popular in the 1960s and played an important role in the Green Revolution, although their ancestral roots can be older.
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Evolution of the High Yielding Varieties of Crops
Intercropping is a method of crop production which ensures high-yield crops. It is a practice of growing two or more crops simultaneously in the same field in rows. When the effect of industrialisation and globalization spread in India, more and more people from the rural areas of India went to the urban areas to look for improved employment opportunities. This was also supported by the fact that as technology in the agriculture sector improved because of globalization and industrialisation, fewer people were required to obtain the same amount of efficiency in the agricultural fields.
However, when the lead was felt to enhance the agricultural productivity of India to reduce the import dependence on nations like the USA for crystal grains, the government of India emphasized initiatives like the Green Revolution. The efforts of various state governments like Punjab also supported this. In this endeavor, Institutions like GB Pant Agricultural University of Pantnagar, Indian Council of Agricultural Research and Punjab Agricultural University associated in Ludhiana also give their efforts to enhance the productivity of the crops by enhancing their building capacity. Therefore, based on the combined efforts of various stakeholders, a High Yielding Varieties of crops were introduced in India, which had better resistance to insecticides and natural disasters like floods and droughts. This automatically increases the productivity of these high-yielding crop types, increasing India’s grain production capacity and raising farmers’ per capita income.
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