India is an agricultural country and 70% of its revenue comes from agriculture and related industries. Cotton occupies only 5% of the cultivated land, but 70% of this crop depends on pesticides. A lion’s share of the synthetic chemical fertilizers in the country is used by the farmers of Andhra Pradesh.
According to the central crop research institute in Dry land agriculture, after the green revolution, farmers began to use synthetic chemical fertilizers and pesticides in large doses to increase the productivity. In the decade beginning the profits from cotton began to fall and higher doses of Monochrotophos, Endosulphon, quinolphos, and other pesticides were applied. And next the pests had developed immunity towards the pesticides and more powerful pesticides had to be used which polluted the land water even more.
At this juncture, a multinational company, Monsanto, introduced new varieties of disease resistance seeds. These are a genetically modified variety of seeds. But if the seed companies acquire a grip on our agriculture, the farmers will have to spend and lose their rights on the seeds as well. Meanwhile, a few costlier pesticides like Avaunt, Trisar, Imida, and Chloride entered the market too. They were soon followed by fake seeds and pesticides.
The answer to this problem lies in educating he farmer about seeds and going back to the practice of setting aside seed grain from the harvest itself. Only then will the farmer’s suffering cease. The Andhra Pradesh Agriculture department is campaigning for this now.
Total transformation
Ancient India believed that the whole world was one family. The modern old believes that the whole world is one market.
The revolutionary changes information technology has made it possible for news, to be electrically transmitted from one corner of the world to another within seconds. In a matter of new hours, even people and goods can make trans-continental journeys. The natives of any country can now engage in business or operate from any other country.
Where production costs less, factories move in there. In this game to cut costs, environment is given the least importance. Polluting industries are shifting to new areas from places were people have become environmentally conscious and insist on implementation of environment statues
Globalization began when the development nations began to shift their waste producing tanneries, pharmaceuticals and dyeing industry to poorer, developing nations.
In the development nations, laws to control polluting are strict and they are implemented uncompromisingly. The industries are forced to spend more on reducing wastes, which turns to be quite expensive for the industry. So they shift to poorer countries to reduce these costs. In this context, there is increasing pressure that the importing goods must be form factories which meet environmental standards as the place o origin
Developed nations thus exploited he global natural resources and in the course of development, released pollution. Even now, they continue to realize the greenhouse gases such as methane and carbon dioxide and others like chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs), which destroy the ozone layer.
To repair the damage done to the environment, the Montreal protocol pressurizes nations all over the world ban the use of CFCs. The Kyoto Agreement addresses the problem of the greenhouse effect and calls for stopping of activities which release greenhouse gases.
The green revolution and its impact
The green revolution launched the use of synthetic chemical pesticides and insecticides on a large scale, causing unimaginable damage to the fertility of the soil and destroying the micro nutrients in it.
The hybrid variety of crops intended to boost productivity could not resist pests. Further, only a few varieties of seed were promoted. This led to the loss variety in seeds and crops. The excessive use of water that the green evolution promoted has led to the drying up of water sources.
The high yielding variety or genetically Modified (GM) seeds are unable o solve the problem of hunger that they were expected to address. On the contrary, they crated new health problems. The Blue revolution to increase fish and prawns further polluted freshwater sources with chemicals.
The advent of the call centers has increased incomes, but the effect of lack of food, promotion of fast food and insufficient sleep has begun to show up in obesity.
Globalization has erased the difference between night and day. Work hours have changed and commercial areas, restaurants and hospitals are all day and night, creating more waste. Smaller, nuclear families have greater challenges to meet.