A common sentiment in air these days is that the green revolution has turned out more a bane than a boon. The failure of current agriculture and increase in use of pesticides and chemicals by farmers is largely attributed to the green revolution.

Recently at the 5^th National Organic convention, a similar sentiment ruled. A book was distributed to all delegates on this topic of “Green Revolution: Was it really green?”.

Is it really so that a villain named “Green Revolution” is responsible for all the problems ? Or Are we shifting the blame from our farmers and leaders to an imaginary phenomenon?

A lot of thrust is being given now to “New Organic Revolution”. Organic farming is being promoted by all kinds of activists and leaders. It is seen as a panacea for most of our issues related to food, agriculture, health and economy.

It’ll make sense, to pause for a while and make sure that we are not repeating the mistake. To make sure that 40 years hence, people are not distributing books on “Organic Revolution: Was it really Organic? ”

Frankly, we are not addressing the key issues in agriculture. What is the core problem? Is it really excessive use of chemicals? or Is it the greed behind it ?

Human greed and Human Selfishness are key reasons for failure of green revolution and could again be the key reason for failure of Organic revolution.

We are simply replacing chemical pesticides with Organic Pesticides, chemical fertilizers with organic fertilizers. This sure will reduce the harmful impacts of chemicals but it’ll be naïve of us to assume this to be the solution of our current agro-economic situation.

Fundamentally, if the drive for “more” continues – we will reach the same destination by a different road. How much of Neem or cow urine is not harmful for us ? What is the impact of Neem overdose on soil, ecology?

If we are really serious about coming out of our current mess, we need really be very open minded, break free from past and think creatively. We need to let go of our old habits, change our existing modes of life.

We need to question every move we make and also find answers to our fears and insecurities. Let’s not repeat the same mistakes again, making new mistakes is often the way to evolution, while repeating old ones leads to insanity.