What are the major factors responsible for making rice-wheat system a success? In spite of this success how has this system become bane in India? (Answer in 250 words)

The rice-wheat system became the backbone of India’s food security, particularly in the Indo-Gangetic Plains, because policy, technology and infrastructure reinforced each other.

• High-yielding varieties, assured irrigation and intensive use of fertilisers, pesticides and farm machinery.
• Minimum support prices, public procurement, input subsidies and the Public Distribution System created stable markets.
• Expansion of rural electrification, tube wells, extension services, credit, roads, mandis and storage.
• Favourable agro-climatic conditions, fertile alluvial soils and suitable temperature regimes.
• Short-duration varieties and improved agronomic practices enabled double cropping.

• Rice cultivation in relatively unsuitable, water-stressed areas has caused rapid groundwater depletion.
• Flood irrigation, free or subsidised electricity and water-intensive varieties increase inefficiency.
• Continuous monocropping depletes soil nutrients, encourages pests and reduces biodiversity.
• Excessive urea and chemical use creates soil degradation, water pollution and health risks.
• Residue burning causes severe air pollution and greenhouse-gas emissions.
• Procurement incentives have distorted crop choices and discouraged pulses, oilseeds, millets and diversified horticulture.
• Climate change increases heat, water stress and yield uncertainty.

Solutions include direct income support, rationalised procurement, crop diversification, millets and pulses promotion, micro-irrigation, conservation agriculture, laser levelling, groundwater regulation, balanced fertilisation and profitable value chains for alternative crops.

The system’s food-security gains must be preserved while shifting from input-intensive expansion to resource-efficient and climate-resilient agriculture.

Keywords: Green Revolution, MSP, procurement, groundwater depletion, monocropping, crop diversification, conservation agriculture.