From the mid-1960s the adoption of high-yielding wheat and rice varieties, fertiliser, tube-well irrigation and assured procurement transformed Indian agriculture, especially in Punjab and Haryana. Rising rural surpluses fuelled the growth of agro-towns, market centres (mandis) and a prosperous farming belt, while also deepening regional inequality and groundwater stress. The shift reordered the relationship between countryside, town and the wider food economy.
It reshaped rural settlement and market towns and underwrote India's transition away from recurrent famine.
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