Page 52 - Encyclopedia Of World History Vol III

green revolution 871

(e.g., the use of tractors and mechanical harvesters); a with sturdy stalks, which were responsive to chemical fer-
dependence on the intensive use of chemical or syn- tilizers and irrigation water, resistant to pests, and com-
thetic fertilizers, pesticides, and fungicides; a reliance patible with mechanical harvesting.
on petroleum-powered machinery and petroleum by- Chemical and seed corporations and government offi-
products; the utilization of high-yielding hybrid seeds; cials in developed and developing countries champi-
uniform planting of one crop species over a large acreage oned the Green Revolution as the solution to problems
(monoculture); double cropping (two crop seasons per of famine and malnutrition around the world. More was
year); large-scale irrigation; and a continuous supply of involved, however: Excluding Mexico, the U.S.-spon-
patented technology and inputs (seeds, fertilizers, pesti- sored enterprise encircled the Communist world from
cides,etc.).The goal was to increase the capacity of plants Turkey to Korea. Although fears of the spread of Com-
to use sunlight, water, and soil nutrients more efficiently, munism motivated U.S. politicians and businesspeople,
and the heart of this revolution in agriculture was the the idea of scientifically designed crops to improve living
development of certain varieties of patented seeds that fit standards was also promoted within socialist societies
the requirements of Green Revolution technologies. from the Soviet Union to China to Cuba. In many ways
the Green Revolution started as an economic wing of
Origins Cold War politics.
Although its antecedents date to earlier genetic research,
the Green Revolution as we know it today began with Positive Results
research conducted in Mexico by U.S. scientists in a The incubation of the Green Revolution occurred during
wheat and maize research center sponsored by the Rock- the 1950s and 1960s, and it dramatically altered food
efeller Foundation during the 1940s and 1950s. Their production during the 1970s and 1980s. In 1970
goal was to develop higher-yielding hybrid strains of around 15 percent of the Third World’s wheat- and rice-
corn and wheat.The most important person in initiating growing areas were cultivated with the new hybrid seeds.
the Green Revolution in northwestern Mexico was the By 1983 the figure was more than 50 percent, and by
plant pathologist and geneticist Norman Borlaug. His 1991 it was 75 percent. Proponents argue that more
wheat strains responded well to heavy doses of nitrogen than half of all economic benefits generated by GR tech-
fertilizer and water; the International Center for Wheat nologies have gone to farmers and that plentiful harvests
and Maize Improvement, established in 1966 by the became commonplace in much of the world during the
Rockefeller Foundation in cooperation with the Mexican thirty-five years after 1960: Crop yields of wheat nearly
government, continued his work.With the help of money tripled, those of rice nearly doubled, and those of corn
from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, the United more than doubled in ninety-three countries. Because of
Nations Food and Agricultural Organization, and high-yield rice and wheat, scores of countries kept food
USAID,“miracle” seed spread outside Mexico after 1963 production ahead of population growth. Learning from
and had its greatest success in an area from Turkey to the mistakes of its first applications, newer GR technol-
northern India. The Rockefeller Foundation also spon- ogies promised increased net returns and reduced chem-
sored a rice research center, the International Rice ical loads for farmers. The Green Revolution was most
Research Institute, in the Philippines in 1960.The insti- successful in India in increasing aggregate food produc-
tute created high-yield dwarf rice varieties of “miracle tion: During 1978–1979 India established a record grain
rice” that spread to the rice-growing areas of east and output of 118 million metric tons and increased its grain
southeastern Asia. Researchers at these and private cor- yield per unit of farmland by 30 percent since 1947.
porate research centers selectively bred high-yielding India has not had a famine since 1965–1966. However,
strains of staple crops, mainly wheat, maize, and rice no other country that attempted the Green Revolution