Green Revolution

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Green Revolution is the term applied to the introduction of “modern” crop varieties in developing countries beginning in 1964–1965. The Green Revolution was introduced at different rates in different countries. It was produced by more than five hundred National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) in developing countries and supported by eight International Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) located in developing countries. IARCs produced roughly 35 percent of Green Revolution Modern Varieties (GRMVs), which included highly productive lines of rice and wheat. NARS produced 60 percent of GRMVs. Private sector breeders in developing countries produced 5 percent of GRMVs. Developed countries did not produce GRMVs for developing countries.

Twelve countries with populations in 2000 of one million or more did not have a significant Green Revolution (these countries had less than 2 percent GRMV adoption in 2000). Nine of these countries were in sub-Saharan Africa. An additional eighteen countries had less than 10 percent GRMV adoption in 2000 (eleven of these were also in sub-Saharan Africa). Another eighteen countries had less than 20 percent GRMV adoption in 2000 (twelve of these were in sub-Saharan Africa). Forty-five countries had significant Green Revolutions.

The forty-eight countries with low levels of GRMV adoption had low levels of crop value per hectare because crop yields were low. They used very little fertilizer and had low rates of productivity growth. The UNIDO index of industrial competitiveness for these forty-eight countries was low. Most of these countries were small. By contrast, the countries with significant Green Revolutions were larger countries (including India and China).

In 1960 birth rates were similar for all developing countries. By 2000, birth rates in the successful Green Revolution countries had declined to roughly half of the birth rates of 1960. For the unsuccessful countries, birth rates declined by only 15 percent. Food consumption per capita (as measured by calories consumed per capita) increased by 10 percent for the unsuccessful Green Revolution countries and by 25 percent for the successful Green Revolution countries. The unsuccessful countries increased food consumption because the “real” prices of food grains in world markets declined. In 2000 the real prices of food grains in world markets were 40 percent of their 1960 levels. Child mortality rates improved for all countries because of better diets.

The Green Revolution was criticized by two groups. In the 1980s it was criticized because farmers adopting GRMVs used more fertilizer. The first two GRMV crops were wheat and rice, and indeed fertilizer use did increase for these crops. It was also widely perceived in the 1980s that GRMVs were adopted only in “favorable” production environments. The second round of critics, who appeared at the end of the 1980s, emphasized environmental factors and increased use of chemicals.

The Green Revolution is continuing as new generations of GRMVs are being developed, and overall GRMV production is increasing, not declining. For example, by the 1990s two IARCs, ICRISAT in India and ICARDA in Syria, had begun developing GRMVs for unfavorable semi-arid and dryland conditions. The Green Revolution is seen today as having had a major impact in spite of its “uneven” delivery.

SEE ALSO Food Crisis

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ehrlich, Paul R. 1968. The Population Bomb. New York: Ballantine.

Evenson, Robert E., and Douglas Gollin, eds. 2003. Crop Variety Improvement and Its Effect on Productivity: The Impact of International Agricultural Research. Wallingford, U.K., and Cambridge, MA: CABI Publishers.

Evenson, Robert E., and Yoav Kislev. 1975. Agricultural Research and Productivity. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.

Griliches, Zvi. 1957. Hybrid Corn: An Exploration in the Economics of Technological Change. PhD diss., University of Chicago.

Wilson, Edward O. 1992. The Diversity of Life. Cambridge, MA: Belknap.

Robert E. Evenson

Green Revolution

Green revolution refers to the breeding and widespread use of new varieties of cereal grains, especially wheat and rice. These semidwarf varieties boost yields when grown with high inputs of fertilizer and water. Green revolution agriculture became widespread in less-industrialized countries in the 1960s when international aid agencies sponsored scientific and educational projects promoting the green revolution. These programs—including the adoption of new wheat varieties in India and Pakistan and new rice varieties in the Philippines and Indonesia—supported foreign policy objectives of the United States and were intended to alleviate hunger.

Supporters noted that the green revolution increased crop yields. India, for example, produced more wheat and rice, which helped avoid famines and save foreign exchange currency. Critics, however, charged that the green revolution increased inequalities: rich farmers became richer and poor farmers became poorer. Critics also complained that the green revolution encouraged increased environmental problems through the use of fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation.

There were problems with both perspectives on the green revolution policies. Critics avoided providing realistic alternatives for solving national food deficits, and supporters avoided noting that poor individuals continued to be hungry, despite the increased supplies.

The green revolution was a change in agricultural practices with secondary social and political effects. Both industrialized and less-industrialized countries adopted the practices. Almost all wheat and rice grown today originated in the green revolution.

see also Borlaug, Norman; Economic Importance of Plants; Fertilizer; Grains; Rice; Wheat.

John H. Perkins

Bibliography

Perkins, J. H. Geopolitics and the Green Revolution: Wheat, Genes, and the Cold War. New York: Oxford University Press, 1997.

Green Revolution A term used to describe the increased agricultural productivity due to new agricultural methods such as pesticides, irrigation, and better tools. As part of the Green Revolution, more resistant crops were developed, such as the rice variety IR-36, produced by the UN International Rice Research Institute in 1976, which became one of the world's most widely grown crops in the 1980s. While the Green Revolution increased the food supply for a growing population in the developing world, it also increased income inequality through favouring capital-intensive farming methods.

green revolution A popular term referring to a particular type of technical change in Third World agriculture arising from improved genetic material, intensive fertilizer use, and controlled irrigation. Mainly associated with wheat and rice production and widely diffused in South and East Asia and Latin America, but not Sub-Saharan Africa.