Green Revolution Essay ⋆ Business Essay Examples ⋆ EssayEmpire

The term Green Revolution refers to the series of advances in agriculture and agronomy that led to exponentially higher cereal harvests in the 1960s and 1970s, especially in food-scarce nations in Asia and Latin America. Genetic improvement of high yield plant seed was fundamental to the increases, but synthetic nitrogen fertilizers, pesticides, irrigation, and economic incentives also played important roles. Private foundations initially conducted independent agricultural development research, but, as the Green Revolution spread, the World Bank and the United Nations assisted with funding and organization. Although agricultural production exponentially increased in the second half of the 20th century and ended the immediate threat of famine for millions, critics have cited the adverse social, economic, and environmental implications of the Green Revolution.

Most of the Third World experienced significant population increases during the mid-20th century. This fueled a demand for grain that nations could not meet with domestic production. After World War II, large, once-agriculturally rich regions, especially in South American and Asia, became net importers of American grain. Large surpluses in the United States allowed for direct food aid to other nations. Unfortunately, this aid allowed nations to postpone domestic investment in agricultural improvement, and the increased supply limited the price small-scale, domestic farmers could get for their harvests. In the context of the Cold War, famine represented a threat to social and political stability that American politicians feared would lead to communist revolutions.

In March 1968 William S. Gaud, head of the U.S. Department of State’s Agency for International Development, in a speech to the Society for International Development, assessed various international projects that had been working for the past 25 years to limit famine in developing countries. Gaud noted the vast improvements in the agricultural yields of India, Pakistan, the Philippines, and Turkey, and remarked that, unlike wars and coups that required violence to enact change, this agricultural, or “green,” revolution was a peaceful yet world-changing development. This was the first time someone used the term Green Revolution to describe the series of rapid agricultural developments during the 1960s and 1970s, and the term was almost universally accepted.

Origins

The roots of the Green Revolution can be traced back to 1943, when Mexican president Manuel Avila Camacho and the Rockefeller Foundation, at the urging of vice president–elect Henry A. Wallace established the Office of Special Studies (OSS) to experiment with strategies to avert famine among Mexico’s peasant class. The United States had seen rapid agricultural increases since the Great Depression of the 1930s, and the OSS was intended to export these successes to other nations struggling with food scarcity. The OSS grew in importance as an international agricultural research and training center, and by 1966 was renamed the International Center for the Improvement of Corn and Wheat (CIMMYT). J. George Harrar, head of the project, oversaw a group of scientists, most notably Norman Borlaug, who developed a “high-yielding variety” (HYV) of wheat. HYV of all grains have an elevated ability to absorb nitrogen. Since plants with high levels of nitrogen tend to grow tall, bend over, and break before harvest, researchers cross-bred the HYV’s with semi-dwarf, or stubby and hardier, wheat varieties that Japanese farmers had cultivated since the 19th century. Unlike traditional varieties that required long growing seasons, responded poorly to fertilizers, and failed to produce consistent yields, Harrar and Borlaug’s HYVs responded well to intense fertilization, matured quickly, and were well adapted to tropical and sub-tropical growing conditions. However, in the absence of fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides, HYV’s may fail to outperform traditional varieties.

In the 1940s, the deserts of northwestern Mexico had recently been opened to irrigation, and the new HYV wheat’s were planted there on a large scale. In 1962 Pitic 62 and Penjamo 62, the first Mexican dwarf wheat varieties, were commercially released.

In conjunction with rational fertilization, Mexican wheat yields dramatically increased. Whereas Mexico produced 300,000 metric tons of wheat in 1950, by 1970 annual national yields had increased to 2.6 million metric tons. The nation achieved wheat self-sufficiency in the late 1950s and even began to export some of its crop. In 1970 Borlaug received the Nobel Prize for Peace for his work that ended the threat of persistent famine for Mexicans.

The Mexican successes were quickly applied around the world, and the search for HYVs extended to other crops. In 1960 the Filipino government founded the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) with Ford Foundation funds and Rockefeller Foundation scientific staff. The concept of an international research project had been articulated by Harrar and others as early as 1952 and was based on the belief that the basic genetic and biological problems of high-yield agriculture, once solved, could be universally applied with only minor adaptations to local conditions.

Under the direction of Robert Chandler, a university scientist and administrator, IRRI collected indigenous breeds of Asian rice and genetically improved them in the hope of increasing their yields. Early in the process, a cross-breed between an Indonesian rice variety, Peta, and a Taiwanese Chinese rice variety, Dee-Geo-Woo-Gen, resulted in an HYV of dwarf rice known as IR-8. This “miracle rice,” which achieved double and triple yields as compared to traditional varieties, was commercially released in 1966. Cultivation of IR-8 rapidly spread across Asia, allowing farmers’ rice yields to increase at a faster rate than population and, in the process, to combat hunger.

The research conducted by CIMMYT, IRRI, and several other regional research centers sponsored by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations not only fostered agricultural innovation but also nurtured an international agricultural research community of experts trained in the tenets of the Green Revolution. Often, these researchers returned to their home countries to take high-level positions in government and therefore influence agricultural policy. Widespread acceptance of the Green Revolution was also promoted by Lyndon Johnson’s 1966 reform of the “Food for Peace” program. Johnson announced that food aid shipments would depend on recipient nations’ willingness to implement Western agricultural development measures. This meant that nations would be required to accept the Green Revolution if they expected to receive food aid.

The Case Of India

The first application of this policy came in the mid-1960s, when India was confronted with droughts and widespread famine and requested not only food but also technical advice. Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, a plant geneticist and Indian minister of agriculture, invited Borlaug to offer advice on improving the food supply and the cultivation of Mexican dwarf varieties provided by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. To the dismay of Indian grain monopolies, Swaminathan, Borlaug, and the Ford Foundation cooperated to import 18,000 tons of wheat seed from the CIMMYT. India selected well-watered and agriculturally successful Punjab as an experimental site, and, after some initial successes, this became another center of innovation. In addition to wheat, India also imported IR-8 from IRRI.

In 1968 S. K. DeDatta, an associate agronomist with IRRI, published his research findings that Indian IR-8 crops produced nearly 10 times the yield of traditional rice strains. This report increased the popularity of IR-8 and promoted its widespread acceptance. Agricultural improvements had direct social and economic implications: Between 1973 and 1974, the average real income of small farmers in southern India rose by 90 percent and the threat of famine accordingly decreased. During the same period, Pakistan also imported CIMMYT wheat seed and experienced a doubling of wheat yield between 1966 and 1971.

Organizations

From 1969 to 1971, the heads of various agencies working on agricultural issues held a series of four meetings, known as the Bellagio conferences, intended to develop strategies to prolong and expand the Green Revolution.

Although the Ford and Rockefeller foundations had successfully established the initial research infrastructure, they realized that they could not bear the increasing financial burden of ongoing research without outside help. Robert McNamara, then president of the World Bank, attended the conference and came away enthusiastic about the Bank’s ability to finance agricultural development. McNamara reached out to the United Nations’ Development Programme and the Food and Agriculture Organization, and both agencies agreed to assist with the type of applied research that until then had only been carried out by private foundations.

The Bellagio conferences and McNamara’s promotional work resulted in the 1971 founding of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an informally organized group of donors and experts who shared the goal of eliminating hunger.

CGIAR’s primary focus was plant breeding, improved adaptability, and technical advances in cereal, rice, and maize production, but, significantly, the organization’s founding resolution also expressed an interest in the “ecological, economic, and social factors” involved with agricultural development. This emphasis anticipated criticisms of the disruptive nature of the Green Revolution. Whereas traditional agriculture required very little investment, HYV agriculture required farmers to purchase fertilizer, pesticides, and even seed.

Through such purchases, farmers accrued debts that, over time, led to the loss of their farmland. This process, along with generally lower food costs, caused greater urbanization. CGIAR recognized the need to deal with the implications of agricultural development, in order to make the system perpetually tenable.

Challenges

The most sophisticated challenges to the Green Revolution have argued that the energy inputs necessary to raise and harvest HYV crops are so great that they outweigh any perceived advantages. Agriculture that relies on intense fertilization and pesticides consumes large amounts of petroleum. Long-term and widespread use of irrigation and chemicals also fundamentally alters the natural environment with unknown and unforeseen health and quality of life consequences. Further, poor transportation, lack of credit, and insufficient education have prevented scientific agriculture from curbing African famines that take millions of lives every year.

Although the most rapid increase in agricultural production took place during the 1960s and 1970s, the Green Revolution continues into the 21st century. The two primary international research centers, CIMMYT and IRRI, the umbrella funding organization, CGIAR, and a network of institutes around the world continued to lead agricultural development research intended to improve crop yields and, ideally, limit the threat of starvation. Plant cross-breeding to achieve HYV crops remains as the fundamental characteristic of the movement, but agricultural rationalization, economic development, education, and technological exchange are also essential to the current Green Revolution.

Bibliography:

Warren C. Baum, “CGIAR—How It All Began,” CGIAR 1985 Annual Report Reprint (1988);
Lester Brown, Seeds of Change: The Green Revolution and Development in the 1970s (Praeger, 1970);
Harry Cleaver, “The Contradictions of the Green Revolution,” American Economic Review (v.62/2, 1972);
Elenita C. Daño, Unmasking the New Green Revolution in Africa: Motives, Players and Dynamics (Third World Network, 2007);
Desmond A. Jolly and Isabella Kenfield, California’s New Green Revolution: Pioneers in Sustainable Agriculture (UC Small Farm Program, 2008);
Terri Raney and Prabhu Pingali, “Biotechnology: Sowing a Gene Revolution: A New Green Revolution Based on Genetically Modified Crops Could Help Reduce Poverty and Hunger, but Only if Formidable Institutional Challenges Are Met,” Scientific American (v.297/3, 2007);
Donald A. Sonnenfeld, “Mexico’s ‘Green Revolution,’ 1940–1980: Towards an Environmental History,” Environmental History Review (v.16/4, 1992);
“The Next Green Revolution,” Economist (v.386/8568, 2008).

This example Green Revolution Essay is published for educational and informational purposes only. If you need a custom essay or research paper on this topic please use our writing services. EssayEmpire.com offers reliable custom essay writing services that can help you to receive high grades and impress your professors with the quality of each essay or research paper you hand in.