Green Revolution

The green revolution refers to a major transformation in agricultural practices in the developing world based on a specific technological and institutional package, including high-yielding variety seeds (HYV's), fertilizers, and irrigation. The package parallels industrial agricultural practices that developed in the United States after World War II. Western institutions began promoting the package aggressively in the mid-1960's as an answer to the developing world's accelerating population growth and mounting hunger problem. They also viewed the Green Revolution package as [Page 821]a means to foster capitalist economic development and to solidify their ties to developing countries in the context of the cold war. Although the package continues to spread today, the most transformative period was around 1966–1972.

Initially, the Green Revolution focused on just two crops: wheat ...