Green Revolution

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 presidentelect 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 subtropical growing conditions. However, in the absence of fertilizer, irrigation, and pesticides, HYV's may fail to outperform traditional varieties.

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