Green Revolution

Jai Ganesh · 2025-08-03 22:59:33

Green Revolution

Gist

The Green Revolution refers to a period in the mid-20th century when agricultural practices were modernized, significantly increasing food production, particularly in developing countries. This transformation involved the adoption of high-yielding crop varieties, increased use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and improved irrigation techniques. While successful in boosting food supplies and reducing hunger, the Green Revolution also had negative consequences, including environmental damage and social inequalities.

The Green Revolution refers to a period in the mid-20th century when agricultural production increased dramatically, particularly in developing countries, due to the adoption of new technologies and practices. These included the use of high-yielding variety (HYV) seeds, chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation systems. The goal was to boost food production and alleviate food shortages.

Summary

The Green Revolution, or the Third Agricultural Revolution, was a period during which technology transfer initiatives resulted in a significant increase in crop yields. These changes in agriculture initially emerged in developed countries in the early 20th century and subsequently spread globally until the late 1980s. In the late 1960s, farmers began incorporating new technologies, including high-yielding varieties of cereals, particularly dwarf wheat and rice, and the widespread use of chemical fertilizers (to produce their high yields, the new seeds require far more fertilizer than traditional varieties), pesticides, and controlled irrigation.

At the same time, newer methods of cultivation, including mechanization, were adopted, often as a package of practices to replace traditional agricultural technology. This was often in conjunction with loans conditional on policy changes being made by the developing nations adopting them, such as privatizing fertilizer manufacture and distribution.

Both the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation were heavily involved in its initial development in Mexico. A key leader was agricultural scientist Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution", who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. He is credited with saving over a billion people from starvation. Another important scientific figure was Yuan Longping, whose work on hybrid rice varieties is credited with saving at least as many lives. The basic approach was the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers. As crops began to reach the maximum improvement possible through selective breeding, genetic modification technologies were developed to allow for continued efforts.

Studies show that the Green Revolution contributed to widespread eradication of poverty, averted hunger for millions, raised incomes, reduced greenhouse gas emissions, reduced land use for agriculture, and contributed to declines in infant mortality.

Details

Green revolution is great increase in the production of food grains, especially wheat and rice, driven by the introduction of high-yield crop varieties to developing countries during the mid-20th century. Its early dramatic successes were in Mexico and India before gradually spreading to other countries. The new varieties revolutionized agriculture and helped reduce poverty and hunger in many developing countries. However, the heavy use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides raised concerns about affordability and environmental damage. Norman Borlaug, an American scientist, is credited with propelling the green revolution.

Origins

The 1930s were a rough period for Mexican farmers, who struggled with low corn and wheat yields. Domestic production failed to meet the growing demand for these crops, which forced Mexico to rely on imports to feed its population.

The green revolution began in 1943 when American philanthropic organization the Rockefeller Foundation joined forces with the government of Mexico to launch the Mexican Agricultural Program (MAP) to address food production issues. Although MAP introduced new types of corn that transformed production in Mexico, its main focus was wheat. Borlaug, who oversaw MAP’s wheat program, developed hybrid varieties of wheat with excellent yields and resistance to diseases. Their use in Mexico drastically increased wheat production. By 1956 Mexico, in addition to filling its own plate, started serving the world as a net exporter of wheat. MAP’s success in Mexico acted as the launchpad for the spread of the green revolution.

Transforming India’s agriculture

During the 1960s efforts to change the trajectory of rice production in India were underway. About this time, scientists at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines developed IR8, a hybrid, high-yield, and pest-resistant rice strain. Farmers who used IR8 saw rice yields increase about tenfold, which raised profits. Higher yields also drove down prices and reportedly saved millions from famine. It is no surprise then that IR8 is more popularly known as “miracle rice.”

In the two decades following independence in 1947, many of the challenges India faced in agricultural production were akin to Mexico’s but on a much larger scale. Reeling from the devastating Bengal famine (1943), India faced chronic food shortages and periodic droughts that left millions on the brink of starvation. The country was heavily dependent on food imports. The situation was so dire that Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1964 urged Indians to cut down on parties and extravagant weddings.

Father of the green revolution in India

Agricultural scientist Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, popularly known as the “father of the green revolution” in India, spearheaded an increase in agricultural production during the mid-1960s. Inspired by MAP’s success in Mexico, he collaborated with Borlaug to acquire new Mexican wheat varieties. Armed with the new seeds, Swaminathan embarked on a mission to persuade farmers and the government of India to adopt them by demonstrating their potential through rigorous trials. In 1966 India imported 18,000 tons of new Mexican wheat seeds, which radically altered wheat production in India, particularly in the northwestern states of Punjab and Haryana. Wheat output in India surged from 12 million tons in 1965 to 20 million tons in 1970. The production of rice in India followed suit with the development of high-yield rice seed varieties. In 1971 India became self-sufficient in food production, and by the late 1970s India was one of the world’s largest agricultural producers.

Impact

What began as an experiment in Mexico eventually revolutionized agriculture throughout the world, especially in developing countries such as Brazil, China, Pakistan, and the Philippines. The green revolution industrialized agriculture. Modern farming, characterized by chemical fertilizers, pesticides, and irrigation, replaced traditional methods of cultivation. Although groundbreaking, this progress was not without consequences. The excessive reliance on chemical fertilizers and pesticides led to increased levels of pollution, soil degradation, and biodiversity loss. Large scale irrigation projects have resulted in depleted groundwater levels. Poor farmers are often unable to purchase modern agricultural inputs, such as high-yield seeds, fertilizers, and irrigation systems, leaving them with low yields.

Borlaug, awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, cautioned in his Nobel lecture:

The green revolution is a change in the right direction, but it has not transformed the world into Utopia. None are more keenly aware of its limitations than those who started it and fought for its success.

Noting that “the green revolution has won a temporary success in man’s war against hunger and deprivation,” Borlaug encouraged governments and other stakeholders to make further progress not just in agricultural research but also in education, employment, housing, and healthcare.

Additional Information

The Green Revolution refers to a transformative 20th-century agricultural project that utilized plant genetics, modern irrigation systems, and chemical fertilizers and pesticides to increase food production and reduce poverty and hunger in developing countries. The Green Revolution began in Mexico, where scientists developed a hybrid wheat variety that dramatically expanded yields. Following its introduction, hunger and malnutrition there dropped significantly.

The model was subsequently extended to Asia, Latin America, and later Africa to increase food production for growing populations without consuming significantly more land. Over time, however, the techniques and policies of the Green Revolution were questioned as they led to inequality and environmental degradation.

History

The Green Revolution transformed rural economies using industrial food production systems already widespread in wealthy western countries, but with new plant varieties. In the 1940s, an Iowa-born agronomist named Norman Borlaug began working with Mexican scientists on a more disease-resistant, high-yield wheat. Many Mexican farmers at the time struggled with depleted soil, plant pathogens, and low yields.

The scientists developed smaller, fast-growing wheat that required less land to produce more grain. It had a dramatic effect: Between 1940 and the mid-1960s, Mexico achieved agricultural self-sufficiency. The results were heralded as an agricultural miracle, and the techniques were extended to other crops and regions grappling with food insecurity.

By the 1960s, India and Pakistan were experiencing population booms and food shortages that threatened millions with starvation. The countries adopted the Mexican wheat program and the new varieties flourished, with harvests increasing considerably by the late 1960s.

Rice, a staple crop for millions, was another target. Research in the Philippines dramatically improved rice productivity and the new varieties and techniques spread across Asia.2 China undertook its own rice research and application of Green Revolution techniques on a massive scale to feed its growing population. Between the 1970s and 1990s, rice and wheat yields in Asia increased 50%. The poverty rate halved and nutrition improved even as the population more than doubled.

In Brazil, the vast Cerrado savanna region had been regarded as a wasteland due to its acidic soil, but by fortifying the soil with lime, researchers discovered it could be quite productive for growing commodity crops. New varieties of soy were developed that could withstand the harsh growing conditions. This shift toward agricultural intensification and expansion of monoculture crops was repeated throughout Latin America.

In 1970, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize and lauded for his work to decrease food insecurity, poverty, and conflict. But over time, a growing chorus of voices would call into question the practices that facilitated the Green Revolution.

Technologies
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In addition to plant genetics, the basis for this agricultural revolution was a package of interventions to supercharge crop productivity, based largely on American industrialized techniques that had made places like California a global agricultural leader. This included enriching soil by applying powerful chemical fertilizers and combating plant pathogens and pests with chemical pesticides. Coupled with modern irrigation methods and farm equipment, the techniques doubled and tripled yields.

Several interests converged following World War II to help facilitate this emphasis on agricultural technologies. The United States had stockpiles of chemicals and pesticides like DDT, which had been widely used during the war to prevent the spread of malaria, lice, and bubonic plague. Borlaug’s plant experiments dovetailed with efforts of the U.S. government, leading philanthropies, and corporations to expand markets for fertilizers, pesticides, and farm equipment on which the high-yield crops depended.

Beyond these tools, the Green Revolution encompassed an array of development projects that supported agricultural modernization in poor countries and more efficiently connected them with larger markets. The United States vigorously took up this work as part of a Cold War foreign policy agenda to build inroads in countries deemed “vulnerable” to communist ideology, including those suffering food insecurity.

In India, for example, the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) facilitated foreign investment, while the World Bank and organizations like the Ford Foundation and Rockefeller Foundation provided support for building roads, rural electrification projects to power groundwater pumping and irrigation, and mechanized farming equipment to improve efficiency.

For a while, the interventions worked, increasing yields, reducing food insecurity, and allowing some farmers to prosper. Those successes became the public image of the Green Revolution. The reality was much more complicated.

Impacts

Even early on, critics warned of potential ecological and socioeconomic consequences and began questioning whether this agricultural transformation was really helping smallholder farmers and rural communities. And the nascent environmental movement, particularly after the publication of Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking 1962 book Silent Spring, raised concerns about the impacts of agricultural chemicals.

Environmental Degradation

Borlaug had sought to develop more productive grain varieties requiring less land to produce the same yields. But in fact, the success of these crops led to more land being plowed under for agricultural production. In addition, increased water consumption, soil degradation, and chemical runoff did significant environmental damage. Fertilizers and pesticides polluted soil, air, and water far beyond the agricultural lands themselves, including the world’s oceans.

The Green Revolution transformed not only the farming system, but local foodways and culture as farmers swapped traditional seeds and growing practices for the new varieties of corn, wheat, and rice that came with this package of technologies. Over time, the loss of traditional crops and growing techniques decreased resilience in the food system and eroded valuable cultural knowledge.

As climate change accelerates, further vulnerabilities of the modern food system have been exposed. Carbon emissions associated with industrial agriculture are helping push humanity toward a climate tipping point.

Socioeconomic Disparities

By the late 1970s, the limitations of the Green Revolution were apparent. Many of its policies favored large landowners and producers, creating hardship for smallholders passed over for research opportunities and subsidies.

After a period of rapid population growth and diminishing agricultural productivity, Mexico entered another period of food insecurity and began importing basic grains. This reversal of fortunes occurred in other countries as well. In India and Pakistan, the Punjab region became another Green Revolution success story but disproportionately benefited larger producers. Production tools—including irrigation systems, mechanized equipment, and requisite chemicals—were too expensive for small farmers to compete, driving them further into poverty and debt, and causing them to lose landholdings.

Such challenges led to changes in how Green Revolution programs were implemented, with more attention to the needs of smallholders and the environmental and economic conditions in which they worked. But interventions have had uneven results.

Agriculture Today

The Green Revolution laid the foundation for a subsequent era of genetically modified crops, globalization of agriculture, and even greater dominance of agribusiness giants in the food system. Today, consumers are often disconnected from the people who grow their food and how it is grown. And while production has increased, so has the number of undernourished people and those with diet-related diseases as processed foods continue to replace fresh fruits, vegetables, and whole grains.

The dominance of agribusiness has concentrated more land in the hands of large corporations, often leading to rural displacement. Many smallholders, no longer able to make a living off of farming, migrate to urban areas. Many rural communities remain in poverty and suffer the effects of chemical exposure as pesticide-resistant crop pests and soil degradation demand ever stronger chemical inputs.

The world now faces another looming food crisis. By 2050, the global population is projected to reach 9.8 billion people. Can a new Green Revolution feed them all? Perhaps, but it will require interventions quite different from the first. Today, there are increasingly urgent concerns about climate change and biodiversity loss and the impacts of converting even more forests, grasslands, wetlands, and other carbon sinks for agriculture.

Technological Solutions

Paths to meeting the world’s food needs diverge considerably. There are new technological tools to help reduce waste and limit carbon emissions. Data systems can determine everything from which kinds of crops to grow in different climatic and soil conditions to the optimal planting, irrigation, and harvest times.

Some support making tweaks to the current “gene” revolution to increase its sustainability: biotechnology, the genetic modification of plants and beneficial microbes to increase yields without consuming more land, reduce pesticides and chemical fertilizers, and design plants more resilient to climate impacts.

Agroecology

Others are calling for a completely different agricultural revolution. With an eye toward ecological restoration and equity, proponents of regenerative and agroecological practices envision a food system that shifts away from industrial agriculture and toward traditional methods that gained momentum as a response to the Green Revolution.

These methods embrace traditional and Indigenous farming practices as alternatives to the chemical-intensive, monoculture farming. They include natural resource conservation, building soil health, and improving biodiversity, along with restoring traditional land tenure and re-centering human rights and wellbeing in agricultural systems.

Agroecology is gaining popularity as the world confronts climate change and biodiversity loss and seeks a more just food system, but the dominance of industrial agriculture makes large-scale implementation challenging. Responses to the next looming food crisis will most likely incorporate both new technological approaches and agroecological methods.

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#1 2025-08-03 22:59:33

Green Revolution

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