Lupine Publishers- Environmental and Soil Science
Abstract
The beginning of Human being’s effort to meet the need for food
production in parallel with the increasing number of population
and environmental deterioration is lost in time. One of such known
effort was green revolution which started in 1968 in order to
revolutionize agricultural sectors through the utilization of modern
technologies. Since agriculture is the fundamental source of
livelihood for the majority of human population especially in developing
countries, it will always be helpful to study any agricultural
aspects to take lessons from it. Accordingly, this review article tries
to study the historical, implementation and shortcoming of
green revolution. The study only used secondary data materials.
Introduction
Over centuries, Owing to some natural factors or unnatural
(human-made) factors different societies across the world were
encountered significant decrease in food production eventually
leading into chronic food shortage that affected the life of millions
of peoples and also resulted in death of large number of human
individuals. In one way or another there have been responses
from the people to deal with the problem of hunger at different
time. As such, the so called “Green Revolution” is a technological
response into the world-wide hunger that took place after Second
World War. It was a great movement characterized by introduction
of agricultural technology from developed nation in to developing
countries with the intension of replacing traditional agricultural
techniques with improved modern techniques so as to increase food
production output and subsequently to put to an end the problem of
food shortage. This review paper tries to analyze Green Revolution
and then to discuss its historical development, implementation and
failure. It will be dealt as follows.
Definition
The term green revolution was first used in 1968 by William
Gaud the former director of United States Agency for International
Development (USAID) to describe agricultural policy that has been
adopted to deal with the world-wide hunger after Second World
War. This policy was termed as green revolution because, it was
characterized by great movement toward increasing agricultural
output so as to meet the argent need for food production, that were
exacerbated by population growth, whilst making intensive use of
agricultural technologies that has been devised over centuries by
developed nations mainly in United State and western European
countries [1]. Green revolution is the extension of earlier agricultural
revolution that was under taken in different nation such as France
and England (David B. Grigg). But, the unique manifestation of green
revolution in relation to the earlier phase of agricultural revolution
was its intensive use of improved agricultural technology specially
that of high yielding varieties (HYVs) that is adoptive to different
changing condition. So, Green Revolution is a term used for rapid
increases in wheat and rice yields in developing countries brought
about by improved varieties combined with the expanded use of
fertilizers and other chemical inputs that has had a dramatic impact
on incomes and food supplies in many developing countries [2].
Historical Back Ground
Green revolution was a giant movement that took place the
period after Second World War mainly between 1940s and 1960s.
This movement was initially coming at the request of Mexican
government to establish agricultural research station to develop
more varieties of wheat. As it was also true for many other nations
of the world, in 1940 Mexico needed high food production that
could be used to feed the rapidly growing population of the country
[3-5]. To this account, the Rock Feller Organization in cooperation
with Mexican government created Office of Special Studies within
the Mexican Department of Agriculture. One of the pioneers in this
effort was the plant pathologist Norman Borlaug who won the Nobel
Peace Prize for his green revolution work in 1970. He was often
regarded as the Father of Green Revolution. The overall agricultural
endeavor by Rock Feller Organization in Mexico were succeeded in
engineering better seeds that was resulted in increased agricultural
output to greater amount. News of this cooperative undertaking
and agricultural improvement in Mexico Spread rapidly to other
countries in Latin America and Asian countries. Eventually,
inquiries to invite rock feller for collaboration began to come from
other Latin American and Asian countries like India, Pakistan,
Bangladesh, Indonesia and China and parts of Africa [7-9].
In 1957, the Rock Feller Foundation started its agricultural
program in India and three years later the Rock Feller Foundation
and Ford Foundation jointly created the International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI) at Los Banos in the Pmhiliphins to find a rice as
miraculous as the Pitic 62 and Penjamo 62 wheats, rice being at
that time the main item of diet for six out of every ten people in the
world. They were succeede in developing HYVs specially IR8-rice
that was termed miracle seed [10].
Implementation of Green-Revolution
The initial aim of green revolution was to eradicate famine
that has had deteriorated the well-being of many developing
nation across the world. The plan was to maximize agricultural
output because, as per the assumption of green revolution,
once agricultural output has increased it will put to an end the
hunger problem. So as to increase agricultural output, traditional
agriculture must be replaced by modernized agriculture that
makes intensive use of technology. This encompasses the use
of hybrid seed, fertilizers, herbicides and pesticide, irrigation
system etc. with such transformation in the agricultural sector,
green revolution promised to eradicate famine. In account of this,
the first practical implementation of green revolution had taken
place in Mexico in 1940, funded by Rock Feller Organization. After
intensive research, the team has succeeded in developing hybrid
seed of wheat, maize etc. that could give high yields. The developed
hybrid seed was cultivated and resulted in the increased output.
Accordingly, Mexico become the first country to testify the result
of green revolution. In 1943 Mexico imported half of its wheat; in
1956, the green revolution made Mexico self-sufficient; by 1964,
Mexico started to export wheat. The improvement of agricultural
output in Mexico attracted attention from many developing nations
mainly from Asia [11].
In 1960 Philippines in collaboration with Ford Foundation and
Rock Feller Foundation established International Rice Research
Institute (IRRI). A rice crossing between Dee-geo-woo-gen and Peta
was done at IRRI in 1962. In 1966, one of the breeding lines became
a new cultivar, IR8. IR8 required the use of fertilizers and pesticides
but produced substantially higher yields than the traditional
cultivars. Annual rice production in the Philippines increased from
3.7 to 7.7 million tons in two decades. The switch to IR8 rice made
the Philippines a rice exporter for the first time in the 20th century.
At the same time, heavy pesticide use reduced the number of fish
and frog species found in rice paddies [12].
In 1961, India was on the brink of mass famine. Being impressed
by the agricultural transformation that Mexico had under gone,
India invited the green revolution to assure food security for its
rapidly growing population. To this effort, green revolution was
first introduced into parts of India with the collaboration of Rock
Feller Organization. Later on, India began its own green revolution
program of plant breeding, irrigation development and financing
of agro-chemical. India also adopted IR8, a rice semi-dwarf variety
developed by the IRRI that could give more grains of rice per plant
when grown properly with fertilizer and irrigation. This IR8 rice
variety was success through Asia and termed as miracle rice. India
become one of the world’s most successful rice producers and is
now a major rice exporter [13].
There have been numerous attempts to introduce the successful
concepts from the Mexican and Indian projects into Africa. These
programs have generally been less successful, for a number of
reasons. Reasons cited include widespread corruption, insecurity,
a lack of infrastructure, and a general lack of will on the part of the
governments. Yet environmental factors, such as the availability
of water for irrigation, the high diversity in slope and soil types in
one given area are also reasons why the Green Revolution is not so
successful in Africa.
The Short Coming of Green-Revolution
Besides maximizing food production, Green revolution was not
as such successful as it was expected to be. This could be ascribed
to many reasons. First and for most, green revolution was one
directional- it only considers the increase in food production as
the sole solution to eradicate hunger. For many farmers the cost of
machinery was too much, and they couldn’t afford it. Many very poor
farmers were tenant farmers, with little money to buy even the new
seeds or fertilizer. Dam construction in some areas resulted in the
flooding of some good farming land. The large amounts of fertilizers
and pesticides required by HYVs also led to serious environmental
problems as they inter water supplies. Areas where there was an
increase in mechanization, there was an increase in unemployment
fewer people needed to do the job this led in rural-urban migration
with more people moving to the city causing urban problem. Many
farmers who had tried to take on the new technologies became
heavily in debt. These and other long-term problems made green
revolution ineffective [14].
Conclusion
Generally, Green Revolution was a movement that started
after Second World War as response to world-wide hunger. The
main aim of this revolution was to increase agricultural output by
intensive use of modernized agricultural technology specially by
using hybrid seed supplemented by mechanical and bio-chemical
technologies. This revolution was succeeded in increasing food
production by innovating HYVs of different cereals but, at its first
stage it was mainly contributed to wheat, maize, rice and later
on its contribution extended into other cereals. With its first
move in Mexico, green revolution introduced into other parts
of Latin America, Asia and also some parts of Africa. However,
green revolution was mainly implemented in Asia than any other
countries. And this revolution was not that much succeeded in
eradicating poverty as it was first promised to do so. It also brought
about many problems that accounts to its failure.
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