Lupine Publishers- Environmental and Soil Science Journal
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.
