Discuss the impact of the Green Revolution

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Green Revolution is an example of the successful application of scientific knowledge of agriculture to solve world hunger problems. The Green Revolution is a term used to describe the activities by scientists at international research centers in improving the production of food crops in developing countries through breeding of new crop varieties and use of production technology such as irrigation, synthetic fertilizer, and pesticides. It has been described as an effort to export temperate-zone agricultural technology to the tropics. Activities associated with the Green Revolution began in the 1940s and are ongoing today. The Green Revolution is credited with increasing worldwide yields of cereal grains and other important crops. For example, varieties of disease- and lodging-resistant wheat were developed that nearly quadrupled Mexico's wheat production. These improved wheat varieties were later used throughout Latin American and grown in India and Pakistan with similar success. Likewise, new cultivars of rice and corn were developed that significantly improved yields. An Iowan farm boy, Norman Borlaug, who later received graduate training in plant breeding and pathology at the University of Minnesota, was a leader in the Green Revolution. He received the Nobel Prize in 1970.
Critics of the Green Revolution raise concerns that it had unintended consequences for the developing world. Among the concerns was that the Green Revolution was top-down and tailored for production of specialized varieties that depended on inputs of production variables that only large and rich farmers that could afford. The traditional production systems that peasants in some countries used were ignored. As a consequence, although some countries benefited, many on some continents did not.