The problem of providing the underdeveloped countries with food, unresolved to this day, did not arise yesterday. Attempts to solve it were constantly undertaken at different levels. In the 40s of the 20th century, transformations began in the countries of Latin America, which were supposed to lead to higher yields, and therefore, to allow these countries to produce enough agricultural products to meet the needs of their population. These transformations are called the Green Revolution. And indeed, significant changes have occurred. Have they become a blessing or have they further aggravated the situation of countries in need? We will discuss further.
The term “green revolution” itself was first used in 1968 by W. Goud, director of the United States Agency for International Development. With this phrase, he characterized the already visible significant changes in agriculture in Mexico and Asia. And they began with a program adopted in the early 1940s by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation.
Main goals
The agricultural development programs in countries in need of food set the following goals:
- breeding new varieties with higher yields, which would be resistant to pests and weather events;
- development and improvement of irrigation systems;
- the expansion of the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as well as modern agricultural machinery.
The Green Revolution is associated with the name of an American scientist who received the Nobel Prize in 1970 for his contribution to solving the food problem. This is Norman Ernest Borlaug. He was engaged in the cultivation of new varieties of wheat from the very beginning of the implementation of the new agricultural program in Mexico. As a result of his work, a lodging resistant variety with a short stem was obtained, and the yield in this country over the first 15 years increased 3 times.
Later, other Latin American countries, India, Asian countries, and Pakistan adopted the experience of growing new varieties. Borlaug, about whom he was said to have “fed the world,” headed the International Wheat Improvement Program, later acted as a consultant and taught.
Speaking about the changes that the “green revolution” brought, the scientist who stood at its origins said that this was only a temporary victory, and recognized both the existence of problems in implementing programs to increase food production in the world and the obvious environmental damage to the planet.
The Green Revolution and its consequences
What were the results of the transformations that lasted several decades in different parts of the world? Some statistics. There is evidence that the number of calories in the daily diet of residents of developing countries has increased by 25%, and many attribute this to the achievements brought by the Green Revolution. This was the result of the development of new lands and increase the productivity of rice and wheat in the already developed fields in 15 countries. 41 new wheat varieties were obtained. With an increase in the area of cultivated land by 10-15%, yield growth was 50-74%. However, the transformation almost did not affect the needy countries in Africa, including due to the underdeveloped local infrastructure.
The flip side of the coin is, above all, the impact on the biosphere. Traces of the long-banned DDT drug are still found in Antarctica. Nitrogen fertilizers caused significant damage to the soil, and such intensive use of the fields led to their almost complete depletion. Illiterate installation and maintenance of irrigation systems caused pollution of surface water bodies. Today, the resource for further development in this direction is practically exhausted, which means that the severity of the food problem will only increase.
There is also much talk that, in fact, as a result of the Green Revolution, developing countries have become a kind of food colony. The level of development of agriculture in private farms is still low, and many private farmers have lost fertile land. The question remains open about the effect of genetically modified products on human health.