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GREEN REVOLUTION

Sociology Index, Sociology Books 2012

Green Revolution refers to the great rise in agricultural productivity brought about by new plant hybrids, fertilizers and agricultural chemicals in the 1950's and 1960's.

Advocated by the developed nations as a way to make developing nations food sufficient, there is now a concern that this enforced transformation of agricultural methods has harmed the environment, diminished local control and erased local methods of production.

Review: Assessing the Impact of the Green Revolution, 1960 to 2000 
R. E. Evenson and D. Gollin - Science 2 May 2003: Vol. 300. no. 5620, pp. 758 - 762.
We summarize the findings of a recently completed study of the productivity impacts of international crop genetic improvement research in developing countries. Over the period 1960 to 2000, international agricultural research centers, in collaboration with national research programs, contributed to the development of "modern varieties" for many crops. These varieties have contributed to large increases in crop production. Productivity gains, however, have been uneven across crops and regions. Consumers generally benefited from declines in food prices. Farmers benefited only where cost reductions exceeded price reductions. - sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/300/5620/758

Communalism and the Green Revolution in Punjab - Marco Corsi, University of Pisa
Journal of Developing Societies, Vol. 22, No. 2, 85-109 (2006) © 2006 SAGE Publications
This study focuses on the rise and fall of the ‘Green Revolution’ in Punjab and on its social impact, demonstrating how this modernization process had a forefront role in the process of formation and consolidation of the political and social forces that supported and fed the political violence that was triggered from the tension among the area’s main religious communities (Sikhs and Hindus). The research hypothesis of this study is that there is a close relationship between the rapid process of modernization set off by the Green Revolution, starting from the second half of the 1960s, and the separatist violence that devastated the Indian Punjab throughout the 1980s. The argument is that the forces behind the violence did not derive from Punjabi economic backwardness, but, rather, from the overcoming of this condition as a result of the Green Revolution. - jds.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/22/2/85

A Translation Analysis of the Green Revolution in Bali 
Thierry Bardini, University of Montreal 
Science, Technology & Human Values, Vol. 19, No.2 (1994) © 1994 SAGE Publications
This article uses the translation approach to analyze the Green Revolution in Bali, Indonesia. The translation approach reopens the controversy about a classical topic in development studies: the failure or success of the Green Revolution. The translation method helps us to understand how the previous explanations of the failure or success of the Green Revolution in Bali were socially constructed and how the presence and the identity of social groups involved in agriculture on Bali were negotiated during the controversy. J. Stephen Lansing's recent computer model of Balinese agriculture is examined as a new component of the Green Revolution technological package. The analysis shows that the success of Lansing's model is better understood as a result of his communication strategy than as a scientific achievement. - sth.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/19/2/152

Rural Poverty and the Green Revolution: The Lessons from Pakistan - Tarique Niazi
Source: The Journal of Peasant Studies, Volume 31, Number 2, January 2004, pp. 242-260(19)
Abstract: This article argues that the Green Revolution in Pakistan has failed to live up to its promise of ending hunger, unemployment and poverty. An analysis of the time series data of the past four decades points to the worsening of inequalities in income and asset distribution, contributing to the poverty of one in every three Pakistanis [World Bank, 2002, 1992]. The article measures the distributional impact of the Green Revolution in three allied areas of tenurial security, rural employment and rural household income, which tended to decline correspondingly, worsening income and asset distribution. Based on this evidence, this article makes a case for equitable land distribution in rural Pakistan, where half of the population is landless [World Bank, 2002]. - ingentaconnect.com

An Historical Perspective from the Green Revolution to the Gene Revolution - Davies W. P.
Source: Nutrition Reviews, Volume 61, Supplement 1, 1 June 2003, pp. 124-134(11
Abstract: Since the 1960s conventional crop breeding has increased food production commesurate with the growing population. For agricultural development to continue, the exploitation of greater genetic diversity and modern biotechnology are becoming increasingly important. This article reviews the milestones achieved by the Green Revolution and many of the recent breakthroughs of modern biotechnology. - ingentaconnect.com

Green revolution: the way forward
Khush GS, Division of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biochemistry, International Rice Research Institute, Metro Manila, the Philippines. - Nat Rev Genet. 2001 Oct;2(10):815-22.
The origin of agriculture led to the domestication of many plant species and to the exploitation of natural resources. It took almost 10,000 years for food grain production to reach 1 billion tons, in 1960, and only 40 years to reach 2 billion tons, in 2000. This unprecedented increase, which has been named the 'green revolution', resulted from the creation of genetically improved crop varieties, combined with the application of improved agronomic practices. - ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

Challenges Facing a Second Green Revolution: Expanding the Reach of Organic Agriculture - Thomas L. Dobbs, Professor of Agricultural Economics, South Dakota State University, Brookings, SD 57007 Corresponding author: Thomas L. Dobbs.
Dobbs, T. L. 2006. Challenges facing a second Green Revolution: Expanding the reach of organic agriculture. Online. Crop Management doi:10.1094/CM-2006-0921-02-RV.
"The word 'revolution' has been greatly abused, but no other term adequately describes the effects of the new seeds on the poor countries where they are being used. The technological breakthrough achieved by agricultural scientists foreshadows widespread changes in the economic, social, and political orders of the poor countries."
- Lester Brown describing the "Green Revolution" in developing countries, in his book (Brown, L. R. 1970. Seeds of Change: The Green Revolution and Development in the 1970’s. Praeger Pub., for the Overseas Dev. Counc., New York, NY.), 
"The future for organic farming is uncertain. Much depends on the availability and price of fertilizer (especially nitrogen) and farm labor, produce-price relationships, the domestic and world demand for food, concern for soil and water conservation, concern for health and the environment, and U.S. policies toward the development and promotion of organic farming practices. Due to one or more of the above factors, it may be economical for some farmers to produce certain crops and livestock organically rather than conventionally."
- From the USDA’s classic Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming (USDA Study Team on Organic Farming. 1980. Report and Recommendations on Organic Farming. USDA, Washington, DC.)
Introduction: It is timely now to review the status of organic agriculture, especially for those of us old enough to have observed or participated in the 1960s/1970s "Green Revolution" in many developing countries. As Lester Brown explained in Seeds of Change: The Green Revolution and Development in the 1970s (2), US government policy emphasis shifted in 1965 from direct food aid for developing countries to more active assistance to these countries in developing their own food production capacities. At the time, Brown was a senior US Department of Agriculture (USDA) official dealing with international agriculture policies. Also at about the same time, governments of several major developing countries such as India and the Philippines began to place much more emphasis on aggressive, coordinated programs to boost food production. The result was dramatic increases in cereal production between the late 1960s and the mid-1970s in many parts of the developing world, especially in regions with abundant rainfall or irrigation water. The increases were the result of rapid farmer adoption of "packages" of inputs consisting of high-yielding seed varieties [especially wheat (Triticum aestivum) and rice (Oryza sativa L.)], inorganic fertilizer, and, in many areas, irrigation from groundwater. The dramatic changes in farming practices and in cereal output per hectare soon became known as the "Green Revolution." I witnessed the unfolding of this agricultural revolution on the Gangetic Plain of north India while conducting research there in 1967/1968 for my doctoral dissertation (10,13). - plantmanagementnetwork.org/pub/cm/ symposium/organics/Dobbs/

Productivity Growth and Sustainability in Post–Green Revolution Agriculture: The Case of the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs - Rinku Murgai, Mubarik Ali and Derek Byerlee 
The Development Economics Research Group of the World Bank;
The Asian Vegetable Research and Development Center;
The Rural Development Department of the World Bank.
Abstract: This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measuring trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both states since the advent of the Green Revolution. These measurements over time and across systems have resulted in three major findings. First, there were wide spatial and temporal variations between the two Punjabs. Although output growth and crop yields were much higher in the Indian Punjab, productivity growth was higher by only a small margin. Moreover, the lowest growth in productivity took place during the initial Green Revolution period (as opposed to the later intensification and post–Green Revolution periods) and in the wheat-rice system in both states. The time lag between adoption of Green Revolution technologies and realization of productivity gains is related to learning-induced efficiency gains, better utilization of capital investments over time, and problems with the standard methods of productivity measurement that downwardly bias estimates, particularly during the Green Revolution period. Second, input growth accounted for most of the output growth in both Punjabs during the period under study. Third, intensification, especially in the wheat-rice system, resulted in resource degradation in both Punjabs. Data from Pakistan show that resource degradation reduced overall productivity growth from technical change and from education and infrastructure investment by one-third. These findings imply the need for policies that promote agricultural productivity and sustainability through public investments in education, roads, and research and extension; and that reduce resource degradation by decreasing or eliminating subsidies that encourage intensification of inputs. - wbro.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/2/199

RICE GREEN REVOLUTION IN ASIA AND ITS TRANSFERABILITY TO AFRICA: AN INTRODUCTION
Keijiro OTSUKA, Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan and Kaliappa P. KALIRAJAN11Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan1Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development and National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan
The Developing Economies, Volume 44 Issue 2 Page 107 - June 2006 
Abstract: Drawing on the experiences of Asian countries, we attempt to identify the transferability of Asian Green Revolution to sub-Saharan Africa by examining whether there is a common set of factors affecting rice yields in the two regions. We have attempted to propose the strategy to realize a Green Revolution in sub-Saharan Africa based on lessons learned from the comparative studies included in this special volume. - blackwell-synergy.com

THE IMPACT OF GREEN REVOLUTION ON RICE PRODUCTION IN VIETNAM
TRAN Thi Ut, Center for Research Development and Technology Transfer, Binh Duong University, Vietnam; and and Kei KAJISA22Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development and National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan1Center for Research Development and Technology Transfer, Binh Duong University, Vietnam; and 2Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development and National Graduate Research Institute for Policy Studies, Tokyo, Japan
The Developing Economies, Volume 44 Issue 2 Page 167 - June 2006 
Abstract: The current paper reviewed the development of the Green Revolution in Vietnam, using long-term regional yield and modern variety adoption statistics, as well as household data collected in 1996 and 2003. The present study indicates that the Green Revolution began in irrigated favorable areas and spread to the less favorable areas in Vietnam such as in other Asian countries. What is unique in Vietnam is that although the Green Revolution ended in the mid-1980s in the Philippines and Indonesia, it has still been sustained as of 2003. Our analyses revealed that such growth had been supported by continuous improvements of modern varieties by regional research institutes. The varieties imported from China have contributed to the Green Revolution in northern Vietnam and those developed by the International Rice Research Institute in southern Vietnam. The national agricultural research systems have also played a critically important role in developing location-specific and appropriate technologies. - blackwell-synergy.com

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