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THE GREEN REVOLUTION. FRQ – INDIA The term "Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 by former USAID director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies. Norman Ernest Borlaug “ The man who fed the world” – Wall St. Journal 9/13/09.
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THE GREEN REVOLUTION FRQ – INDIA The term "Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 by former USAID director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies.
Norman Ernest Borlaug “The man who fed the world” – Wall St. Journal 9/13/09 • An agronomist, a scientist who specialize in utilizing plants for food, fuel, feed, and fiber. • The Mexican government requested Norm to establish an agricultural research station to develop more varieties of wheat that could be used to feed the rapidly growing population.
HISTORY of GREEN REVOLUTION 1943 - Rockefeller Foundation sought to spread the Mexican “experiment” to other nations.
Indian famine 1961 • Ford Foundation and Indian government collaborated to import wheat seed. • Punjab was selected to try the new crops because of reliable water supply and a history of agricultural success. • India began its own Green Revolution program of plant breeding, irrigation development, and financing of agrochemicals.
Green Revolution 1943-1978R&D in technologies to increase agricultural production • Aimed at helping LDCs. • Developed new strains with high-yielding cerealgrains • Increases in agricultural productivity
Expansion of irrigation infrastructure • Distribution of • hybridized seeds • synthetic fertilizers • pesticides to farmers.
Changing agricultural practices • shift from subsistence to commercial farming • Use of mechanical machinery (tractors)
Changing agricultural practices: - Artificial fertilizer, Insecticides and herbicides
Green practices & Technologies: - irrigation systems • 325 million Indians live in poverty. • International Development Enterprises (IDE) India makes a $30 drip-irrigation kit and teaches farmers how to use it by traveling to villages to show them a Bollywood-style instructional film. • Since the nonprofit was founded in 1991, it has focused on developing products for the rural poor. • - It markets its contraptions through private channels and, so far, has sold more than 85,000 kits. • Business Week March 12, 2007 • http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/07_11/b4025405.htm
Green practices & Technologies: - Hybridization; crossbreeding for disease resistance
SOCIO-POLITICAL CONDITIONSFOR GREEN REVOLUTION IN INDIA • Availability of credit/banks, money (e.g., international aid, finance, seeds, etc.) • Political stability • Receptive political environment • Middle class (independent) farmers • Market economy • Transportation system • Cultural acceptance of crops and practices (e.g., “Culturally, the society must be willing to part ways with old fashioned methods of farming”). • Knowledge, education
ECONOMIC & ECOLOGICAL FACTORS LIMITING LONG-TERM SUCCESS • Increased costs of artificial fertilizer, herbicides, insecticides, fuel Potash controls the plants’ water intake, reduces water loss, increases root growth and improves drought resistance. Potash prices soared in 2008 and Indian and Chinese farmers bought less resulting in lower yields.
LIMITING LONG-TERM SUCCESS • Operation of commodity markets in the “global economy”
Crushing debt load for farmers and the government. • Availability of funds for additional equipment and seeds. • Some groups (women) cannot obtain credit (equality)
LIMITING LONG-TERM SUCCESS • Climatic factors: • erosion • Desertification • Finite supply of water table • Drought • Water pollution • Limited amount of arable land • Decline in soil quality (fertility) • NPR Farmers in Debt