The Green Revolution

1. The Green Revolution Bryan Chia Jun Qing (4) 3P2

2. Content • Background/ History • Comparison of how the Green Revolution has changed agriculture and farming in different countries • Current events regarding the Green Revolution

3. Background • Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives. • Aims to increase agriculture production around the world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s.

4. Background • Led by Norman Borlaug • He was credited the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers. • Using technology to increase harvest so that more people will have food.

5. Norman Borlaug

6. History • Agricultural development began in Mexico by Borlaug in 1943 • Judged as a success • Rockefeller Foundation was founded, seeking to spread Green Technologies to other nations. • The Office of Special Studies in Mexico became an informal international research institution in 1959, and in 1963 it formally became CIMMYT, The International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center.

7. Background • By using Borlaug's wheat varieties, Mexico was able to produce more wheat than was needed by its own citizens, leading to its becoming an exporter of wheat by the 1960s. • Prior that, the country was importing almost half of its wheat supply.

8. Spread of Green Revolution in the 1950s -1960s • After the success of Mexico, the world followed the technologies researched by Norman Borlaug. • United States

9. India’s Green revolution • In 1961 India was on the brink of mass famine because of rapidly growing population. • Borlaug and the Ford Foundation then implemented research there. • Developed a new variety of rice, IR8, that produced more grain per plant. • Today, India is one of the world's leading rice producers.

10. More on IR8 Rice • The Ford and Rockefeller Foundations turned their attention to the rest of Asia where famine threatened. • In 1960, they established and funded the IRRI, the International Rice Research Institute, in the Philippines.

11. IR8 Rice • Was found after lots of testing on different rice and wheat varieties. • After a lot of testing, a variant of rice was found that could grow taller and stronger than normal rice variants. IR8 also matured faster, 130 days instead of 160-170. • IR8 rice produced around 5 tons per hectare with no fertilizer and rose to almost 10 tons with 120 kg of nitrogen per hectare. That was 10 times the traditional rice yield.

12. Growing IR8 Rice

13. After that … • In the mid-60s, most of Asia was experiencing drought and potential famine conditions. So, IRRI decided to get IR8 out quickly to the rest of the world. • Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos read about the new rice. Soon, over 2300 farmers came to IRRI to get seeds. • 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.

14. After IR8 … • After that, IRRI created IR36 which was more disease resistant than IR8. By the 1980s, at least 11 million hectares were planted with IR36 around the world. • In 1990, IRRI produced IR72. • IRRI sent its modern varieties of rice around the world. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, China, Brazil, Argentina, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Malaysia, Korea, Burma, and even the U.S. used IRRI varieties and agricultural technique.

15. Now • IRRI is one of the world's great centres of agricultural science, best known for it's contribution to the Green Revolution 30 years ago. IRRI brings together international scientists to address one of the world's biggest and most basic scientific challenges: how to feed the hungry.

16. Failure in Africa • 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. • Reasons include widespread corruption, insecurity, a lack of infrastructure, and a general lack of will on the part of the governments. • Environmental factors

17. Failure in Africa • Expensive genetically modified seeds, pesticides and chemical-intensive practices will not help the hungry and will only allow more profits and control for seed companies like Monsanto and Syngenta. • Past public-private partnerships in Africa have proven to be failures, such as the 14-year project between Monsanto, USAID and the Kenyan Agricultural Research Institute to engineer a virus-resistant sweet potato. The GM sweet potato failed to show any resistance.

18. Current Affairs about Green Revolution • Bill Gates says that we need even more rice, the world's most common staple food. • His team is one of a number worldwide who are working on precisely that. The Sainsbury Laboratory is a key collaborator on MutMap – a new technique for improving and accelerating the process of breeding which, researchers hope, will build on the Green Revolution. • 1 billion people in the world are hungry

19. Current Affairs about Green Revolution • United Nations are calling for international governments to create a 21st Century ‘ever-green revolution’ for agriculture that double production, while protecting the earth’s resources. • The UN highlights the importance of international investment in agricultural science, including biotechnology, to achieve these goals. • http://www.farmersguardian.com/home/latest-news/un-calls-for-science-led-‘ever-green’-agricultural-revolution/44578.article

20. Thank you for your attention.

21. References • http://geography.about.com/od/globalproblemsandissues/a/greenrevolution.htm • http://www.foodfirst.org/en/node/2424 • http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/tomchiversscience/100133700/the-new-green-revolution-that-will-feed-the-world/