Ingredients of the Green Revolution. "Green revolution" in agriculture in developing countries
The "Green Revolution" refers to the special processes that were widely developed in third world countries in the middle of the last century. In the 60s and 70s agriculture A number of developing countries began to actively introduce intensive methods of growing grain crops, mainly wheat and rice. The main goal of developing and applying new technologies was to solve the problems of malnutrition and hunger.
Norman Barlaug
The first green revolution in the main Mexico owes its development. The government of this particular country, in cooperation with the Rockefeller Foundation, developed and implemented the latest program at that time, which made it possible to significantly increase the profitability of agricultural agricultural enterprises. The project envisaged, first of all, the active use of highly effective mineral fertilizers in the cultivation of plants. The main emphasis was also placed on the development of new high-yielding varieties of wheat. On the last point, Norman Barlaug was especially successful. This experimental breeder developed many high-yielding varieties of wheat. It was thanks to his developments that by 1956 Mexico provided itself with grain in full and even began to export them to other countries.
Subsequently, Barlaug's ideas were taken as the basis for the development of new varieties in countries such as India, Colombia and Pakistan. Started operating in 1963 International Center to improve varieties of corn and wheat. In 1970, Norman Barlaug was awarded the Nobel Prize for his services to mankind.
Green Revolution in South Asia
New methods of managing made it possible to provide their own population with food in full to many poor states of America and South Asia. The Green Revolution in India, for example, had special success. This country managed to achieve not only self-sufficiency in food, but also take the 3rd place in the production of rice and wheat in the world (after China and the USA).
Reasons for failure
However, unfortunately, in general, the problem of hunger in the third world countries has not been solved by the introduction of intensive technologies. The population of most underdeveloped states in the Green Revolution zone continued to be undernourished. The main reasons for the failure of innovations were the high cost of grain and the lack of money. As soon as it began, the green revolution faded away in most developing countries. Due to a lack of funds, many large agricultural enterprises in poor countries have again returned to extensive methods of farming. Small ones, in most cases, did not even have time to start introducing new technologies for growing grain.
The failure of the first green revolution in agriculture was not only due to the poverty of the third world countries. The very method of increasing the efficiency of land use by artificial enrichment of soils with chemical fertilizers was not very successful. Intensive farming technologies, despite the observance of scientific standards, nevertheless led to the depletion and erosion of previously fertile soils. The possibilities of increasing yields with the help of nitrates (in addition, they are also harmful to human health) were soon completely exhausted.
New wave
The doubt that intensive methods will help solve the problem of hunger on Earth was expressed by Norman Barlaug himself when receiving the Nobel Prize. Indeed, scientists still had to develop other technologies to improve the efficiency of agricultural production. This process has been called the "second green revolution". As a result of scientific research, many discoveries were made in its course. A huge achievement, for example, can be called the study and description of such processes as vernalization and photoperiodism.
Contribution of V. I. Vavilov
In our country, during the second green revolution, researchers showed great interest in the geography of the distribution of edible plants. Research in this area has made it possible to achieve an increase in the yield of grain and other crops without such serious consequences as soil depletion. Knowledge of the conditions under which this or that plant develops better has made it possible - by crossing geographically distant species - to develop many new zoned varieties adapted to the climate of specific regions. The main work in this regard was done in Russia by the All-Union Institute of Plant Growing under the guidance of the famous plant breeder N. I. Vavilov.
The Green Revolution and Its Consequences: The Positives
Both waves of widespread introduction of new technologies made it possible to solve the problem of providing food to a huge number of people. Many high-yielding varieties have been bred. Gardeners and gardeners in central Russia, for example, have received an excellent opportunity to grow southern heat-loving crops (apricots, grapes, etc.) on their plots. The yields of cereals, potatoes, sunflowers, vegetables, etc. have grown.
The Problems Caused by the First Green Revolutions
However, these large-scale processes had a lot of not too pleasant consequences. These include:
- pollution of soil and water with pesticides and heavy metals;
- growing energy intensity of agriculture;
- declining food quality;
- an increase in the amount of nitrates harmful to health in vegetables and fruits.
third wave
At the end of the last century, a new, third green revolution began and continues to this day. In view of the mistakes made in the past, its main objectives were taken to be:
- abandoning the mass use of chemicals and replacing them with biogenic fertilizers;
- the development of genetic engineering, by which methods it is possible to create not only new varieties, but also new plant species;
- development of varieties resistant to diseases and pests;
- avoiding the use of pesticides to control insects and microorganisms.
According to the new direction, the use of chemicals for the prevention and treatment of plant diseases will be gradually replaced by narrowly focused biological methods:
- breeding natural enemies of the pathogen;
- providing good conditions for nesting insectivorous birds;
- using poultry to clean gardens from pests;
- use of pheromones and hormones to repel insects.
Of course, the goals of the initiators of the third green revolution, and this time only good ones. However, some new techniques can cause not only skepticism (in relation to the item about poultry, for example), but even serious criticism when it comes to genetic engineering. After all, it is completely unknown what gross interference with the natural processes of plant development can lead to, and how all this can affect people's health.
However, there is nothing left for humanity to do but hope that this time the green revolution will end successfully. It seems that the use of genetically modified plants in food - the only way solutions to the food problem. At least, this is what many modern scientists think.
The Crisis of Agrarian Civilization and Genetically Modified Organisms Glazko Valeriy Ivanovich
"Green revolution"
"Green revolution"
The forerunner of the biotechnological revolution, based on gene-chromosome manipulation in plants, was the green revolution. It ended 30 years ago and for the first time gave impressive results: the productivity of cereals and legumes almost doubled.
The expression "green revolution" was used for the first time in 1968 by the director of the US Agency for International Development W. Goud, trying to characterize the breakthrough achieved in food production on the planet due to the wide distribution of new highly productive and low-growing varieties of wheat and rice in Asian countries that suffered from a shortage food. Many journalists then sought to describe the "green revolution" as a massive transfer of advanced technologies developed in the most developed and consistently high-yield agricultural systems to the fields of farmers in the Third World. She marked the beginning new era development of agriculture on the planet, an era in which agricultural science was able to offer a number of improved technologies in accordance with the specific conditions characteristic of farms V developing countries Oh. This required the introduction of large doses of mineral fertilizers and ameliorants, the use of a full range of pesticides and mechanization, as a result, there was an exponential increase in the cost of exhaustible resources for each additional unit of crop, including food calories.
This was achieved by transferring target genes into the developed varieties in order to increase the strength of the stem by shortening it, to achieve neutrality to the photoperiod to expand the cultivation area and efficient utilization of minerals, especially nitrogen fertilizers. The transfer of selected genes, albeit within species, using traditional methods of hybridization, can be considered as a prototype of transgenesis.
The ideologist of the "green revolution" Norman Borlaug, who received for its results in 1970 Nobel Prize, warned that increasing crop yields by traditional methods could feed 6-7 billion people. Maintaining demographic growth requires new technologies in the creation of highly productive plant varieties, animal breeds and strains of microorganisms. In an address to a genetic engineering forum held in March 2000 in Bangkok, Thailand, Borlaug stated that "either we have developed or we are in the final stages of developing technologies that will feed a population of more than 10 billion people."
The work begun by N. Borlaug and his colleagues in Mexico in 1944 demonstrated the exceptionally high efficiency of purposeful breeding in creating high-yielding varieties of agricultural plants. By the end of the 60s, the wide distribution of new varieties of wheat and rice allowed many countries of the world (Mexico, India, Pakistan, Turkey, Bangladesh, the Philippines, etc.) to increase the yield of these crops by 2-3 or more times. the most important crops. However, the negative aspects of the Green Revolution were soon revealed, caused by the fact that it was mainly technological, and not biological. Replacement of genetically diverse landraces with new high-yielding varieties and hybrids a high degree nuclear and cytoplasmic homogeneity significantly increased the biological vulnerability of agrocenoses, which was an inevitable result of the impoverishment of the species composition and genetic diversity of agroecosystems. The mass spread of harmful species, as a rule, was also facilitated by high doses of nitrogen fertilizers, irrigation, thickening of crops, the transition to monoculture, minimal and zero systems tillage, etc.
A comparison of the "green revolution" with the ongoing biotechnological revolution was carried out in order to show the socially significant component that underlies all gene-chromosomal manipulations. It's about about how to provide the population of the Earth with food, create more effective medicine, and optimize environmental conditions.
Modern varieties allow to increase the average yield due to more effective ways growing and caring for plants, due to their greater resistance to insect pests and major diseases. However, they only allow to get a noticeably larger yield when they are provided with proper care, implementation of agricultural practices in accordance with the calendar and the stage of plant development (fertilization, watering, soil moisture control and pest control). All these procedures remain absolutely necessary for last years transgenic varieties.
Moreover, radical changes in plant care and crop culture become essential if farmers start growing modern high-yielding varieties. For example, fertilization and regular watering, so necessary for obtaining high yields, at the same time create favorable conditions for the development of weeds, insect pests and a number of common plant diseases. With the introduction of new varieties, additional measures are needed to combat weeds, pests and diseases, the dependence of the productivity of agroecosystems on technogenic factors increases, processes accelerate and the scale of environmental pollution and destruction increases.
Despite the significant successes of the Green Revolution, the battle for food security for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest countries is far from over.
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As you know, the 70s turned out to be extremely unfavorable for most developing countries - they survived the fuel and energy crisis, large-scale natural disasters, worsening conditions foreign trade etc.
Part of these problems was the aggravation of the food situation. Net food imports (ie imports minus exports) rose from an average of 15 million tons in 1966-1970 to 35 million tons in 1976-1979. The crisis state of agriculture significantly accelerated the green revolution in the 1970s and 1990s.
The term "green revolution" itself was first used in 1968 by W. Goud, director of the US Agency for International Development. With this phrase, he characterized the already visible significant changes in the agriculture of Mexico and Asian countries. And they began with a program adopted in the early 1940s by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation.
The green revolution is a transition from extensive farming, when the size of fields was increased to intensive farming, when productivity was increased, all kinds of new technologies were actively applied. This is the transformation of agriculture based on modern agricultural technology. This is the introduction of new varieties of crops and new methods leading to higher yields.
Programs for the development of agriculture in countries in need of food, the main tasks were the following:
breeding new varieties with higher yields that would be resistant to pests and weather phenomena;
development and improvement of irrigation systems;
expanding 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 has been developing new varieties of wheat since the beginning 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 increased 3 times in the first 15 years.
Later, other countries adopted the experience of growing new varieties. Latin America, India, Asian countries, Pakistan. Borlaug, described as "feeding the world," led the International Wheat Improvement Program and later acted as a consultant and lecturer.
Speaking about the changes that the Green Revolution brought, the scientist who stood at its origins himself said that this was only a temporary victory, and recognized both the problems in implementing programs to increase food production in the world, and the obvious environmental damage to the planet.
2. Results of the green revolution
Norman Borlaug developed the Mexicale wheat variety, which yielded 3 times the yield of the old varieties. Following Borlaug, other breeders began to develop high-yielding varieties of corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and other crops.
Together with these record-breaking varieties, new intensive tillage systems with soil turnover, high doses of fertilizers, irrigation, a wide variety of pesticides and monoculture, i.e. growing the same crop in the same field for many years .
Highly productive animals also appeared, for the maintenance of their health not only plentiful feed was needed, but also vitamins, antibiotics, and growth stimulants for rapid weight gain. The first green revolution was especially successful in the countries of the tropics, since with year-round cultivation of plants, the income from new varieties was especially large.
The Green Revolution developed under the influence of both the increased return on investment in the new agro-industrial complex, and the large-scale activities of the state.
It created the necessary additional infrastructure, organized the procurement system and, as a rule, maintained high purchase prices - in contrast to the initial stage of modernization in the 50s and 60s. .
As a result, in 1980-2000 in Asia, the average annual growth rate of agricultural (mainly food) production reached 3.5%.
Since such rates exceeded the natural growth of the population, in most countries this made it possible to solve the food problem.
At the same time, the green revolution unfolded unevenly and did not immediately make it possible to solve agrarian problems as a whole; they are still acute in a number of lagging states.
Story
The term was coined by former USAID director William Goud in .
The Green Revolution was initiated in Mexico in 1943 by the agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation. The biggest success of this program was Norman Borlaug, who developed many high-performance varieties of wheat, including lodging-resistant short stems. K - Mexico fully provided itself with grain and began to export it, for 15 years the grain yield in the country has increased 3 times. Borlaug's developments were used in breeding work in Colombia, India, Pakistan, and Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize.
Consequences
At the same time, due to the widespread use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, environmental problems arose. The intensification of agriculture disturbed the water regime of the soils, which caused large-scale salinization and desertification. Copper and sulfur preparations, which cause soil pollution with heavy metals, were replaced by aromatic, heterocyclic, organochlorine and phosphorus compounds (karbofos, dichlorvos, DDT, etc.) by the middle of the 20th century. Unlike older preparations, these substances work at a lower concentration, which has reduced the cost of chemical processing. Many of these substances were found to be stable and poorly degraded by biota.
A case in point is DDT. This substance has even been found in animals of Antarctica, thousands of kilometers from the nearest application sites for this chemical.
John Zerzan, a prominent anarcho-primitivist ideologue and civilization denier, writes about his assessment of the Green Revolution in his essay "Agriculture: The Demonic Engine of Civilization":
Another post-war phenomenon was Green revolution, declared as the salvation of the impoverished countries of the "Third World" with the help of American capital and technology. But instead of feeding the hungry, the Green Revolution drove millions of victims of a program that supports large corporate farms from the arable lands of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The result was a monstrous technological colonization that made the world dependent on the capital-intensive agricultural business and destroyed the former farming communities. There was a need for vast expenditures of fossil fuels and, in the end, this colonization turned into an unprecedented violence against nature.
Notes
Links
- Norman E. Borlaug"Green Revolution": yesterday, today and tomorrow // Ecology and Life, No. 4, 2000.
Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .
See what the "Green Revolution" is in other dictionaries:
Conventional name for a phenomenon that took place in the 1960s–70s. in a number of developing countries. The "Green Revolution" was to intensify the production of grain crops (wheat, rice) in order to increase their gross yields, which was supposed to solve ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia
A term coined in the 1960s. 20th century in connection with the process of introducing new high-yielding varieties of grain crops (wheat, rice) that has begun in many countries in order to sharp increase food resources. "Green Revolution" ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary
A set of measures for a significant (revolutionary) increase in crop yields, especially cereals (wheat, rice, corn, etc.) in some countries of South Asia (in particular, India, Pakistan, the Philippines), Mexico ... Ecological dictionary
"GREEN REVOLUTION"- a term that appeared in con. 1960s in the bourgeois economy and s. X. lit. re to denote the process of introducing the achievements of scientific and technical. progress in s. x ve and to characterize the ways, methods and means of a sharp increase in productivity p. X. production, ch ... Demographic Encyclopedic Dictionary
Revolution (from late Latin revolutio turn, upheaval, transformation, conversion) global qualitative change in the development of nature, society or knowledge, associated with an open break with the previous state. Originally the term revolution ... ... Wikipedia
State Autonomous Educational Institution of the Vladimir Region
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on the topic of: Green revolution.
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Specialties "Management".
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Green revolution.
One of the problems human society at the present stage of development is the need to increase food production. This is due to the increase in the population of the planet and the depletion of its soil resources.
Temporary positive results of increasing the production of grain crops were achieved in the third quarter of the 20th century. They were achieved in countries where energy consumption increased significantly, progressive forms of agricultural technology were used, and mineral fertilizers were used. Yields of wheat, rice and corn have increased. New high-yielding varieties of plants were bred. There was a so-called green revolution. This revolution has not touched the countries that do not have enough of the necessary resources.
Green revolution- this is a transition from extensive farming, when the size of the fields was increased to intensive - when the yield was increased, all kinds of new technologies were actively used. This is the transformation of agriculture based on modern agricultural technology. This is the introduction of new varieties of crops and new methods leading to higher yields.
The beginning of this expression was laid in Mexico in 1943 by the agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation. In the 1950s. and since the mid-60s. new high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat began to be cultivated in many third world countries.
The "Green Revolution" is one of the manifestations of the scientific and technological revolution. It includes the following main components:
the breeding of new early-ripening varieties of grain crops, which contribute to a sharp increase in productivity and open up the possibility of using further crops;
land irrigation, as new varieties can show their best qualities only under the condition of artificial irrigation;
wide application modern technology, fertilizers.
As a result of the Green Revolution, many developing countries began to meet their needs through their own agricultural production. Thanks to the Green Revolution, grain yields have doubled.
At the same time, it should be noted that the "green revolution" has become widespread in Mexico, the countries of South and Southeast Asia, but has little effect on many other regions. In addition, it affected only land owned by large owners and foreign companies, changing almost nothing in the traditional consumer sector.
The "Green Revolution" took place both in traditionally used agricultural territories and in newly developed ones. Agrocenoses created by man in order to obtain agricultural products have low ecological reliability. Such ecosystems cannot self-repair and self-regulate.
Agrocenoses - biogeocenoses created for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products and regularly maintained by humans (fields, pastures, vegetable gardens, orchards, protective forest plantations, etc.). Without human support, agro-ecosystems quickly disintegrate, returning to their natural state.
As a result of the "Green Revolution", a great impact was made on the biosphere of the planet. Getting energy was inevitably accompanied by pollution atmospheric air and water. The agrotechnical measures applied in soil cultivation have led to the consolidation and degradation of soils. The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the atmospheric influx of nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, and organochlorine compounds into the waters of the World Ocean.
The widespread use of organic fertilizers became possible due to the increase in their production volumes.
The objects of production and storage of fertilizers and pesticides have made a significant contribution to the treasury of biosphere pollution.
The "Green Revolution" arose as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the development of science.
During the "Green Revolution" large areas of virgin lands were developed. For several years, high yields were collected. But "nothing is given for free" according to one of the provisions of B. Commoner. Today, many of these territories are depleted endless fields. It will take more than one century to restore these ecosystems.
The increase in the productivity of ecosystems by humans has led to an increase in the cost of maintaining them in a stable state. But there is a limit to such an increase until the moment when it becomes economically unprofitable.
Consequences of the Green Revolution.
Intensive agriculture does not go in vain, the land “gets tired” much faster, water sources are depleted;
Agrotechnical measures applied in soil cultivation have led to soil consolidation and degradation;
The fall in prices for agricultural products is a serious test for those who work on the land, a lot of farmers went bankrupt as a result of the "green revolution".
Erosion of arable land, especially in the arid zone, pollution of fields and products chemicals, washout of mineral fertilizers and water pollution
