Green Revolution

The Green Revolution was a spread of technology by Norman Borlaug, who earned the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 and is held to have saved over a billion people from starving to death, from the 1930s to the 1960s. It was made up of the creation of different types of cereal grains that grew more food than average, more use of modern systems for watering crops, making management more modern, and the spread of hybridized seeds, man-made fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

Background

In the 20th century, big spending in modern and scientific research for agriculture led to the growth of more food in industrial countries. The Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation helped to change these scientific technologies to fit the conditions in developing countries. The first research was on rice and wheat, two of the most important food crops for developing countries. Irrigation and the growth of better plant types, in addition to more use of fertilizers and pesticides, led to more food growth in Asia and Latin America, starting in the late 1960s. The term “Green Revolution” was used to mean the large growth in agriculture that happened at this time.

Green Revolution Media

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  After World War II, newly implemented agricultural technologies, including pesticides and fertilisers as well as new breeds of high yield crops, greatly increased food production in certain regions of the Global South.

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  Locations of Norman Borlaug's research stations in the Yaqui Valley and Chapingo.

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  New varieties of wheat and other grains were instrumental to the green revolution.

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  Wheat yields in least developed countries since 1961, in kilograms per hectare.

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  World population 1950–2010

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  World population supported with and without synthetic nitrogen fertilizers.

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  M. King Hubbert's prediction of world petroleum production rates (1968 peak of USA, 2005 World convenional oil peak, 2018 all liquides including corn to oil peak). Modern agriculture is largely reliant on petroleum energy.

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  Increased use of irrigation played a major role in the green revolution.