Lessons from the Green Revolution: Effects on Human Nutrition
Rachel Bezner Kerr
Draft, please do not cite without permission
Introduction
Current debates about the potential positive and negative implications of agricultural
biotechnology for human nutrition do not seem to be well informed by lessons learned
from the Green Revolution. This paper will examine the following question: what was
learned from the Green Revolution concerning its effects on food consumption and/or
nutrition? 2) In what respects is the agricultural biotechnology issue similar to the Green
Revolution? 3) In what respects is it different? 4) Under what circumstances (if any) do
you think it would be appropriate to introduce genetically engineered crops into the
farming systems of developing countries? 5) What are the pros and cons of the preceding
recommendation?
Conceptual Framework
The conceptual framework used for this analysis integrates the causes of malnutrition
(UNICEF 1990), the extended model of care (Engle, Menon, and Haddad 1999) and the
sustainable livelihood framework (Adato and Meinzen-Dick 2002). In addition, it
incorporates some aspects of the framework used to assess the effects of
commercialization on nutrition (Braun, Bouis, and Kennedy 1994). Starting with
UNICEF’s model of the causal mechanisms of child malnutrition, the conceptual
framework attributes direct child nutrition to both adequate nutrient intake and good
health (lack of disease). These factors are in turn affected by a broad spectrum of
caregiving behaviors, including child feeding, hygiene practices and food preparation and
storage, that are found to be critical in child nutritional outcomes (Engle, Menon, and
Haddad 1999). This framework then tries to break apart the ‘cultural, political and social
context’ that influences the food and economic resources available for care at the
household level.
In doing so, I try to integrate the broader social, economic and political processes
that interact at the household level, in turn affecting child and family nutrition. In
particular I emphasize the means by which changes in agricultural technology might
interact with other factors that affect food consumption, such as income, prices, non-food
expenditures, time allocation and other factors (Braun, Bouis, and Kennedy 1994). In
addition, broader processes and structures such as government policies, international
trade regimes and the private sector need to be considered in this discussion, since all of
these factors influence consumption and nutrition at the household level (Adato and
Meinzen-Dick 2002).
The critical component lacking from most models that examine the effect of an
agricultural technology on nutritional outcomes is the political context, and the related
access to power and control over resources, both within and beyond the household, that
influence overall outcomes. This paper will try to integrate the broader political factors
into the discussion in an attempt to break the impasse.
Green Revolution Defined
Most definitions of the Green Revolution focus on the technical aspects, in
particular the high-yielding maize, rice and wheat varieties developed in the 1950s and
1960s by international agricultural research centers in Mexico and the Philippines
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(Conway 1997). However in this essay, the term will refer to the particular historical,
technical, political and social aspects of the Green Revoluion. Many authors suggest that
the Green Revolution began with a joint venture between the Mexican Ministry of
Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation in 1943, in which American and Mexican
scientists worked to develop synthetic and hybrid corn and wheat varieties that were
high-yielding in comparison to local varieties (Conway 1997; Lipton 1988). In 1961, the
International Rice Research Institute began operations in the Philippines with assistance
from the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, developing high-yielding hybrid rice
varieties. However, the origins of the Green Revolution lay in a particular combination of
business interests (i.e. agro-chemical companies), philanthropy, scientists and politics
that originated primarily in the United States (Kloppenburg 1988).
The institutional approach of the Green Revolution, in which International
Agricultural Research Centers (IARCs) carry out research in collaboration with national
governments, is a model similar to the a US Land Grant system for agricultural research
(Kloppenburg 1988). In both cases, political interests had a major influence on the plant
breeding approach and outcomes to the technical intervention, as will be discussed below.
Furthermore, the Green Revolution involved the dissemination of the high-yielding seeds
in combination with fertilizer, pesticides and often irrigation. That is, most farmers took
up a ‘package’ of inputs, including fertilizer and pesticides, and the majority of the seeds
were utilized under irrigated or high rainfall conditions (Conway 1997). Although
researchers later developed high-yielding seeds that performed well under moisture stress
and low nutrient inputs, the highest yields were initially seen under high input water and
nutrient conditions (Lipton and Longhurst 1989). The majority of high-yielding varieties
were also screened for performance under herbicides, usually provided as a free service
by herbicide manufacturers to the international and national research institutions, in order
to help promote their herbicide products. Thus, alternative weeding control methods,
including human labour, were usually not considered by researchers (Lipton and
Longhurst 1989). In the minds of most farmers, development experts and government
planners at the time, the seeds were inextricably linked with fertilizer and pesticide use,
and often irrigation (Gupta 1998; Pearse 1980). This issue of the ‘package of inputs’ will
be discussed in the light of implications for consumption and nutritional outcomes below.
Many government planners, who themselves often had political connections with
large landholders, felt that the ‘Green Revolution’ should initially occur under ‘ideal’
conditions of large landholders, and the extension advice and credit opportunities were
made more available to these more politically powerful groups (Gupta 1998). The Green
Revolution was also an ideological approach to solving social problems with technology,
and was part of a broader ‘development’ or ‘modernization’ approach to problems in the
Third World. Modernization theory posits that poor countries and regions need to make
the transition from backward, traditional societies to modern, advanced industrial
societies through technological change(Peet and Hartwick 1999). The Green Revolution
was seen as part of an overall strategy to help the Third World transition into modern
societies through technological changes in agriculture.
1) Lessons learned about the GR’s effects on food consumption & nutrition
a) General arguments
Proponents of the Green Revolution argue that the high-yielding varieties of the
world’s major food staples have led to an increase in total world food outputs, and a
consequent decrease in world food prices, which has had a positive effect on food
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consumption levels (Conway 1997). Certainly there is ample evidence that agricultural
yields have increased for the major staples in many parts of the world following the onset
of the Green Revolution, in part due to new varietal types, in part due to increased
fertilizer application and irrigation, both of which have been major features of the Green
Revolution (Lipton and Longhurst 1989). However regional yield increases and outcomes
for particular social groups depends on a host of other factors, and is a subject of much
dispute. This section will address two related questions through an examination of several
case studies: a) has producing more grain improved overall food consumption? b) Has the
GR improved nutrition?
How much increased grain production has led to improvements in food
consumption, particularly for the poor, is a subject of intense and polarized debate.
Proponents point to average per capita increases in food consumption globally and
regionally except in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia (Conway 1997). Critics argue
that food consumption figures are inflated by excessive consumption in the North,
including livestock feed, and that although the total food production per person has risen
in the last two decades, the number of hungry people has not been substantially reduced
in many regions of the world, particularly in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa (Rosset,
Collins, and Lappe 2000). Many times the numbers vary widely between the two
opposing sides. One of the problems with this issue is that it is difficult to attribute
causality in the analysis, because there are many other factors in addition to the Green
Revolution that influenced food consumption levels, and because there are few
opportunities to do empirical studies looking at regions before and after the onset of the
Green Revolution. Any empirical studies undertaken look at a village or a particular
region, and so generalizations are hard to make. Nonetheless, this section will examine
the limited studies that have been carried out to weigh the evidence, and will include
examples from Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as different crops and social
groups.
Most of the studies, which examine the causal linkages between agricultural
changes, including the Green Revolution, and nutrition, are small case studies in rural
communities, and focus on the effects on smallholder farmers (Braun, Bouis, and
Kennedy 1994; Lipton and Longhurst 1989). Much of the critiques surrounding the
Green Revolution, however, revolve around broader social trends brought about in part
by the Green Revolution, including changing land tenure arrangements that favour the
wealthy, widening gaps in income distribution, reduced real wages and considerable
environmental effects (Griffin 1974; Pearse 1980; Shiva 1989; Spitz 1987). Although the
nutritional outcomes are usually not measured in these studies, presumably changes in
these social and environmental factors would have effects on nutritional outcomes, and
hence will also be considered in the discussion below.
b) Case studies
A series of studies by International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
examined the effect of commercialization of cropping systems on income and nutrition
(Braun and Kennedy 1986; Braun and Kennedy 1994). Although not focused on the
effects of the Green Revolution technologies per se, the studies did examine the effects of
changes in the agricultural system, typically towards higher yields of particular crops, in
a given region in terms of income and nutrition. Overall the studies found that, although
in many cases the new agricultural technologies increased the incomes of some members
of a given community or region, there was a small, weak link between increased income
and calorie consumption (Braun, Hotchkiss, and Immink 1989; Braun, Johm, and Puetz
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1994; Braun and Kennedy 1986; Braun and Kennedy 1994; Braun, Puetz, and Webb
1989; Braun and Webb 1989). Furthermore, women’s roles in terms of agricultural
labour, childcare and control over income appeared to be crucial if positive nutritional
outcomes were to be found. Thus, there was no clear trend between increased
commercialization and nutritional outcomes; instead, it depended on the particular
historical, social and political context under which the changes took place. The
importance of context will be examined in more detail in the two case studies outlined
below, West Africa and South India, representing regions with different effects from
Green Revolution technologies.
A study by IFPRI in the Gambia examined an irrigated rice scheme introduced in
the 1980s by the Government of The Gambia. The project, owned and managed by the
state, provided households with ploughing services, fertilizers and hybrid seeds on a
credit basis (Braun, Johm, and Puetz 1994). The smallholder farming families associated
with the project were registered as tenants, and there were multiple technological options
for the farmers, including small-pump irrigation schemes and partly water-controlled
conditions in leveled fields, both with modest yield increases, to fully water-controlled
conditions in lands that are centrally irrigated and drained (Braun, Johm, and Puetz
1994). The project organizers specifically tried to maintain what had been traditional use
rights of women farmers for rice land, by prioritizing land rights for women during
official registration of plots. Although this study did not occur during the historical period
associated with the Green Revolution, it does utilize high-yielding varieties, fertilizers
and irrigation. The centrally managed aspect of the project makes it considerably
different from the experience of the Green Revolution in many other regions, but will
make for useful comparisons in terms of institutional approaches to managing
technological change and the related effects on nutrition and consumption.
Two major studies were done: an extensive cross-sectional survey of 900 farmers
in 10 villages in 1985-86 and 1987-88 (Braun, Puetz, and Webb 1989), and an intensive
qualitative examination of intra household dynamics of 22 households over the period of
one year (Webb 1989). The large survey does not have a baseline, and thus has to control
for confounding variables through multivariate analysis, which makes it difficult to
attribute causality. The qualitative study, with such a small sample, and with no baseline
to compare to, also suffers from a problem of confounding variables, and causality is
particularly difficult to attribute in this study. These research design limitations should be
kept in mind in considering the authors’ findings.
The large survey found that there was a loss of 531 calories in other crops for
every 1000 calories in rice production, leading to a net gain of 47% in calories produced
on-farm for those involved in rice production. Rice production increased real incomes by
13% per household, and an additional 10% of income increase led to a 9.4% increase in
food expenditures, and a 4.8% increase in calorie consumption. Thus, overall it appears
that the use of higher-yielding rice varieties led to considerable increases in food
consumption. In addition, however, there was a much higher cost per hectare to undertake
the irrigated rice plots, namely 15 times the swamp rice, due to the costs of fertilizer,
seeds, irrigation, hired labour, transport and threshing needs (Braun, Puetz, and Webb
1989). Thus, although the project led to increased yields, the overall benefit in terms of
consumption and nutrition were limited due to the additional non-food expenditures (i.e.
fertilizer, pesticides) to the household. Women’s agricultural labour was increased
slightly, while men’s agricultural labour decreased slightly. Upland cereals and
groundnut production were reduced due to reduced labour allocation to these crops by
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women, and the reduced control of women over the food crops was found to reduce
consumption levels significantly (2.2%) during the wet season, the period of greatest food
shortages in the Gambia. Thus the issue of intra household control of income was
inextricably linked to consumption and nutritional outcomes, and in this case the
‘package’ of inputs led to negative consequences.
Women involved with the irrigated rice scheme were more likely to bring their
youngest child with them to the rice fields in the wet season, but less likely to take their
older children with them into the field. These aspects of childcare were not integrated
into the model, so it is difficult to know what effects they had on child nutritional status.
However, other studies of the effects of reduced childcare time of mothers, often replaced
by older children, increases the likelihood of wasting or stunting, particularly for children
ages 6 to 18 months (Begin, Frongillo, and Delisle 1999; Gryboski 1996; Kennedy and
Cogill 1988).
The following characteristics were found to be determinants in who got access to
project land: location of village, size of compound, ethnicity, length of residence in
village, higher status of household and status of woman in household (Braun, Puetz, and
Webb 1989). Clearly the benefits from the project were not experienced equally in this
region, with the better-off household benefiting more. Despite attempts by the project to
maintain women’s right over traditional rice lands, the survey and qualitative study found
that the irrigated rice plots were considered communal rice plots, and as such were placed
under the control of the male household head (Webb 1989). Decision-making
responsibilities over crop storage and disposal were primarily men’s for the irrigated rice
plots. Only 10% of pump irrigated plots were controlled by women, although they
controlled 77% of the partly water-controlled fields (Braun, Puetz, and Webb 1989). This
change in land allocation meant that more time was spent by women and men on these
communal (irrigated) rice plots, and less time on private plots, including groundnuts,
swamp rice and other cereals.
There were several important nutritional outcomes noted from the study (Braun,
Johm, and Puetz 1994). First of all, women’s weight-for-height, an indicator of seasonal
low-energy intakes and high energy expenditures during the rainy season, fluctuated less
for women with the most access to the new rice technologies: 1.1 kilograms, compared to
2.9 kilograms for those with least access to the new technology. Less weight fluctuation
between the rainy and dry season, combined with an additional 500 calories, would likely
lead to improvements in birth weights, as previous studies on dietary supplementation of
pregnant women in the Gambia have indicated (Lawrence, Coward, Lawrence, Cole, and
Whitehead 1987; Prentice, Cole, Foord, Lamb, and Whitehead 1987). Secondly, the
increase in food energy consumption at the household level was significantly associated
with the weight-for-age Z score of children aged 7 to 120 months. Diarrhea, as expected,
was also an important explanatory variable in the regression analysis, as was the child’s
position within the household. Children of the compound head were significantly better
off in terms of weight-for-age compared to other children within the household.
Thus, this study indicates that, under the specific social and institutional
conditions of this project, the families involved with irrigated rice production using
hybrid rice varieties can improve the consumption and nutritional levels both at a general
household level and for women and children. Although women’s control over rice land
significantly increased consumption and children’s weight-for-age, women’s control of
rice land was lessened in the project, despite attempts to maintain their rights over rice
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land. In addition, the effect of diarrhea on child nutritional status continued to hold
despite improved consumption levels, as expected from the conceptual framework.
Further improvements to child nutritional status would need to address these two
aspects, as well as examine who did not benefit from the project because of social
inequities already inherent in the community. The authors conclude that efforts to
improve nutritional status with agricultural approaches need to focus on broad-based
policies, such as rural infrastructure, agricultural input delivery systems, labor saving
technologies, protecting women’s productive role in agriculture particularly in terms of
credit. Rural sanitation and health services also need to be considered, especially drinking
water (Braun and Webb 1989). Some unanswered questions from the study include what
the effects of the project were on landless families, particularly in terms of wages, and
whether their nutritional status was improved. It is noted that many women lost access to
private crops as a result of the project, and became hired labourers, but the implications
of this change for child nutritional status are not measured. In addition the switch from
groundnuts and other cereals to rice might have additional nutritional consequences, but
since there is no dietary measurement in the survey, it is not known what outcomes there
might be for intakes of micronutrients and protein, for example. The overall crosssectional design of the project provides limited insight into the long-term effects of the
agricultural project for the region.
A study in South India carried out surveys in 1973/74 and 1982/83, as well as a
smaller survey in 1983/84 (Hazell, Ramasamy, Rajagopalan, Aiyasamy, and Bliven
1991). The ‘Green Revolution’ in India was already well underway when the initial
survey was conducted, so this study does not provide a baseline, but it does examine
changes over time in 11 villages that experienced the effects of the Green Revolution, so
some broader conclusions can be made. An additional problem with the survey design is
that 1982/83 was a high rainfall year, so yields were higher than normal. However the
additional resurvey in 1983/84 of the poorer villages provides some basis for their
conclusions.
The study finds little overall change in food production, since increases in paddy
rice production were offset by reductions in groundnut production (Hazell et al. 1991).
Labour and fertilizer costs are increased while net farm incomes are decreased for both
large and small farms, indicating the role of non-food expenditures, namely fertilizer and
labour costs, at least partially offset any gains in income and/or yields. Total crop
employment decreased for small farms and increased for large farms, but there was little
overall increase in farm employment because of mechanization. This finding supports
critics of the Green Revolution, in that the combination of pesticide use, monocropping,
and the association of the Green Revolution technologies with large landholding farmers
meant that mechanization increased, particularly for large farms (Lipton and Longhurst
1989). Herbicide spraying and the introduction of tractors and two-wheeled power tillers
have increased dramatically throughout the South (Conway 1997). A study of northern
Indian states estimate that combines led to a 95 per cent reduction in employment,
particularly difficult for seasonal migrants coming from poorer states (Conway 1997).
Declines in labour demand has also been noted for the Philippines and Indonesia for rice
cultivation, from mechanical direct seeding, multi-row transplanters, rotary weeders and
mechanized threshing and milling (Conway, 1997). Although mechanization does not
have to be associated with high-yielding seeds, it often is in practice, because of the
strong linkages between access to credit, scaling up farm sizes, and the political strength
of large landholders in many regions (Lipton and Longhurst 1989).
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Hazell et al. (1991) note in the South India case study that net wage earnings
declined for hired farm labour, although overall income increased by about 30% for
farmers and labourers and 20% for non-agriculturalists. The distribution of land overall
appears to be worsened, although not statistically significantly, while some villages have
statistically significant changes in land distribution. The extent to which these changes
can be directly attributed to the Green Revolution is unknown, since the authors do not do
multivariate analysis and there are a multitude of confounding variables, including
considerable annual variability in income and yields. A qualitative sub-study of 3 of the
villages in 1983-84, one of which had been previously studied by the author, indicate a
decline in the relative share of cultivation as a source of income, and an increase in the
number of people depending on wage work (Harriss 1991). Harriss finds little evidence
for increased income differentiation, but given the small sample size, and the fact that the
region has proportionally far fewer tenants compared to the rest of India, his findings are
unlikely to hold true at a broader scale. Another study in South India found that the ratio
of rent to wage doubled in the 1970s, meaning that real wages declined (Lipton and
Longhurst 1989). Even according to major proponents of the Green Revolution
acknowledge that the major benefits from the technologies have gone primarily to the
landowners rather than the labourers (Lipton and Longhurst 1989); (Conway 1997).
The South India study also considered food consumption and nutrition changes,
through the measurement of food expenditures during monthly purchase surveys
(Pinstrup-Anderson and Jaramillo 1991). Since the researchers measured food purchase
rather than food intake, it is difficult to assess the overall effect on food consumption,
given the considerable ‘leakage’ of food through waste, exchange, gifts, payment to hired
help and so on (Bouis and Haddad 1990). In addition it is not known how much food is
gathered or produced at home, nor is it known the intrahousehold distribution of food
intake from this method, thus making inferences in terms of nutritional outcomes
difficult. Nonetheless, the authors found an increase in the purchase of meat, eggs, dairy
and vegetables, while less rice was purchased. They then compared the food expenditure
patterns to the required daily allowances, and concluded that there is an increase in
calorie consumption in the high rainfall year (1983). There was no test of significance for
the poor rainfall year (1982), and it appears that there is little difference between 1973
and 1982 in terms of calorie consumption, which makes any conclusions made about
changes in consumption due to agricultural changes highly suspect.
c) Effect on Food Prices
One of the major expected results of the Green Revolution is a fall in prices of
staple foods, due to an increase in production (Conway 1997). Lipton and Longhurst
(Lipton and Longhurst 1989) argue that these benefits have been largely passed on to
employers, who have depressed real wages as food prices have been reduced. In addition,
they suggest that the expected increase in employment opportunities due to an increase in
yields has been largely offset by labour-displacing technologies, such as weedicides and
threshers. A recent study by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development
(UNCTAD) of the 49 least developed countries suggests that 307 million people live on
less than a dollar a day, and that real wages have been depressed with increased
globalization (Lipton and Longhurst 1989). The effects of the Green Revolution on
wages or food prices is difficult to measure, given the limited ‘pre-Green Revolution’
studies, and few studies attempt to examine food prices or real wages at a regional or
local level, or measure the potential nutritional effects. One study carried out in
Bangladesh examined the effects of a dramatic fall in rice prices (as a result of explicit
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government policy rather than the Green Revolution) on child nutritional status (HKI
1996). They sampled over 180,000 children aged 6-59 months, measuring weight and
height, over a period of 4 years, every 6 months, and compared this data to rice prices.
They tried to control for confounding socio-economic household variables such as
landholding, occupation, food expenditure, and consumption in their multivariate
regression analysis. They found that children at all income levels showed relative
improvement in nutritional status, but that children from the highest income quintiles
tended to benefit the most. The authors conclude that the poorest households need to see
improvements in purchasing power (i.e. wages) in order to be able to deal with
fluctuating food prices. The question of whether a decrease in grain prices led to
increases in consumption, therefore, remains unanswered to a large degree.
Another critique of the Green Revolution is that the prices of other food crops,
particularly pulses, have risen as these crops have become scarcer. In South Asia,
production of pulses has declined by approximately 20% in since 1970 leading some
authors to suggest that the decline may be a major cause of an increase in iron deficiency
in the region during the same period (Welch and Graham 2000). Although rice prices
have declined by 40%, the real prices of pulses, vegetables and animal products have
increased by 25-50% in the last 25 years (Bouis, Graham, and Welch 2000). It is known
that legumes have less iron available than meat products, however there are multiple
factors that iron absorption, including vitamin C, ascorbic acid, fermented foods, and
legumes may contain all or some of these factors (Hallberg, Rossander-Hulten, and Brune
1992). In addition, some of the grains that were increased by the Green Revolution, such
as maize, contain high levels of phytates, which would reduce iron absorption (Hallberg,
Rossander-Hulten, and Brune 1992).
d) Broad trends post-Green Revolution
While it is difficult to point to specific empirical studies that document
statistically significant changes in food consumption and nutrition,, due to the inherent
difficulties of finding longitudinal studies that measured all the factors before and after
the Green Revolution, it is possible to point to some broad trends about environmental
and social conseqences that came about, at least in part, due to the Green Revolution.
These broad trends are intimately linked to the modernization project of which Green
Revolution was a part.
Environmental and Health Consequences
There are a host of environmental and health consequences, widely documented,
directly linked with the model of agriculture that the Green Revolution espoused, and
which have implications for food consumption and nutrition. Overuse of fertilizers, in
combination with irrigation has led to excessive nutrient loading in water systems,
eutrophication, groundwater depletion, contamination of groundwater systems with
nitrates, salinization and other environmental effects. The varieties promoted during the
Green Revolution were bred to be more efficient in nutrient uptake, and to convert more
nutrients to grain, as opposed to stalks, leaves or roots. Consequently, more nutrients are
drawn from the soil, particularly with poor farmers, who apply less fertilizer due to
financial constraints, and who also often have less fertile soil (Lipton and Longhurst
1989). Nutrient depletion increases, particularly under poor farmer conditions, and if this
process is done concurrently with monocropping, there is little organic matter returned to
the soil. In addition, a focus on yield and ‘modernizing farming’ in many cases
encouraged farmers to abandon other cropping practices that maintain good soil structure
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and organic matter, such as intercropping, crop rotation, manuring and incorporation of
stubble.
There is considerable evidence that soil fertility is declining in many parts of the
South, where soils are often less fertile to begin with. One study in Java, Indonesia,
estimated that rain-fed cropland had in excess of 50 ton/ha of topsoil lost per year
(Magrath and Arens 1987). Although there are a number of problems with aggregating
data at such a large scale, one study examining soil losses throughout Africa indicate that
soil fertility is being depleted at a rate of 22 kg/ha annually, with particular regions
having greater losses (Smaling, Nandwa, and Janssen 1997). Another study suggested
that soil erosion in sub-Saharan Africa caused between 2-40% yield losses, and an
estimated loss of 3.6 million tons of cereal production in 1989 (Lal 1995). A report by the
Government of India suggests that crop productivity is declining in Haryana and Punjab
states, regions where the Green Revolution technologies have been widely implemented
(Government of India 1998). Furthermore, the non-grain outputs of crops, such as
stubble, leaves and roots, have had important uses such as livestock feed and fuel,
particularly for poor farmers (Shiva 1989). With an increased output in grain, there is a
subsequent decline in biomass in other parts of the plant, which can mean a loss in fuel
and livestock feed sources and an increased workload for women in gathering outside
fuel and feed sources (Lipton and Longhurst 1989).
Another critical environmental and health effect of the Green Revolution is the
increased use of pesticides. Although plant breeders have bred new varieties for increased
pest resistance, they have also tested the crops under pesticide use, and the seeds have
typically been promoted with the use of pesticides (Lipton and Longhurst 1989).
Furthermore, most high-yielding varieties have been grown under irrigation, and with the
addition of fertilizer and monocropping, creates an ideal environment for pest and weed
growth. Pesticide use rose to over half a billion tons in the developing world by the
1980s, accounting for 1/5 of global production, with a much higher rate of insecticides,
which are more toxic to humans and other organisms compared to herbicides (Conway
1997). India expanded the hectarage of pesticide application from 6 million hectares in
1960 to 80 million hectares in 1980. Estimates suggest that there are over half a million
cases of accidental pesticide poisoning and 2,300 deaths annually around the world, but
these figures are likely underestimates, since the symptoms are often misdiagnosed with
epilepsy, brain tumors and strokes (Conway 1997). In addition to the obvious human
health implications, excessive pesticide use can increase pest outbreaks by increasing
resistance in pest populations while eliminating natural pest predators (Conway 1997).
Broader environmental effects resulting from the industrial model of agriculture
put forward by the Green Revolution include acid rain, global warming and ozone
depletion, due to the increased use of fossil fuels (via fertilizer production and increased
mechanization), ammonia and nitrous oxide release from fertilizers and many other
complex processes related to agriculture (Conway 1997).
All of these environmental effects have implications for food consumption and
nutrition, through complex and inter-related pathways.Pesticide residue on foods is linked
to increased cancer rates. High levels of nitrates in groundwater can cause
methaemoglobinaemia or ‘blue baby syndrome’, which deprives infants of oxygen and
can cause mortality during the first few months of life. Excessive nutrient loading in
natural water systems can reduce fish and other aquatic populations, which reduces the
potential food sources for local populations. Hence some argue that there has been
considerable decline in the environment, particularly for the poor, in the last 30 years in
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India (Agarwal 1994), and Conway, a major proponent of the technological advances of
the Green Revolution, suggests that the environmental consequences are very grave on a
global scale, and particularly in the South.
Concentration of Power and Control
Many of the critics of the Green Revolution have pointed to broader trends of
increased concentration of power in a few large agribusinesses, as a result of an increased
dependency on fertilizer, pesticides and other inputs (Oasa 1987; Rosset, Collins, and
Lappe 2000; Shiva 1989; Spitz 1987). The industrial model of agriculture used in the
West and promoted as part of the Green Revolution is linked to a tremendous
concentration of farms, agribusiness and food corporations in the United States and
around the world (Lyson and Raymer 2000). A few transnational firms are coming to
dominate agrochemicals, seeds, pharmaceuticals and animal products around the
world(Lyson and Raymer 2000). In addition to the global picture, in local regions there
has been an increase in corporate control and large farm concentration. Agarwal argues
that the Green Revolution increased and entrenched social inequities in India, particularly
along gender lines, by focusing on technical approaches to reducing hunger and poverty,
and by linking the technology to purchased inputs and access to land (Agarwal 1994;
Agarwal 1997). Although the Green Revolution cannot be causally attributed with this
trend, there is a high probability that there are direct linkages between the processes of
the Green Revolution and a higher concentration of agribusinesses’ power and control
over the food system.
Conclusions
Thus, the case studies and general discussion above suggest the following:
- consumption levels may have increased for farmers, but the costs of inputs
may have offset some of the yield gains and it is not clear that the yield
increases would have translated into improvements in child nutrition, due to
the many factors between increases in food and resources and child intake.
- consumption levels of the urban poor and landless may not have increased due
to a decrease in real wages and reduced purchasing power; in addition, there
may have been a reduction in intake of pulses, vegetables and meat due to
prices increases in these foods, which may in some cases be linked to the
Green Revolution;
- the Green Revolution may have increased inequalities in communities due to
increased mechanization and decreased labour opportunities for the poor;
- there were severe environmental impacts from the Green Revolution, which
have effects on consumption and nutrition for the poor.
- Increased concentration of power and control over the food system is one
outcome that can be linked, although not causally, to the Green Revolution.
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