6. Lessons from the green revolution

Technical background document
Executive summary
FAO, 1996

The preparation of the World Food Summit technical background documents (TBDs) has mobilized, in addition to FAO�s own staff contribution, a considerable amount of expertise in the international scientific community, drawn from partner international institutions and governmental or non-governmental circles. The process has been monitored at FAO by an internal Reading Committee, composed of staff selected ad personam, and established to ensure that the whole collection meets appropriate quality and consistency criteria.

The present document has been collated by FAO�s Stein W. Bie, with inputs from Henri Carsalade, R.B. Singh, Vivian Timon, Jeff Tschirley, Nadia Scialabba and other FAO colleagues, with guidance from Norman E. Borlaug and suggestions from M.S. Swaminathan and the Oversight Panel of FAO�s Sustainable Development Department. After an initial review within FAO by technical departments and the Reading Committee, a first version was published and circulated for comments to governments, inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) as well as to peer reviewers identified in the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). Much appreciated comments and advice have been received from P.A. Sanchez, International Center for Research in Agroforestry (ICRAF), Kenya; T.G. Reeves, International Centre for Maize and Wheat Improvement (CIMMYT), Mexico; R. Barker, International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI), Sri Lanka; L. Brader, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), Nigeria; A. El-Beltagy, International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Syrian Arab Republic; P. Pinstrup-Andersen and P. Hazell, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), United States. Useful comments also came from M. Pi�eiro, Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA); K.M. Leisinger (Switzerland); and N. Myers and M. Lipton (United Kingdom).

While grateful for the contributions received from all reveiwers, the FAO secretariat bears the responsibility for the content of the document.

Executive summary

The green revolution, which began in the 1960s, is widely seen as a global technological achievement, the effects of which are still being felt today. The introduction of improved varieties, irrigation, pesticides and mineral fertilizers for key commodity crops, accompanied by investment in institutional infrastructure and ongoing research programmes, raised food production and productivity on a wide scale. While the productivity gains in rice and wheat in Asia have been especially significant, many farmers growing crops in other regions have also achieved productivity increases during the last three decades. However, in the light of constant population growth and a diminishing land area to produce food, the challenge to continue to increase productivity and to introduce in the poorer, food-insecure countries the necessary tools for doing so remains.

At the time of the green revolution and up to the present day, science and technology have occupied a position of paramount importance in providing tools for increasing food production. Today, as part of a continuing and ongoing learning process, it is also possible to address a range of social, economic and environmental factors that affect the food production process. Experience and knowledge accumulated during the last 30 years confirm the strong influence that market forces, government policy and prevailing social and cultural forces have on technological packages. These must be addressed if progress is to be sustained.

In fact, the research focus has already begun to be broadened to more varied crops and animals (including cropping systems), increased emphasis on integrated pest management and plant nutrition, and adoption of ecoregional approaches to research to reflect prevailing biological and physical constraints.

In Africa and Latin America increased food production has partly been based on expanding the cropping area, often into marginal areas with lower sustainable yield potential. Incentives for farmers to increase their productivity have been minimal as a result of low labour productivity, dysfunctional markets and limited access to mechanization and energy sources.

Research institutions can still achieve sizeable yield increases with conventional research tools, although new tools are becoming available; many more crops and animal breeds can still be improved. One important objective is to narrow the gap between the yields achieved in research programmes and those realized by the farmers in their fields. This can be achieved by concentrating on new ways of communicating with farmers, rejuvenating extension systems, conducting more participatory research and constant training.

The role of biotechnology is still the subject of intense international debate concerning ethics, safety and intellectual property rights. Experience suggests it may be a further ten to 20 years before the full benefits are realized by farmers in developing countries.

The following characteristics will be central to the continuing evolution of the green revolution:

restructuring of the linkages between international and national research centres and extension services in order to have greater involvement of stakeholders and sensitivity to national and community food security priorities;
continued advances in science and technology to produce the basic foods that people need but with stronger emphasis on mixed farming systems, staple crops, livestock, poultry and fish;
policy reform that addresses access to capital, incentives for investment in research and productivity-enhancing farming systems;
promotion of more equitable distribution of benefits by devising productivity-enhancing strategies that exploit the comparative advantage of different gender groups and benefit lower-income food-insecure groups.

An important and still debated strategic question is how best to assist people who live in areas where sufficient food production is not possible. There are few successful models to follow, but the needs are great. Economic and environmental factors argue for investing in land with the best potential for sustainable production increases. However, strategies must also allow for improving human living conditions and well-being in the poorly endowed areas.

Strategies include greater emphasis on education and job-related training, diversification from agriculture to other sectors, investment in agricultural processing and marketing capacity to add value to feasible products, and special government support programmes. Improved national and regional transport infrastructure could be part of strategies to assist lower-potential areas by facilitating the movement of food to markets in exchange for goods or services produced in those areas. Although most options are politically and culturally sensitive and are difficult to implement, new and innovative approaches must be tried and solutions found.

Experience has shown that science and technology are essential but cannot by themselves solve the food security problems of developing countries. Appropriate social, economic and institutional factors must also be present in order to maintain what has been accomplished so far.

6. Lessons from the green revolution

Contents

Acknowledgements

Executive summary