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Green Revolution

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Green Revolution
Green revolution has been one of the most visible forms of globalisation. This has brought about some kind of interconnectedness amongst countries. With this interconnectedness comes a form of contradiction within the Green Revolution strategy. This essay will consider important aspects such as the impact that Green revolution has had on the world as a whole, specifically Asia. This essay will also critically discuss the dominant tenets and power relations involved in the process of the green revolution phenomenon.

Green Revolution can be defined as “the rapid growth in the Third World grain output associated with the introduction of a new package of tropical agricultural inputs” (Cleaver, 1972: 177). This phenomenon became a strategy that came in an agricultural package with the means of favouring the capitalist countries by bringing more profit. A group of Mexicans came together in 1943 and developed a program that dealt with agricultural research that brought about green Revolution. With the spread of globalisation, the Green Revolution had become an economic phenomenon with the help of other organisations such as the Agricultural Development Council (Cleaver, 1972: 178). The Green Revolution strategy came in a package that consisted of many forms of fertilisers and irrigation methods which were aiming at changing the agricultural systems. The capitalist countries introduced seeds that would be expensive for the poor to purchase, in order to gain more control over the agricultural market industry. The First World countries brought about such as pesticides which were intensified with chemicals and had a huge effect on the natural agricultural system (Cleaver, 1972: 184).

The capitalists claimed that the Green Revolution strategy was developed in order to aid the poor countries and teach them ways of sustainable farming, to increase the availability of food for the poor (Shiva, 1991). Instead the Green Revolution was all in favour of the First World countries



References: • Harry M, The Contradictions of the Green Revolution The American Economic Review, Vol.62, No1/2 (Mar. 1972), pp. 177-186 • Lakshman Yapa, What are the Improved seeds? An Epistemology of the Green Revolution Economic Geography, Vol. 69, No. 3, pp. 254-273 • Joy Asiema, ‘Africa’s Green Revolution’, Biotechnology and Development Monitor, No. 19, 1994, pp. 17-18 • Vandana Shiva , The Green Revolution in the Punjab, The Ecologist, Vol. 21, No. 2, March-April 1991.

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