What is the Green Revolution?

The term 'green revolution' was first used in 1968 by USAID director William Gaud to characterize the extraordinary success of high-yielding hybrids in developing nations such as India.

The success story began in the 1940s in Mexico when Norman Borlaug, an American researcher, joined an all-American team working at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Mexico, on a wheat research project partially funded by the Rockefeller foundation.

Borlaug created a great deal of hybrid wheat varieties by backcrossing and crossing enormous numbers of plants. He began by crossing American high-yielding wheat cultivars with Japanese dwarf types, resulting in semi-dwarf plants that were resistant to lodging; he then crossed disease-resistant plants with the semi-dwarf plants, and finally created wheat rust resistant semi-dwarf high-yielding wheat varieties that were commercialized in the 1960s.

He also promoted worldwide multilocation testing, which is how some seeds ended up in the fields of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi. Over the course of these 20 years, the wheat yield in Mexico increased by more than six times.

Geneticist Dr. M. S. Swaminathan recognized the potential of semi-dwarf plants at the institute: they can tolerate a relatively higher nitrogen fertilizer dosage without growing overly tall, which will result in a significant increase in India's wheat yield.

Following Dr. B P Pal's request, the then-director of IARI asked C. Subramaniam, the then-minister of Agriculture, to set up a visit by Norman Borlaug to India. In 1963, 100 kg of the best seeds were imported from Mexico because of Subramaniam's political influence; it was soon discovered that the Mexican varieties adapted well to the environmental conditions of India. By 1965, several hundred tons of seeds were sent to both India and Pakistan.

Eventually, India became self-sufficient in the production of cereal crops despite a very high population growth rate; wheat yields in Pakistan doubled during this period, rising from 12.3 million tons in 1965 to 20.1 million tons in 1970.

As the original father of the green revolution, Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his efforts to reduce world hunger. His contributions to this movement had a positive impact on socioeconomic growth in many latin American and Asian countries.

A recipient of several distinguished honors and distinctions, including the inaugural World Food Prize, Dr. M. S. Swaminathan has been named by Time magazine as one of the two most influential Asians of the 20th century, after Mahatma Gandhi.

The Green Revolution refers to a series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives that took place between the 1940s and the late 1960s, primarily focused on agricultural practices. The aim was to increase food production globally, particularly in developing countries, through the adoption of high-yielding varieties of crops, the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides, and improvements in irrigation techniques and mechanization. The Green Revolution is credited with significantly boosting agricultural productivity and helping to alleviate hunger and poverty in many parts of the world, but it also led to environmental concerns, such as soil degradation, water pollution, and loss of biodiversity.