Book [PDF] Beyond The Green Revolution Download

Author: Kenneth Dahlberg
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 1461329108
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
This book, which is the result of an intellectual odyssey, began as an attempt to explore and map the environmental and cross-cultural dimensions of the continuing spread of the green revolution-that package of high-yielding varieties of grain, fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides that constitutes the core of modern industrial agriculture. In the process of traversing the terrain of several intellectual traditions and cutting through various disciplinary forests and thickets, a number of striking observations were made-all leading to two sober ing conclusions. First, most intellectual maps dealing with agriculture fail to recognize it as the basic interface between human societies and their environment. Because of this, they are little better than the "flat earth" maps of earlier centuries in helping to understand global realities. Second, when agriculture is analyzed from a global perspec tive that takes evolution seriously, one sees that the ecological risks as well as the energy and social costs of modern industrial agriculture make it largely inappropriate for developing countries. Beyond that, one can see a great need within industrialized countries to develop less costly, less risky, and more sustainable agricultural alternatives. Early in the journey it became clear that conventional disciplinary approaches were inadequate to comprehend the scope and diversity of global agriculture and that a new multilevel approach was needed. It also became clear that any new approach would have to try to correct certain Western biases and blind spots.

Author: Robert Chambers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description

Author: Edward C. Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 54

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Book Description
After 20 years, the "green revolution" is generally referred to as a milestone in the international agricultural movement. The introduction of new varieties of wheat and rice, along with fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized farm equipment has produced a dramatic increase in world food production. This paper assesses the successes of the green revolution in light of its effect upon third world countries. It cautions that the revolutionary gains in agricultural production have not been distributed evenly. This uneven distribution of productivity is discussed in the first chapter, "Productivity Reconsidered." The second chapter, "Beyond the Green Revolution," considers the need for new crop varieties and technologies (including biotechnologies) but argues that tomorrow's innovations must be more consistent with regional agricultural traditions. This approach will help to avoid some of the environmental and social costs associated with the agricultural technologies utilized during the green revolution. The third chapter, "Rediscovering Traditional Agriculture," examines the benefits and limitations of traditional methods of agriculture, indicating that these practices should provide the basis for new practices, rather than be swept aside as archaic. "Toward Appropriate Biotechnology" discusses some of the possible contributions offered by biotechnology as tools for more efficient and sustainable agriculture. The document concludes with a call for additional research in sustainable agriculture productivity. (TW)

Author: Edward C. Wolf
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 56

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Book Description
After 20 years, the "green revolution" is generally referred to as a milestone in the international agricultural movement. The introduction of new varieties of wheat and rice, along with fertilizers, pesticides, and mechanized farm equipment has produced a dramatic increase in world food production. This paper assesses the successes of the green revolution in light of its effect upon third world countries. It cautions that the revolutionary gains in agricultural production have not been distributed evenly. This uneven distribution of productivity is discussed in the first chapter, "Productivity Reconsidered." The second chapter, "Beyond the Green Revolution," considers the need for new crop varieties and technologies (including biotechnologies) but argues that tomorrow's innovations must be more consistent with regional agricultural traditions. This approach will help to avoid some of the environmental and social costs associated with the agricultural technologies utilized during the green revolution. The third chapter, "Rediscovering Traditional Agriculture," examines the benefits and limitations of traditional methods of agriculture, indicating that these practices should provide the basis for new practices, rather than be swept aside as archaic. "Toward Appropriate Biotechnology" discusses some of the possible contributions offered by biotechnology as tools for more efficient and sustainable agriculture. The document concludes with a call for additional research in sustainable agriculture productivity. (TW)

Author: Bertram Hughes Farmer
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521249423
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 412

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Book Description
This book is a critical examination of the truth behind the stereotype that there is a Green Revolution in agricultural technology. Twenty-one specialists in the field of development studies look at the reality of agrarian change, either through historical analysis, or through in-depth village field-work, or from their experience as development planners.

Author: Benjamin Robert Siegel
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108695051
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 294

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Book Description
This ambitious and engaging new account of independent India's struggle to overcome famine and malnutrition in the twentieth century traces Indian nation-building through the voices of politicians, planners, and citizens. Siegel explains the historical origins of contemporary India's hunger and malnutrition epidemic, showing how food and sustenance moved to the center of nationalist thought in the final years of colonial rule. Independent India's politicians made promises of sustenance and then qualified them by asking citizens to share the burden of feeding a new and hungry state. Foregrounding debates over land, markets, and new technologies, Hungry Nation interrogates how citizens and politicians contested the meanings of nation-building and citizenship through food, and how these contestations receded in the wake of the Green Revolution. Drawing upon meticulous archival research, this is the story of how Indians challenged meanings of welfare and citizenship across class, caste, region, and gender in a new nation-state.

Author: Kenneth Dahlberg
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 9781461329114
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
This book, which is the result of an intellectual odyssey, began as an attempt to explore and map the environmental and cross-cultural dimensions of the continuing spread of the green revolution-that package of high-yielding varieties of grain, fertilizers, irrigation, and pesticides that constitutes the core of modern industrial agriculture. In the process of traversing the terrain of several intellectual traditions and cutting through various disciplinary forests and thickets, a number of striking observations were made-all leading to two sober ing conclusions. First, most intellectual maps dealing with agriculture fail to recognize it as the basic interface between human societies and their environment. Because of this, they are little better than the "flat earth" maps of earlier centuries in helping to understand global realities. Second, when agriculture is analyzed from a global perspec tive that takes evolution seriously, one sees that the ecological risks as well as the energy and social costs of modern industrial agriculture make it largely inappropriate for developing countries. Beyond that, one can see a great need within industrialized countries to develop less costly, less risky, and more sustainable agricultural alternatives. Early in the journey it became clear that conventional disciplinary approaches were inadequate to comprehend the scope and diversity of global agriculture and that a new multilevel approach was needed. It also became clear that any new approach would have to try to correct certain Western biases and blind spots.

Author: M. S. Swaminathan
Publisher: World Scientific Publishing Company
ISBN: 9813200073
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
The green revolution in India about 50 years ago transformed India's image then as begging bowl to bread basket. This transformation during the 1960s took just about 4 years. The yield increases achieved in wheat and then in rice which occurred in just about half decade is far in excess of the yield increases during the preceding 4000 years. This remarkable feat was achieved with the leadership of the author using the dwarf wheat types which had been produced by Norman Borlaug in Mexico. The research and development of green revolution of wheat and rice at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi was led by the author along with his team of students and co-workers. He has published over 100 papers on green revolution and the ever-green revolution which is a refinement of the former. This book is a compilation of just about 40 of his numerous research papers, monographs and books published by him on this subject. The papers in this book bring out the scientific basis of the modification of the plant type so as to be responsive to exogenous addition of chemical fertilizers and irrigation. The ideal plant type enables capture of adequate sunlight and using the chemical fertilizers added to the soil, produce substantial photosynthetic starch. And because the plants have short and thick culm, they are able to withstand enormous amounts of grains in their ears. This indeed was the basis of breaking the yield barriers associated with native varieties. The book also brings out that green revolution had established the food security at the national level but not at the individual household levels of millions of resource-poor rural small and marginal farming, fishing and landless families. Further green revolution was commodity-centric and the manner of its practice led to environmental degradation and social inequities. This author realized as early as 1972 that system of agriculture in India should be designed to fight both the famines of food and rural livelihoods. In pursuit of it, this author further designed an evergreen revolution with systems approach. What this means is providing concurrent attention to ecological foundations of agriculture and the livelihoods of the rural people. The book also brings out that green revolution was a team effort involving scientists, policy makers, administrators, farmers and students. This book is an outstanding example of green revolution providing a breathing space by putting the cereal grain production rate ahead of the population growth rate and then when food security has been adequately established, the system is changed to achieve productivity in perpetuity without causing environmental and social harm.