Professor of College of Bioresource Sciences, Nihon University
Introduction
The world population has increased at a higher rate than was ever experienced before the war, and food demand has increased rapidly as a result of a population explosion in the developing countries after the second world war. However, although the world food supply has had several crisis periods, up until now the expansion of supply has been sufficient to cope with the increased demand without permanent worldwide shortages.(1) The Green Revolution has made a significant contribution towards avoiding a global scale Malthusian crisis which may have occurred if the food supply had not been expanded.
As is commonly known, the Green Revolution is the realization of a worldwide increase in grain production by popularizing new breeds of high yielding varieties which have been developed by the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in Los Banos, Philippines, an international agricultural research institute originally established by the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations in the 1960's, and popularization of new breeds of corn and wheat developed by the [Current International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre] (CIMMYT) which the Rockefeller Foundations has been promoting since the 1940's in Mexico. This development of 'High Yielding Varieties' is defined as a typical example of international agricultural technological transfer from developed countries, such as America and Japan to developing countries.
In this chapter, which only covers rice as it has special significance in Asia, the Green Revolution will first be considered from a technical angle, then economically and socially, and finally we will try to appraise its future prospects.
1. Technical Appraisal of the Green Revolution
Technical reformation is the core of the Green Revolution and has involved
