Green Revolution vs. Sustainable Agriculture

Evolution of Agriculture

  • Timeline:
    • Prehistory
    • Agricultural Revolution
    • Historical Agriculture
    • Feudal Agriculture
    • Scientific Agriculture
    • Green Revolution (GR)

Green Revolution (GR)

  • Definition: A series of research, development, and technology transfer initiatives (1943-1970s).
  • Involved: High-yielding cereal grains, irrigation, hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides.
  • Goal: Increase agricultural efficiency and crop productivity to meet growing population needs.
  • Notable Names:
    • Norman Borlaug: Father of the Green Revolution; Nobel Peace Prize in 1970; credited with saving over a billion lives.
    • Yuan Longping: Work on hybrid rice varieties credited with saving many lives.

GR Agricultural Techniques

  • Extensive use of chemical fertilizers (nitrogen application).
  • Irrigation.
  • Use of heavy machinery.
  • Pesticides and herbicides.
  • Techniques in plant transformation:
    • Recombinant DNA: using biological vectors like plasmids and viruses to carry foreign genes into cells.
    • Agrobacterium-mediated gene transfer: using agrobacterium tumefaciens.
    • Direct gene transfer methods: Particle bombardment, biolistic plant transformation, electro and chemical poration, silicon carbide fibers, hybridization.

Impacts of Green Revolution

  • Socio-economic:
    • Food security.
    • Problems with quality of diet.
    • Socio-economic impacts: debt for small farmers.
    • Globalization: international agricultural research; new markets for seed and chemical corporations.
    • Social change and sustainability issues.
  • Environmental:
    • Pesticide use.
    • Water issues: intensive water use, drying rivers, compromised water quality (salinization, eutrophication).
    • Biodiversity loss.
    • Health impact: consumption of crops with chemicals and pesticides; poor farming practices.
    • Pesticides and cancer concerns.
  • Silent Spring:
    • Rachel Carson's book (1962) exposed hazards of DDT.
    • Questioned faith in technological progress.
    • United States banned DDT in 1972.

Positive Aspects of GR

  • Increase in production/yield.
  • Resistant varieties.
  • Produce higher yields on less land
  • Impact on green house gas emissions – GM crops (less pesticide application and energy use in soil cultivation); no-till and reduced till farming system

Disadvantages of GR

  • Poor farmers couldn't afford HYV seeds, leading to debt.
  • HYV seeds need more water and fertilizer.
  • New machinery led to unemployment and rural-urban migration.
  • Soil fertility loss.

Organic Farming Disadvantages

  • Increased risk of E. coli infection.
  • Small yields compared to conventional farming.
  • Expanding cropland destroys ecosystems.
  • Limited impact on global climate change.

Steps to introduce second green revolution

  • Genetically modified (GM) seeds to double the per acreage production i.e. technology
  • Private sector to develop and market the usage of Genetically Modified foods i.e. efficient marketing of the ideas,
  • Linking of rivers as much as economically possible to bring surplus water of one area to others i.e. linking of the rivers

Sustainable Agriculture

  • Definition: Farming in sustainable ways meeting society’s present food and textile needs, without compromising the ability for current or future generations to meet their needs.
  • Based on understanding ecosystem services.
  • Involves preventing adverse effects to soil, water, biodiversity.
  • Efficient use of nonrenewable and on-farm resources; integrates natural biological cycles.
  • Elements: permaculture, agroforestry, mixed farming, multiple cropping, and crop rotation.
  • Factors affecting sustainability: nutrients, soil, land, energy and water.

Agroecosystem and food system approach

  • Agro-Ecosystem-based Cropping System Approach
    • Higher crop Productivity
    • Diversified Production
    • Higher NUE
    • Higher WUE
    • Contingency Planning
    • Natural Recourse Conservation
    • Less Disturbance in Ecology
    • Tolerant to Climatic Stress
    • Carbon Sequestration
    • Nitrogen-Saving
    • GHGs Mitigation
    • Higher Ecosystem Services
    • Food Security
    • System Resilience
    • Climate change

Conservation and Sustainability

  • Maintaining genetic diversity of crops and animal breeds.
  • Soil organic matter as a nutrient source and sink.

Sustainable Agriculture and Society

  • Requires diverse knowledge base, integrating formal science and local knowledge.
  • Social institutions promoting education, innovation, and partnerships.

Conclusion

  • Social, economic, and environmental sustainability are intertwined and necessary for sustainable agriculture.
  • Policies must integrate social, environmental, and economic interests.

'Evergreen Revolution'

  • Coined by M. S. Swaminathan in 1990, builds on GR with an ecological dimension.
  • "Productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm".

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

  • PEST CONTROL STRATEGY
    • THIS STRATEGY EXISTED IN 1970'S IN RESPONSE TO GROWING KNOWLEDGE ABOUT THE NEGATIVE SIDE-EFFECTS OF PESTICIDE OVERUSE.
    • EXAMPLE: GREEN REVOLUTION

ADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

  • IT CONTROLS OR LESSEN THE CONTAMINATION IN SOIL AND DEGRADE THE KILLING NONTARGET ORGANISMS
  • MAINTAINING A BALANCED ECOSYSTEM
  • REDUCES THE RISK OF ACCIDENTAL POISONING OR ACCUMULATION OF TOXINS IN OUR BODIES
  • REDUCES THE POTENTIAL FOR AIR CONTAMINATION

DISADVANTAGES OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT

  • More involvement in the technicalities of the method
  • Needs time and resources to develop the strategy
  • Close monitoring is requested
  • Limited effectiveness
  • Availability of non-chemical control methods
  • Lack of knowledge