Kendal Gast
ENV S 342
Green Revolution Report
2-26-16
The
Green Revolution affected the world in positive and negative ways. Depending on where one lives and works and
perceives their world, the Green Revolution was indeed a food security savior. In the subsequent years after the 1960’s,
especially in parts of India, the agriculture practices of farmers have
impacted their surrounding communities in negative ways. For Western cultures, the Green Revolution had
little impact and is thus more understandable through computer
simulations. In the Bihari Farmer Simulation,
this is exactly the case. In other parts
of the world during the Green Revolution, countries faced insect extinction,
increased carbon amplitude, and increased production of crops other than
rice.
I
did not make it to 10 years in the Bihari Farmer simulation, but it was not
because my family died. Instead, after
trying to save my progress after 8 years, the program executed an error message
and shut down without saving any progress.
Luckily, I took detailed notes of every year and can report that after
having four kids in the duration of the game, I managed to achieve 8 years of
survival with no deaths. This was
accomplished on only five acres of land that were not always fully planted at
the beginning of the planting stage. The
crops I planted were mostly the traditional rice variety, but after advancing
through a few years I gradually adopted one acre of land as the high-yield
variety of rice and eventually, when I could afford it, all five acres of land
as HYV rice. At the time of selling and
trading, market prices ranged from 8-21 rupees per maund of rice. There was one instance in year five in which
a United Nations convoy arrived and bought up several maunds of rice,
increasing the price.
Another
challenge I faced was the marriage of one of my daughters in my third year, and
per Indian custom, I needed to provide a dowry.
It was 500 rupees, and in order to pay the amount I had to take out a
100-rupee loan. At the end of all this,
for some reason a baby boy appeared and I was back to feeding five kids along
with myself and partner. Purchasing a
well, more land, or anything above 500 rupees was virtually impossible for
me. However, I was able to purchase an
industrial bond in the fourth year that provided me with about 50 rupees every
time I went to market. Planting five
acres required another worker, so at the end of every harvest they received 15
maunds of rice as payment. I did not
always plant five acres though, and this helped to keep the rice harvested for
my family. Occasionally there were pest
attacks, some only affecting one acre but a majority of them affecting all five
that I had planted. I never purchased
more than two pesticides in one year, and I was still able to feed my family at
the end of the season.
The
production of rice in Bihar, however, is overshadowed by wheat production. Yadava and Singh note “A decade wise analysis
of area, production and productivity of rice and wheat crops in the state
indicates that the breakthrough in agriculture has really been biased towards
wheat” (1997). This makes sense because
rice and wheat were two varieties of crops engineered and introduced to the
region by geneticist Norman Borlaug. The
intensified farming practices encouraged by him had effects worldwide, such as
CO2 seasonal amplitude measurements: “…we suggest that the intensification of agriculture during the past five
decades is a driver of changes in the seasonal characteristics of the global
carbon cycle” (Zeng et al. 2013). As a
result of CO2 fluctuations and intensified farming, critical pollinators in the
northern hemisphere have gone extinct: “during
the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the area of arable and fodder crops
declined by more than 55%, replaced by permanent grassland” (Vignieri
2014). A decline in crops visited by
pollinators reduces the available food for those insects.
An argument for whether or not the
Green Revolution was morally acceptable, specifically of Norman Borlaug’s
involvement, would center around his intuition of the categorical
imperative. His motives did not appear
to be influences by outside capital gain or personal gain. He treated the people he worked with in India
as ends themselves and not means to an end, although he needed certain people
to work with him in order so that, from a utilitarian perspective, the greater
good would be served by providing food for millions. Borlaug’s mission worked so successfully that
entire sovereign nations became food independent, no longer requiring a net
import of foodstuffs. Other key elements
of the categorical imperative can also be seen in Borlaug’s work, such as
universalizing the distribution of his modified rice and wheat to several
developing nations around the world. A
means of survival, food, was simply handed over to nations in need so that
everyone could benefit.
Works Cited
Vignieri,
S. 2014. “Green” Revolution Not so Great for Pollinators. Science, 346. Pp.
1338. Feb. 23, 2016.
Yadav,
R. Singh, B. 1997. Performance of Rice and Wheat in Bihar during Post-Green
Revolution Period. Indian Journal of
Agricultural Economics, 52. Pp. 448. Feb.
23, 2016.
Zeng,
N. Fang, Z. Collatz, G. Kalnay, E. Salawitch, R. West, T. Guanter, L. 2014.
Agricultural Green Revolution as a
Driver of Increasing Atmosphere CO2
Seasonal Amplitude. Nature, 515. Pp.
394-397. Feb. 23, 2016.
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