Green Revolution

1
Green Revolution?

• Craig Jeffrey
• cjj_at_geo.ed.ac.uk

2
Aims of this lecture

• 1. To introduce critiques of the Green Revolution
  in South Asia
• 2. To introduce my own research in Uttar Pradesh

3
Structure of Lecture

• 1. Critiques of Green Revolution environment,
  employment, equity
• 2. Green Revolution revisionism
• 3. Introduction to my research

4
Green Revolution and the Environment I

• Increased chemical fertiliser led to leaching of
  nitrates into local water supplies
• When nitrates are ingested can be reduced to
  nitrites. High levels of nitrites can be
  dangerous to babies whose haemoglobin is
  particularly susceptible to oxidation causing a
  fatal condition methaemoglobinaemia

5
Green Revolution and the Environment II

• Another effect of fertiliser run-off is
  eutrophication the excessive dosing of lakes,
  irrigation reservoirs and canals with nitrogen
  and phosphate.
• This leads to population explosions of algal
  plants beyond the capacity of the ecosystem and
  the death of animal and plant life
• Reduced fish consumption in SE Asia

6
Green Revolution and the Environment III Vandana
Shiva

• Argued that Green Revolution led to decline in
  soil fertility, a decline in genetic diversity,
  and the replacement of traditional
  drought-resistant crops by thirsty new varieties

7
Shiva (2004)

• The Green Revolution replaced indigenous
  agriculture with monocultures. Dwarf varieties
  replaced tall ones, chemical fertilizers took the
  place of organic ones, and irrigation displaced
  rainfed cropping. As a result, soils were
  deprived of vital organic material, and soil
  moisture droughts became recurrent.

8
Effects of GR Employment

• During the first - biochemical - phase of GR
  demand for labour increased
• This led to rise in wage rates in some areas
• But may have increased peaks and troughs in
  demand and therefore workers vulnerability
• During second - mechanised - stage of GR there
  may be a decline in demand for labour

9
Equity access to GR technologies

• 1970s gap in wealth between rich and poor had
  increased following GR
• 1970s several studies suggested that poor lacked
  access to new technologies
• In India GR often occurred in areas of profound
  inequality in access to land, credit and
  education

10
Green Revolution Revisionism Late 1970s and 1980s

• Small farmers benefited as much as the rich
• Small farmers could use a range of survival
  strategies such as sharecropping
• Labourers gained from rise in real wage rates
• Scale of productivity gains became clearer, eg
  1964-1984 wheat output in Punjab rose from 2.4 mn
  tonnes to 10.2 mn
• 1965-1990 India became self-sufficient despite
  390 mn addition to population

11
New questions in Green Revolution Research (early
1990s)

• 1. How are farmers investing their new wealth?
• 2. What of off-farm employment in rural areas?
• 3. What new political formations were emerging in
  the wake of the Green Revolution?

12
Why I became curious

• My grandfather was a surgeon in south India in
  the 1950s and my father grew up in India
• I did an excellent course on India taught by
  Stuart Corbridge in Cambridge in early 1990s
• I became intrigued by these new questions in
  Green Revolution research
• Thinking about rich farmers investment seemed
  a way to combine my interests in economic
  geography with an interest in cultural geography
  and the environment.

13
My research

• Based in western Uttar Pradesh, north India
• A flat, fertile, area part of the heartland of
  the Green Revolution
• Explored the investment strategies of rich
  farmers members of the Jat caste
• Interviewed over 200 Jat farmers and 40 Dalits
  (ex-untouchables)

14
(No Transcript)
15
(No Transcript)
16
(No Transcript)
17
(No Transcript)
18
(No Transcript)
19
Conclusions

• During 1970s many left-wing critics believed the
  Green Revolution had sharpened social
  inequalities in South Asia
• They voiced concerns about the effect of the GR
  on employment, the environment and equity issues
• But by early 1990s new set of revisionist studies
  suggested that the poor had benefited as
  farmers, labourers, and (especially) as consumers
• My research set out to explore investment
  strategies of the rich in western Uttar Pradesh