The “green revolution” more specifically has to do with the successful development of very high-yielding types of wheat and rice. It is so important because these two grains, especially rice, are the staple foods for most of earth’s population.

This “green revolution” began about the year 1965. It had its start earlier in a joint program of wheat improvement conducted in Mexico between that country’s Ministry of Agriculture and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The first breakthrough came as the result of efforts by a team of agriculture experts headed by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug. This was after about twenty years of experimenting. They developed varieties of wheat that produced up to four bushels where only one bushel had grown before!

The new wheat was short, and its stalk very stiff. This was important, as it enabled the plant to avoid falling down under the weight of the extra-large heads of grain. Also, it was not sensitive to the length of the daytime period. This meant that it could be planted even in those parts of the earth where the daylight hours differed from where the seed was developed. Also, it had a very high response to fertilization and irrigation.

In 1965 these new grains were planted on a larger experimental scale in Asia. Several hundred acres were sown. Today, only seven years later, tens of millions of acres are planted in the new varieties in various parts of the earth! This is particularly true of the wheat-growing areas of India and Pakistan. In the Philippines and other Southeast Asia rice-growing areas, plantings of the new rice varieties have also increased rapidly.

How Effective Has It Been?

The production of grain has undergone a marked change because of the new varieties. In several countries there have been large increases in grain production. The magazine BioScience of November 1, 1971, noted particularly India and Pakistan, “where, it is said, they are dispelling the specter of widespread famine or at least postponing it for perhaps a generation.”

Previously, the best harvest for India was during the 1964-65 crop year. Then, about 89 million tons of grain were produced. But for 1970-71 about 107 million tons were reported. The most spectacular increase was registered by the wheat crop. It more than doubled in six years, from about 11 million tons to 23 million tons. Rice production has not expanded as spectacularly. Yet, some Indian officials predicted that 1972 could see “self-sufficiency” in that basic food.

As a result of the large increases in crop yields, some famine-prone areas of the world that formerly had to import huge amounts of grain were reported to have enough now, or were even exporting it. This success with the new grains has induced more and more farmers to plant them each year.

From this, one could conclude that science has at last found the answer to man’s food problems. It would seem that the hungry peoples of the world have only to plant the new varieties of wheat and rice and starvation can be avoided.

The Rockefeller Foundation reports that from one particular strain has come the entire family of wheats that today occupies more acreage in Asia than any other type.

In the 1930’s a wheat variety was developed called the Hope gene. It promised to solve the problem of losses from stem rust. In a few years whole areas of the western United States, from Texas to North Dakota, were planted in it. But by the late 1940’s a new and highly virulent fungus arose. All the bread and durum wheat grown in the United States, and Canada, was susceptible to it. The new fungus spread rapidly in the major wheat-growing areas and took its toll. For several years it resulted in the near halting of durum wheat production in the Northern Great Plains.