GREEN REVOLUTION AND RURAL POVERTY IN DCs

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GREEN REVOLUTION AND RURAL POVERTY IN DCs

• Elena Pisani
• Ph.D student - Dep. Land and Agro-Forestry System
  
• Faculty of Agriculture - University of Padova

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INDEX

• 1 Economic theories on the role played by
  Agriculture in the 50s and 60s
• 2 The Green Revolution
• 3 The link between Green Revolution and Poverty
  in Developing Countries
• 4 Conclusions

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ECONOMIC THEORIES ON THE ROLE PLAYED BY
AGRICULTURE IN THE 50S AND 60S

• Lewis (1954) Economic development with unlimited
  supply of labour.
• Hirshmann (1958) The Strategy of the Economic
  Development
• Jorgenson (1961) The Development of a Dual
  Economy
• Johnston and Mellor (1961) The Role of
  Agriculture in Economic Development
• Schultz (1964) Transforming Traditional
  Agriculture

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THE GREEN REVOLUTION

• CIMMYT, Rockefeller and Ford Foundations, Mexican
  Government.
• The new plant had to have particular biological
  characteristics
• a shorter stem that could benefit from
  fertilizers without risking breaking under the
  weight of the grains
• increased resistance to typical wheat diseases
  such as blight and mold.

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Time series of Cereals production, farmed area,
yields and population, in various geographical
areas.
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Increase of world population between 1961 and
2003, with a distinction between Developing and
Developed Countries.
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Cereals Yield 1961 - 2003 Developing Asia,
Developing Africa, Latin America and Caribbean.
FAOStat 2004
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The link between Green Revolution and Poverty in
Developing Countries

• The tecnological package
• Scale dimensions of the farms
• Effects on employment
• bio-chemical aspects
• mechanical aspects

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Magnitude of Poverty in Asia 1990-2002
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1 investments in human capital,
achieved through health programmes, training,
better nourishment that would widen the spectrum
of opportunities for the poorest population2
renewed research on farming focussed on the
issues faced by the poor population, and paying
particular attention to the local production and
to the methods needed to increment their
increase3 a more equal access to land
ownership4 micro-credit and micro-finance to
aid the poor farmer at the stage of purchasing
the production inputs5 spurring the function of
the Rural Non Farm Activities in order to start
an integrated rural system6 monitoring prices
both at a national and at an international level
in order to capture the right information at the
most opportune time7 the adoption of efficient
participation schemes so as to ensure that the
benefits are more equally distributed in all the
social layers.