State Autonomous Educational Institution of the Vladimir Region

Gus-Khrustalny Technological College

on the topic: Green revolution.

3rd year full-time students.

Specialties "Management".

Checked:

Ecology teacher

Prepared by:

Tatarovskaya Natalia

Green revolution.

One of the problems human society on the present stage development is the need to increase food production. This is due to the increase in the population of the planet and the depletion of its soil resources.

Temporary positive results of increasing the production of grain crops were achieved in the third quarter of the 20th century. They were achieved in countries where energy consumption increased significantly, progressive forms of agricultural technology were used, and mineral fertilizers were used. Yields of wheat, rice and corn have increased. New ones have been released high yielding varieties plants. There was a so-called green revolution. This revolution has not touched the countries that do not have enough of the necessary resources.

Green revolution- this is a transition from extensive farming, when the size of the fields was increased to intensive - when the yield was increased, all kinds of new technologies were actively used. This is the transformation of agriculture based on modern agricultural technology. This is the introduction of new varieties of crops and new methods leading to higher yields.

The beginning of this expression was laid in Mexico in 1943 by the agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation. In the 1950s. and since the mid-60s. new high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat began to be cultivated in many third world countries.

The "Green Revolution" is one of the manifestations of the scientific and technological revolution. It includes the following main components:

the breeding of new early-ripening varieties of grain crops, which contribute to a sharp increase in productivity and open up the possibility of using further crops;

land irrigation, as new varieties can show their best qualities only under the condition of artificial irrigation;

wide application modern technology, fertilizers.

As a result of the Green Revolution, many developing countries began to meet their needs through their own agricultural production. Thanks to the Green Revolution, grain yields have doubled.

At the same time, it should be noted that the "green revolution" has become widespread in Mexico, the countries of South and Southeast Asia, but has little effect on many other regions. In addition, it affected only land owned by large owners and foreign companies, changing almost nothing in the traditional consumer sector.

The "Green Revolution" took place both in traditionally used agricultural territories and in newly developed ones. Agrocenoses created by man in order to obtain agricultural products have low ecological reliability. Such ecosystems cannot self-repair and self-regulate.

Agrocenoses - biogeocenoses created for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products and regularly maintained by humans (fields, pastures, vegetable gardens, orchards, protective forest plantations, etc.). Without human support, agro-ecosystems quickly disintegrate, returning to their natural state.

As a result of the "Green Revolution", a great impact was made on the biosphere of the planet. Getting energy was inevitably accompanied by pollution atmospheric air and water. The agrotechnical measures applied in soil cultivation have led to the consolidation and degradation of soils. The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the atmospheric influx of nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, organochlorine compounds in the waters of the oceans.

Wide application organic fertilizers became possible due to the increase in their production volumes.

The objects of production and storage of fertilizers and pesticides have made a significant contribution to the treasury of biosphere pollution.

The "Green Revolution" arose as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the development of science.

During the "Green Revolution" large areas of virgin lands were developed. For several years, high yields were collected. But "nothing is given for free" according to one of the provisions of B. Commoner. Today, many of these territories are depleted endless fields. It will take more than one century to restore these ecosystems.

The increase in the productivity of ecosystems by humans has led to an increase in the cost of maintaining them in a stable state. But there is a limit to such an increase until the moment when it becomes economically unprofitable.

Consequences of the Green Revolution.

Intensive agriculture does not go in vain, the land “gets tired” much faster, water sources are depleted;

Agrotechnical measures applied in soil cultivation have led to soil consolidation and degradation;

The fall in prices for agricultural products is a serious test for those who work on the land, a lot of farmers went bankrupt as a result of the "green revolution".

Erosion of arable land, especially in the arid zone, contamination of fields and products with chemicals, washout of mineral fertilizers and water pollution

Story

The term was coined by former USAID director William Goud in .

Start green revolution was laid in Mexico in 1943 by the agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation. The biggest success of this program was Norman Borlaug, who developed many high-performance varieties of wheat, including lodging-resistant short stems. K - Mexico fully provided itself with grain and began to export it, for 15 years the grain yield in the country has increased 3 times. Borlaug's designs were used in breeding work in Colombia, India, Pakistan, in Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize.

Effects

At the same time, due to the widespread use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, environmental problems arose. The intensification of agriculture has disrupted water regime soils, causing massive salinization and desertification. Copper and sulfur preparations, which cause soil pollution with heavy metals, were replaced by aromatic, heterocyclic, organochlorine and phosphorus compounds (karbofos, dichlorvos, DDT, etc.) by the middle of the 20th century. Unlike older preparations, these substances work at a lower concentration, which has reduced the cost of chemical treatment. Many of these substances were found to be stable and poorly degraded by biota.

Case in point- DDT. This substance has even been found in animals of Antarctica, thousands of kilometers from the nearest application sites for this chemical.

John Zerzan, a prominent anarcho-primitivist ideologue and civilization denier, writes about his assessment of the Green Revolution in his essay "Agriculture: The Demonic Engine of Civilization":

Another post-war phenomenon was the Green Revolution, billed as the salvation of impoverished Third World countries with the help of American capital and technology. But instead of feeding the hungry, the Green Revolution drove millions of victims of a program that supports large corporate farms from the arable land of Asia, Latin America and Africa. The result was a monstrous technological colonization that made the world dependent on the capital-intensive agricultural business and destroyed the former farming communities. There was a need for vast expenditures of fossil fuels and, in the end, this colonization turned into an unprecedented violence against nature.

Notes

Links

• Norman E. Borlaug"Green Revolution": yesterday, today and tomorrow // Ecology and Life, No. 4, 2000.

Wikimedia Foundation. 2010 .

See what the "Green Revolution" is in other dictionaries:

Conventional name for a phenomenon that took place in the 1960s–70s. in a number of developing countries. The "Green Revolution" was to intensify the production of grain crops (wheat, rice) in order to increase their gross yields, which was supposed to solve ... ... Geographic Encyclopedia

A term coined in the 1960s. 20th century in connection with the process of introducing new high-yielding varieties of grain crops (wheat, rice) that has begun in many countries in order to sharply increase food resources. "Green Revolution" ... ... encyclopedic Dictionary

A set of measures for a significant (revolutionary) increase in crop yields, especially cereals (wheat, rice, corn, etc.) in some countries of South Asia (in particular, India, Pakistan, the Philippines), Mexico ... Ecological dictionary

"GREEN REVOLUTION"- a term that appeared in con. 1960s in the bourgeois economy and s. X. lit. re to denote the process of introducing the achievements of scientific and technical. progress in s. x ve and to characterize the ways, methods and means of a sharp increase in productivity p. X. production, ch ... Demographic Encyclopedic Dictionary

Revolution (from late Latin revolutio turn, upheaval, transformation, conversion) is a global qualitative change in the development of nature, society or knowledge, associated with an open break with the previous state. Originally the term revolution ... ... Wikipedia

As you know, the 1970s turned out to be extremely unfavorable for most developing countries - they survived the fuel and energy crisis, large-scale natural disasters, deteriorating conditions foreign trade etc.

Part of these problems was the aggravation of the food situation. Net food imports (ie imports minus exports) rose from an average of 15 million tons in 1966-1970 to 35 million tons in 1976-1979. The crisis state of agriculture significantly accelerated the green revolution in the 1970s and 1990s.

The term "green revolution" itself was first used in 1968 by W. Goud, director of the US Agency for International Development. With this phrase, he characterized the already visible significant changes in agriculture Mexico and Asian countries. And they began with a program adopted in the early 1940s by the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation.

The green revolution is a transition from extensive farming, when the size of fields was increased to intensive farming, when productivity was increased, all kinds of new technologies were actively applied. This is the transformation of agriculture based on modern agricultural technology. This is the introduction of new varieties of crops and new methods leading to higher yields.

Programs for the development of agriculture in countries in need of food, the main tasks were the following:

breeding new varieties with higher yields that would be resistant to pests and weather phenomena;

development and improvement of irrigation systems;

expanding the use of pesticides and chemical fertilizers, as well as modern agricultural machinery .

The "Green Revolution" is associated with the name of an American scientist who received in 1970 Nobel Prize for his contribution to solving the food problem. This is Norman Ernest Borlaug. He has been developing new varieties of wheat since the beginning of the new agricultural program in Mexico.

As a result of his work, a lodging-resistant variety with a short stem was obtained, and the yield in this country increased 3 times in the first 15 years.

Later, the experience of growing new varieties was adopted by other countries of Latin America, India, Asian countries, and Pakistan. Borlaug, described as "feeding the world," led the International Wheat Improvement Program and later acted as a consultant and lecturer.

Speaking about the changes that the Green Revolution brought, the scientist who stood at its origins himself said that this was only a temporary victory, and recognized both the problems in implementing programs to increase food production in the world, and the obvious environmental damage to the planet.

2. Results of the green revolution

Norman Borlaug developed the Mexicale wheat variety, which yielded 3 times the yield of the old varieties. Following Borlaug, other breeders began to develop high-yielding varieties of corn, soybeans, cotton, rice and other crops.

Together with these record-breaking varieties, new intensive tillage systems with soil turnover, high doses of fertilizers, irrigation, a wide variety of pesticides and monoculture, i.e. growing the same crop in the same field for many years .

Highly productive animals also appeared, for the maintenance of their health not only plentiful feed was needed, but also vitamins, antibiotics, and growth stimulants for rapid weight gain. The first green revolution was especially successful in the countries of the tropics, since with year-round cultivation of plants, the income from new varieties was especially large.

The Green Revolution developed under the influence of both the increased return on investment in the new agro-industrial complex, and the large-scale activities of the state.

It created the necessary additional infrastructure, organized the procurement system and, as a rule, maintained high purchase prices - in contrast to the initial stage of modernization in the 50s and 60s. .

As a result, in 1980-2000 in Asia, the average annual growth rate of agricultural (mainly food) production reached 3.5%.

Since such rates exceeded the natural growth of the population, in most countries this made it possible to solve the food problem.

At the same time, the green revolution unfolded unevenly and did not immediately make it possible to solve agrarian problems as a whole; they are still acute in a number of lagging states.

29. " Green revolution» and its consequences

One of the problems of human society at the present stage of development is the need to increase food production. This is due to the increase in the population of the planet and the depletion of its soil resources.

Temporary positive results of increasing the production of grain crops were achieved in the third quarter of the 20th century. They were achieved in countries where energy consumption increased significantly, progressive forms of agricultural technology were used, and mineral fertilizers were used. The yields of wheat, rice and corn have increased. New high-yielding varieties of plants were bred. There was a so-called green revolution. This revolution has not touched the countries that do not have enough of the necessary resources.

« green revolution” took place both in traditionally used agricultural territories and in newly developed ones. Agrocenoses created by man in order to obtain agricultural products have low ecological reliability. Such ecosystems cannot self-repair and self-regulate. As a result of the "Green Revolution", a great impact was made on the biosphere of the planet. Energy production was inevitably accompanied by air and water pollution. Agrotechnical measures used in soil cultivation have led to soil depletion and degradation. The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the atmospheric and river anthropogenic influx of nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, and organochlorine compounds into the waters of the World Ocean. Wide application organic fertilizers became possible due to the increase in their production volumes.

The objects of production and storage of fertilizers and pesticides have made a significant contribution to the treasury of biosphere pollution.

The "Green Revolution" arose as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the development of science.

During the "Green Revolution" were mastered large areas virgin lands. For several years they have been gathering high yields. But "nothing is given for free" according to one of the provisions of B. Commoner. Today, many of these territories are depleted endless fields. It will take more than one century to restore these ecosystems.

The increase in the productivity of ecosystems by humans has led to an increase in the cost of maintaining them in a stable state. But there is a limit to such an increase until the moment when it becomes economically unprofitable.

As a result of the "green revolution" mankind has added environmental global problems.

30. Significance and ecological role of fertilizers and pesticides

Fertilizer property It has been known since ancient times to increase the fertility of soils and the productivity of cultivated plants grown by man. Composts, bird droppings, humus, and manure have been used as fertilizers for many millennia. Enrichment of the soil with substances necessary for crops is achieved by plowing into the soil of green legumes (peas, alfalfa) grown locally. The listed fertilizers are organic.

Soil characteristics can be improved by the use of mineral (chemical) fertilizers, which contain in large numbers one or more basic plant nutrients, microelements (manganese, copper, etc.). With the help of mineral fertilizers, you can maintain the balance of nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium in the soil. If it is necessary to correct the pH value, lime or gypsum is added to the soil. As fertilizers, cultures of microorganisms, bacteria that convert organic and minerals into a form that is easily absorbed by plants. Pesticides are used by humans to protect plants, agricultural products, wood, wool, cotton, leather, as a barrier to pests and to control disease vectors. Pesticides are chemical substances, the use of which inevitably has a negative impact on humans and the natural environment. The use of herbicides and pesticides causes the death of a number of soil organisms, a change in the soil-forming process. The use of pesticides must be carried out in compliance with the norms and purpose. Some organochlorine pesticides, in particular DDT, are banned for use. Chordane, hexachlorobenzene, hexachlorocyclohexane and lindane, toxaphene, mirex are used as pesticides. Most of these substances are fat-soluble and accumulate in the fatty tissues of animals and humans, affect reproductive function, cause cancer, and changes in the nervous system. Pesticides penetrate deep into the soil - up to 70115 cm. It should be noted that pesticides migrate in the arable horizon to a depth of 200 cm. groundwater, which in places of unloading take out pollution in superficial water bodies. At present, many agricultural crops that are the basis of the most important foodstuffs - cereals, oilseeds, vegetables, roots and tubers - are contaminated with organochlorine pesticides.

Almost all of our traditional foods are the result of natural mutations and genetic transformation that serve driving forces evolution. Fortunately, from time to time, Mother Nature took charge and made genetic modifications, and often, as they say, "in a big way." Thus, wheat, which plays such a significant role in our modern diet, acquired its present qualities as a result of unusual (but quite natural) crosses between different types of grasses. Today's wheat bread is the result of the hybridization of three different plant genomes, each containing a set of seven chromosomes. In this sense, wheat bread should be classified as transgenic or genetically modified (GM) products. Another result of transgenic hybridization is modern corn, most likely due to the crossing of two species. Hundreds of generations of farmers have contributed to the acceleration of genetic transformation through regular selection using the most prolific and strongest plants and animals. Over the past 100 years, scientists have been able to apply their sharply expanded knowledge in genetics, plant physiology in order to significantly accelerate the process of combining high plant productivity with high resistance to negative factors. environment.

The expression "green revolution" was first used in 1968 by the director of the US Agency for International Development W. Goud, trying to characterize the breakthrough achieved in food production on the planet due to the wide distribution of new highly productive and low-growing varieties of wheat and rice in Asian countries that suffered from a shortage food. Many journalists then sought to describe the "green revolution" as a massive transfer of advanced technologies developed in the most developed and consistently high yields of agricultural systems to the fields of farmers in the "third world". But more importantly, it marked the beginning new era development of agriculture on the planet, an era in which agricultural science was able to offer a number of improved technologies in accordance with the specific conditions characteristic of farms in developing countries.

Critics of the Green Revolution tried to focus public attention on the excessive abundance of new varieties, the breeding of which supposedly became an end in itself, as if these varieties themselves could provide such miraculous results. Certainly, modern varieties allow to increase the average yield due to more effective ways growing and caring for plants, due to their greater resistance to insect pests and major diseases. However, they only allow a noticeably higher yield when they are properly cared for, the implementation of agricultural practices in accordance with the calendar and the stage of plant development (fertilization, watering, soil moisture control and pest control). All these procedures remain absolutely necessary for transgenic varieties obtained in recent years. Moreover, radical changes in plant care, increasing the crop culture become simply necessary if farmers start cultivating modern high-yielding varieties. Fertilization and regular watering, essential for high yields, also create favorable conditions for the development of weeds, insect pests and the development of a number of common plant diseases. So additional measures to control weeds, pests and diseases are inevitable when new varieties are introduced.

The intensification of agriculture affects the environment and causes certain social problems. However, it is possible to judge the harm or benefit of modern technologies (including crop production) only taking into account the rapid growth of the world's population. For example, the population of Asia has more than doubled in 40 years (from 1.6 to 3.5 billion people). What would an additional 2 billion people be like if not for the Green Revolution? While the mechanization of agriculture has reduced the number of farms(and in this sense contributed to the growth of unemployment), the benefits of the Green Revolution, associated with a multiple increase in food production and a steady decline in the price of bread in almost all countries of the world, are much more significant for humanity.

Nevertheless, a number of problems (first of all, soil salinization, as well as pollution of soils and surface water bodies, due to a large extent to the excessive use of fertilizers and plant protection chemicals) require serious attention from the entire world community. Despite the significant successes of the Green Revolution, the battle for food security for hundreds of millions of people in the poorest countries is far from over. The rapid growth of the population of the "Third World" as a whole, even more dramatic changes in demographic distributions in certain regions, ineffective programs to combat hunger and poverty in many countries "ate" most of the achievements in the field of food production. For example, in the countries of Southeast Asia, food production is still clearly not enough to overcome hunger and poverty, while China has made a tremendous leap. Nobel laureate in economics Professor Amartya Sen is inclined to attribute China's tremendous success in the fight against hunger and poverty (in particular, in comparison with India) to the fact that the Chinese leadership allocates huge funds for education and health care, primarily in the backward agricultural regions of the country. With a healthier and better educated rural population, the Chinese economy has been able to grow twice as fast as India's over the past 20 years. Today, the average per capita income in China is almost twice that of India.

In many other parts of the developing world (for example, the countries of Equatorial Africa and the remote highlands of Asia and Latin America, far from the centers of civilization), the technologies brought to the fields by the Green Revolution are still inaccessible to most farmers. Moreover, the main reason for this is not at all their unsuitability for the conditions of these regions, as some believe. Developed by the Sasakawa Association in 2000, the global agricultural modernization program has already provided significant assistance to smallholders in 14 African countries. Under this program, over a million demonstration plots ranging from 0.1 to 0.5 hectares are planted with corn, sorghum, wheat, rice and legumes. Everywhere in these areas the average yield is 2-3 times higher than in traditionally cultivated fields.

The main obstacle to the intensification of agriculture in Africa is that the market costs here are perhaps the highest in the world. To facilitate the production of agricultural products, efficient transport is needed to enable farmers to deliver products to markets in a timely manner.

The failure of Third World countries and the international organizations that promote their development in trying to achieve an adequate return on investment in agriculture is not easy to come to terms with, since, throughout history, no nation has been able to increase prosperity and achieve economic development without first drastically increasing production. food, the main source of which has always been agriculture. Therefore, according to many experts, in the XXI century. the second "green revolution" is coming. Without this, it will not be possible to ensure human existence for everyone who comes into this world.

Fortunately, yields of staple food crops are continuously improving through improved tillage, irrigation, fertilization, weed and pest control, and reduced harvest losses. Nevertheless, it is already clear that significant efforts will be required, both by traditional breeding and modern agricultural biotechnology, in order to achieve the genetic improvement of food plants at a pace that would satisfy the needs of 8.3 billion people by 2025. Further growth in agricultural production will require a lot of fertilizers, especially in the countries of Equatorial Africa, where fertilizers are still applied no more than 10 kg per hectare (tens of times less than in developed countries and even in the developing countries of Asia).

Mass use of fertilizers began after the Second World War. Inexpensive nitrogen fertilizers based on synthetic ammonia, which have become an indispensable attribute of modern crop production technologies, are especially widespread (today, over 80 million tons of nitrogen fertilizers are consumed annually in the world). According to experts who study nitrogen cycles in nature, at least 40% of the 6 billion people currently inhabiting the planet are alive only thanks to the discovery of ammonia synthesis. Adding that much nitrogen to the soil with organic fertilizers would be completely unthinkable, even if we were all doing just that.

Recombinant DNA allows breeders to select and introduce genes into plants “one at a time”, which not only dramatically reduces research time compared to traditional breeding, eliminating the need to spend it on “unnecessary” genes, but also makes it possible to obtain “useful” genes from the most different types plants. This genetic transformation holds enormous benefits for agricultural producers, in particular by increasing plant resistance to insect pests, diseases and herbicides. Additional benefits are associated with the breeding of varieties that are more resistant to lack or excess of moisture in the soil, as well as to heat or cold - the main characteristics of modern forecasts of future climatic cataclysms. Finally, the consumer can benefit greatly from biotechnology, as new varieties have higher nutritional and other health characteristics. And this will happen in the next 10-20 years!

Despite fierce opposition to transgenics in certain circles, new varieties are quickly gaining popularity among growers. This is an example of the most rapid dissemination (both results and methods) in the entire centuries-old history of agriculture. In 1996–1999 the area sown with transgenic varieties of major food crops has increased by almost 25 times.

It is the people of low-income, food-deficit countries who need the products of new agricultural biotechnology the most, as it promises lower unit costs and increased profits for producers, and for consumers the abundance and availability of food.

Today, the prospects of agricultural biotechnology to provide plants that can be used as medicines or vaccines (for example, against common diseases like hepatitis B or diarrhea) look more and more real. We will simply grow such plants and eat their fruits to cure or prevent many diseases. It's hard to imagine what this could mean for poor countries where conventional pharmaceuticals are still a rarity. This line of research should be supported in every possible way. The current fierce debate about transgenic crops focuses on two main issues: safety and concerns about equal access and ownership. Concern about the potential dangers of GMOs is based largely on the notion that the introduction of "foreign" DNA into the main varieties of food crops is "unnatural" and, therefore, is accompanied by an unavoidable health risk. But since all living organisms, including food plants, animals, microbes, etc., contain DNA, how can recombinant DNA be considered “unnatural”? Even to define the concept of "foreign gene" is problematic, since many genes turn out to be common to a variety of organisms. Of course, it is necessary to label GM foods, especially in cases where their properties differ markedly from traditional ones (say, nutritional value) or they contain obvious allergens or toxins. But what is the meaning of such identification in cases where the qualities of GM and conventional products do not differ? According to the American Council on Science and Health, there is as yet no reliable scientific information that indicates any danger inherent in GMOs. Recombinant DNA has been successfully used in pharmaceuticals for 25 years, where not a single case of harm caused by GM processes has been recorded so far. Likewise, there is no evidence of any disturbance caused by the consumption of GM foods. This does not mean at all that there are no risks associated with such products in principle. As they say, "anything is possible."

The Green Revolution has provided only temporary success in humanity's war on hunger. Achieving a genuine victory in this war is only a matter of time, and not so distant. Already today, humanity has technologies (either completely ready for use or in the final stages of development) that can reliably feed 10 billion people. The only question is whether food producers around the world will have access to these technologies.

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