ABSTRACT
The green revolution comprised a package of seeds, fertilizer, pesticides, irrigation, and mechanization, but these technological inputs were insufficient to ameliorate poverty and hunger without corresponding social transformations. Mexico and India, two champions of agricultural modernization, had each undergone such movements, the former with the agrarian revolution of Emiliano Zapata beginning in 1910 and the latter with Mohandas Gandhi's nonviolent independence campaign culminating in 1947. The development of hybrid seeds, combining the best traits of different maize or wheat varieties, offered tremendous opportunities for increasing harvests. By providing both cheap food and abundant workers, the green revolution helped hold down wages for Mexican workers and subsidize national industrialization programs. Ecologists also doubted the sustainability of green revolution productivity gains. Heavy irrigation depleted groundwater reserves, and intensive farming caused the buildup of salinity in the soil. Green revolution technology often proved counterproductive in the thin, arid soils that cover many parts of Africa.
