ABSTRACT
China was effectively exempted from the structural adjustment policy conditions for World Bank loans, as China was a high priority for World Bank lending to the point that the Bank generally acquiesced to China’s terms. Donors led by the World Bank were opposed to increasing agricultural productivity through state investment in agriculture, despite its success in a number of countries, not least of which China. Africa, more aid dependent, was subject to structural adjustment policies based on a philosophy that agricultural policies should be market based, even in places where there were no viable markets. The search for the ‘quick fix’ rather than the long term payoff of a farming systems approach resulted in the waning of donor interest in the Green Revolution. The Millennium Villages Program was aimed at applying Green Revolution technologies of improved crops and associated support, but in an integrated development environment of improving other development factors such as health, education, communications, and safe water.
