The Green Revolution
New grain varieties avert famine for hundreds of millions
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Norman Borlaug's dwarf varieties, combined with synthetic fertiliser, irrigation and pesticides, dramatically raised cereal yields per hectare across Latin America and Asia. World food production grew faster than population, contrary to the forecasts of Malthus and Ehrlich. The criticisms are real: greater dependence on inputs, loss of local varieties, groundwater depletion, and benefits accruing to larger farmers. Sub-Saharan Africa was largely bypassed.
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Researchers bred wheat and rice varieties with short, strong stems that could carry heavy fertiliser without collapsing. Harvests in India and Mexico more than doubled. Many had predicted mass famine in the 1970s — it did not come.
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Part of Terra Saga — the story of Earth on a timeline. terrasaga.org