ACS(BR) Mid-Years 2010

Human Geography 2235/2

LORMS Topic: Food

Question: ‘The Green Revolution has introduced more problems to the environment
and to farmers than it has helped them.’ Discuss this statement.

The green revolution has brought about both good and harmful impacts. The
introduction of chemicals and irrigation systems has various effects to the
environment and to the farmers.

Various negative impacts have been made on the environment due to the poor use of
chemicals and irrigation systems. Some examples of these are effects such as
Salinisation and Eutrophication. Salinisation refers to the accumulation of salts in the
upper layers of soil. When excess water from the poor use of irrigation systems is
absorbed in to the ground to form ground water, some mineral salts in the found in the
lower layers of the soil get dissolved and rise up towards the upper layers. This may
make the land more unsuitable for the growth of plants. Also, the excessive use of
chemicals and fertilizers through the green revolution may bring about
Eutrophication, which refers to the growing of growth of algae in rivers due to
contamination of rivers. This leads to the loss of lives of aquatic plants. For example,
algae grew in Clear Lake of California, resulting in the death of 80% of its marine
life. However, there are also positive impacts such as the High Yield Varieties
(HYVs) such as rice crop becoming more resistant to pests, reducing the use of
pesticides.

Mechanization and cost of HYVs, machines, chemicals, etc. brought about by the
green revolution led to negative impacts for farmers. The green revolution resulted in
the use of machines such as harvesters and irrigation systems in order to increase
work efficiency and productivity. However, this resulted in unemployment of workers
as mechanization reduces the manual labour required for agriculture and only
educated workers are able to handle these machines. As such, many of the farmers
would have to go through the difficulty of learning new skills or finding new jobs.
Also, the cost and knowledge required for these HYVs, machine, chemicals and more
is very high; hence only very wealthy and educated farmers can afford such methods
recommended by the Green Revolution. In the long run, the gap between the poor and
rich farmers widens. For example,

However, the Green Revolution also brought about various benefits to the farmers,
such as better quality of food produced, more resistant crops and greater output of
food. With the Green Revolution, crops such as rice and wheat have become of better
quality in terms of taste, the nutrients it provides, and the time taken to grow these
crops. For example, the IR58, ‘Wonder Rice’, takes about half the growing time as
compared to normal crops. Also, these new varieties of crop tend to be more resistant
to pests, diseases and climate changes, which allows farmers to spend less on
pesticides and these crop stand a better chance to survive diseases and droughts,
becoming a more stable source of food, and also a source of income if sold to the
market. Furthermore, a greater yield of crops is being produced, allowing countries to
alleviate malnourishment and hunger, and may even allow these crops to become a
form of export to other countries to generate revenue. For example, India has greatly
benefited from the Green Revolution as not only did it solve the undernourishment
problem within its population, but also began to export crops to other countries,
sprouting economic growth for the country.

In conclusion, the Green Revolution brings about both positive and negative impacts
to the environment and the farmers. However, the positive impacts can outweigh the
negative impacts if these countries are prepared to use strategies recommended by the
Green Revolution, such as having an educated workforce and having constant
regulation on the use of chemicals and irrigation systems to ensure that it does not
harm the environment. Also, the governments should subsidies these expensive
methods to ensure that majority of the farmers within the country can afford these
methods to prevent the gap between the rich and poor farmers from widening.