Food and population: D. Gale Johnson and the Green Revolution
Evenson, R.E.
Economic Development and Cultural Change 52(3): 543-569
2004
ISSN/ISBN: 0013-0079 DOI: 10.1086/383338Document Number: 234073
This paper reviews green revolution evidence and relates this evidence to some observations. Section I discusses the pre-green revolution developments. Section II provides a descriptive overview of the production of modern varieties (MVs) by region. This overview emphasizes the diversity in rates of MV development by crop and relates this diversity to pre-green revolution conditions. Section III reports an empirical study of the impact of International Agricultural Research Center (IARC) 'germplasm' (in the form of second-generation IARC-crossed MVs and breeding lines) on the productivity of National Agricultural Research System plant breeders. The political 'Boserup effect' hypothesis is also tested in Section III. Section IV describes the adoption of MVs and reports estimates of the productivity impacts of green revolution. Section V provides a brief comment on the fact that 'mass poverty' exists in some countries in a 'world awash with grain.' The final section summarizes the perspective that D. Gale Johnson brought to the 'public science' system serving agriculture in Developing Countries.