1961

Green Revolution

Norman Borlaug (1914–2009)

Between 1950 and 1987, world population doubled from 2.5 billion to 5 billion people. It was a startling surge. And humans were already putting a strain on food supplies. In 1943, for example, 4 million people in India (6 percent of the population) died in a famine.

During that period of surging population, there was a problem brewing: at then-current production levels, the world had no way to produce enough food to feed everyone. The process that prevented mass starvation—the development that saved a billion or more lives—began in 1961, and was called the Green Revolution. Biologists and engineers worked together to spread advanced agricultural technologies around the world, championed by American biologist and humanitarian Norman Borlaug, who became a spokesperson for these initiatives.

A big factor in improving food production happened at the biological level, by breeding and, later, genetically engineering better strains of cereal grains like wheat and rice. Biologists took an engineer’s problem-solving approach—they were trying to breed plants that could make use of more nitrogen, while at the same time putting the nitrogen into grain production rather than stem construction. The biologists wanted short, stocky stems so the plants would not fall over. They also wanted to reduce the time to harvest. They were able to pull this off by finding and incorporating dwarf strains and other useful characteristics to create high-yield crops.

These new strains of plants needed water and fertilizer. Engineers could respond to those needs with irrigation projects and new ways of increasing fertilizer production. Then they went a step further: in warm climates it is possible to put in two crops a year, but only if there is enough water to support the second crop. With the rainy season supplying the water for one crop, a country like India needed a way to store water for the second crop. So engineers built thousands of new dams in India to catch the water from monsoon rains and hold it. Now India could grow twice as much food.

The effect of these improvements was startling. World food production doubled, then doubled again. Even though population was growing, the food supply grew faster. Science and engineering together created a farming revolution.

SEE ALSO Combine Harvester (1835), Center-Pivot Irrigation (1952), Drip Irrigation (1964), Genetic Engineering (1972).

The engineering innovations that came about as a result of the Green Revolution were numerous, and included new strains of rice meant to create higher yields for famine-stricken regions.