The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices
The “Green Revolution” (GR) is often portrayed as a humanitarian development programme in which crop varieties, cultivation practices and expertise were transferred essentially from global North to South. In this paper, however, I argue that this picture is seriously misleading for two reasons. Firs...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | Spanish |
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Universidad de Murcia
2018-08-01
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| Series: | Historia Agraria |
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| Online Access: | http://historiaagraria.com/articulo.php?id=767&num=75 |
| _version_ | 1819075651262480384 |
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| author | Jonathan Harwood |
| author_facet | Jonathan Harwood |
| author_sort | Jonathan Harwood |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The “Green Revolution” (GR) is often portrayed as a humanitarian development programme in which crop varieties, cultivation practices and expertise were transferred essentially from global North to South. In this paper, however, I argue that this picture is seriously misleading for two reasons. First, it overlooks the significance of circulation between these regions. Several of the innovations central to the GR’s high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, for example, originated in the global South before being taken up by northern breeders, while important practices and experts were transferred between countries within the global South. Moreover some of the approaches to increasing smallholder productivity which emerged from the 1970s can be
traced to encounters between northern experts and southern farmers dating from the colonial period. In view of these patterns of circulation, the GR is more accurately depicted as a collective undertaking than as a “heroic” achievement of the North. Second, the tendency to represent the GR –and development aid more generally– as a “gift” from the benevolent North to the needy South ignores the very substantial economic gains which have accrued to northern agriculture and industry by virtue of GR research nominally intended to benefit the South. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-21T18:28:48Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-b4006a24ad8445478e5d181052681cb5 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1139-1472 2340-3659 |
| language | Spanish |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-21T18:28:48Z |
| publishDate | 2018-08-01 |
| publisher | Universidad de Murcia |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Historia Agraria |
| spelling | doaj.art-b4006a24ad8445478e5d181052681cb52022-12-21T18:54:20ZspaUniversidad de MurciaHistoria Agraria1139-14722340-36592018-08-017573110.26882/histagrar.075e01hThe green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practicesJonathan Harwood0University of ManchesterThe “Green Revolution” (GR) is often portrayed as a humanitarian development programme in which crop varieties, cultivation practices and expertise were transferred essentially from global North to South. In this paper, however, I argue that this picture is seriously misleading for two reasons. First, it overlooks the significance of circulation between these regions. Several of the innovations central to the GR’s high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice, for example, originated in the global South before being taken up by northern breeders, while important practices and experts were transferred between countries within the global South. Moreover some of the approaches to increasing smallholder productivity which emerged from the 1970s can be traced to encounters between northern experts and southern farmers dating from the colonial period. In view of these patterns of circulation, the GR is more accurately depicted as a collective undertaking than as a “heroic” achievement of the North. Second, the tendency to represent the GR –and development aid more generally– as a “gift” from the benevolent North to the needy South ignores the very substantial economic gains which have accrued to northern agriculture and industry by virtue of GR research nominally intended to benefit the South.http://historiaagraria.com/articulo.php?id=767&num=75circulationcontact zonesGreen Revolutionindigenous knowledge |
| spellingShingle | Jonathan Harwood The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices Historia Agraria circulation contact zones Green Revolution indigenous knowledge |
| title | The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices |
| title_full | The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices |
| title_fullStr | The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices |
| title_full_unstemmed | The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices |
| title_short | The green revolution as a process of global circulation: plants, people and practices |
| title_sort | green revolution as a process of global circulation plants people and practices |
| topic | circulation contact zones Green Revolution indigenous knowledge |
| url | http://historiaagraria.com/articulo.php?id=767&num=75 |
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