Europe’s Green Revolution and Others Since: The Rise and Fall of Peasant-Friendly Plant Breeding

289 Pages·2012·8.337 MB·English

by  Jonathan Harwood

This book makes the connection between European agricultural history and the
experience of developing countries, and shows how fascinating, informative and
revealing the linkage can be.
Dr Paul Brassley, Centre for Rural Policy Research,
University of Exeter, UK
Too few academics attempt to fill the gaps between disciplines. Jonathan
Harwood sheds light on the potential for a second generation Green Revolution
to improve the lives of small farmers in developing countries by appealing to the
history of plant breeding in nineteenth and early twentieth century Europe.
Carrie A. Meyer, Associate Professor of Economics,
George Mason University, USA

Europe’s Green Revolution and
Others Since
How poverty and hunger in the developing world can be alleviated is an issue
which has preoccupied development experts and politicians since 1945. Success,
however, has been limited. The well-k nown post- war ‘Green Revolution’ pro-
grammes managed to increase grain production substantially in Latin America
and South Asia, but by 1970 critics were arguing that they had made little impact
upon rural poverty because the agricultural technology introduced was better
suited to large commercial farms than to small subsistence ones. From the 1970s
onward it seemed as though this criticism would bear fruit as experts developed
a number of new approaches to cultivation which were tailored to the needs of
peasant farmers. But levels of rural poverty and malnutrition remain very high,
prompting major development agencies in recent years to urge that more atten-
tion be given to the plight of small farmers.
From a European perspective this persistent failure to develop a technology
suitable for smallholders is puzzling. From the late nineteenth century, for
example, various European countries also underwent ‘green revolutions’
designed to boost agricultural productivity, and several states established plant-
breeding stations whose express purpose was to serve the needs of peasant
farmers. Some of these stations were very successful, making a substantial
impact upon the regional economies they served.
Remarkably, however, this European episode is virtually unknown among
development experts today. Indeed, since 1945 the development industry, despite
struggling to make an impact upon poverty, has displayed an astonishing lack of
interest in the success or failure of past development projects. After telling the
story of Europe’s peasant-f riendly approach to agriculture and tracing the history
of Green Revolutions since 1945, this book argues that state-f unded agricultural
research has the potential to make a large impact upon poverty in the developing
world but is unlikely to do so as long as the development industry continues to
ignore its past.
Jonathan Harwood is Emeritus Professor of the History of Science and Tech-
nology at the University of Manchester, UK.
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Europe’s Green Revolution
and Others Since
The rise and fall of peasant-f riendly
plant breeding
Jonathan Harwood