The Green Revolution as a Case Study in Transfer of Technology

Abstract

The green revolution was a transfer of the idea of fertilizer-responsive grain varieties and the capacity to develop them from temporate countries to the countries of South and Southeast Asia, the Middle East, and Latin America. Key actors in this transfer of technology included the public research institutions in the less-developed countries (LDCs), the International Agricultural Research Centers, the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations, and the United States Agency for International Development. Once these institutions had bridged the gap between countries, the farmers rapidly accepted the new technology in areas where the agroclimatic and economic conditions were favorable. The green revolution was neither the cure for the problems of world hunger, as some early enthusiasts suggested, nor an important cause of income inequality and poverty, as suggested by its critics. When separated from the impact of factors such as rapid population growth, the shortage of arable land, and government policy, it is clear that the green revolution has substantially increased the supply of food grain and thus kept food grain prices lower than they would have been in the absence of new technology. This lowering of prices generally had a positive impact on income distribution. At the same time these varieties have had a less positive impact on agricultural income through their impact on demand for factors of production: landowners have benefited more than laborers. However, laborers would have been in a worse position in the absence of the green revolution.