The Green Revolution is a package of modern agricultural technologies, drawing on scientific and industrial knowledge from developed market economies, to increase crop yields in developing countries. Central to this ‘scientific farming’ are high-yielding varieties (HYV) of cereal crops, especially wheat and rice. But the HYV perform more effectively when supported by the full package of technologies which includes irrigation, chemical fertilizers, and agrichemical pest and crop disease sprays. In addition, while these technologies are available to all farmers, the highest economic returns are gained when the technologies are implemented under farm mechanization and on larger landholdings: that is by industrialized agriculture.The first HYV breeding programme started in Mexico in 1943, funded by the Rockefeller Foundation and concentrating on spring-sown wheat. The objective was to improve on native varieties of wheat which tended to be narrowly adapted to local conditions of soil, water supply, temperature and disease. Good Argument Research Paper writing offered by trained custom essay writers The HYV breeding programme was so successful that the United Nations, through its Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) and funding provided by the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, established the International Rice Research Institute at Los Banos in the Philippines in 1962 and the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre in Mexico in 1966. Other international research centres followed, for example the International Potato Centre in Peru and the International Laboratory for Research on Animal Diseases in Kenya. National research centres were established in many other countries in following years. Together the research centres continue to produce an increasing range of hybrid HYV seeds with properties such as increased responsiveness to artificial fertilizers, greater disease and drought resistance, shorter and stiffer straw lengths to support a heavier head of grain, higher plant densities, smaller root systems, short upright leaves (for increased sunlight penetration), shorter growing cycle and lower sensitivity to changes in day length. While hybrid wheat, rice and maize varieties have proliferated to the greatest extent, more recently attention has turned to other food staples such as sorghum and millet.
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