Researched
Green Revolution
Short-strawed, fertilizer-responsive wheat and rice varieties, plus fertilizer and irrigation, roughly doubled grain output in Asia and Latin America.
Open in the interactive tree →Norman Borlaug's dwarf wheat in Mexico and IRRI's IR8 rice (1966) were bred to respond to nitrogen without falling over. India's wheat harvest rose from about 10 million tonnes in the 1960s to over 70 million by the 2000s, and Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Costs included heavy fertilizer and pesticide use, water depletion and loss of crop diversity.
Prerequisites
- Irrigation~6000 BC
- Genetics and plant breeding1866
- Haber-Bosch ammonia synthesis1909
- The tractor1917
- Field trials and randomization1925Randomized multi-site trials selected the new varieties
- Synthetic pesticides1939The Green Revolution package included chemical crop protection
Unlocks
More in Agriculture & Food · Atomic & Space Age
- Center-Pivot & Drip Irrigation1948-1965