World Issues
May 27, 1996
Table of Contents
Topic Page

The Problem ................................................3

The Solution................................................3
Background to The Green Revolution .........................3
Positives of The Green Revolution ..........................3
Problems With The Green Revolution .........................4
The Green Revolution in Asia ...............................5
Rice .......................................................5
Rice Pests and Solutions....................................5
China.......................................................6
Viet Nam Reclamation Projects ..............................8
India.......................................................9
Other Facts ................................................9
Conclusion..................................................10
Map of China................................................11
Map of India ...............................................12
Figure #1: The Rice Plant...................................13
Figure #2: A Field in the Philippines ......................14
Figure #3: Deepwater Rice in Thailand ......................15
Figure P0: Effects of Hoppers ..............................16
Figure P1: Habitat of Brown Hopper .........................17
Figure P2: Wolf Spider......................................18
Figure P3: Black Bug .......................................19
Figure #4: Irrigated Rice Harvesting .......................20
Chart #1: Rice Production...................................21
Chart #2: Fertilizer Use in 1993 ...........................22
Bibliography ...............................................23

The Problem: With the high and rapidly growing population of Asia,
many people go hungry. How can the world support these people?; and, how
can these people feed themselves? What cost will this have on the
environment? What is being done to help these people.

The Solution: The Green Revolution is a solution that has been at work
since the 1960's. It has been developing new and better ways at producing
food.

Background to the Green Revolution: The Green Revolution Started in
the 1960's by the government of the United States. The Green Revolution was
started to make wheat more adaptable to different environments. The grain
was genetically engineered to grow with a shorter stock (to stop damage
from wind) and the ability to grow faster so colder climates could be sure
that the crop was fully grown by the cold season. Warmer climates could
take advantage of these faster growing varieties by having more than one or
two harvests a season. The developing countries produced a lot of waste
through their cultivation techniques. They used high amounts of labor that
produced waste so the developed world had machinery that they sent to the
underdeveloped to stop the waste.
The production of new wheat varieties has led to the green revolution
spreading to Asia and the production of new rice varieties.

Positives of the Green Revolution: Since the Green Revolution has
started there have been nearly 5000 new crop strains developed. Seeds for
crops such as wheat, rice, corn, and cotton have been upgraded four to six
times. Farmers have saw a 50 to 130 percent rise in yield. Wheat production
is about 50 times that during the 1950's.
The population of the world is rising rapidly and this may be the only
way for the earth to feed ourselves.

Problems With the Green Revolution: Problems that have occurred are
that the people that need the machinery cannot afford to buy clothes let
alone pay for huge machines that have to be shipped in from developed
countries and the shipping must be paid for. Even if the farmers could
afford the machinery, they would have to be taught how to use it properly.
Finding fuel, and the money to buy the fuel, in the middle of Africa, for
instance, is impossible.
The developed world produced the new wheat and rice varieties. To
genetically engineer a new strain of food, a company or government must pay
scientists (including agronomists, geneticists, biologists, chemists,
nuclear scientists, space-flight scientists), fund experiments, laboratory
space, and materials (to just name a few). The costs are very high so the
developing world would need to pay a fair price for these new varieties.
The money that the countries need to pay for the seeds and machinery is
borrowed from other countries. This borrowing does not help the developing
countries but puts them, in most cases, into a deeper financial crisis.
The environment also pays the price for the revolution. The new plant
varieties use a lot of minerals from the ground and the soil that they grow
in is being abused. The soil loses much of its minerals so a way had to be
found to replace them. Fertilizers, natural and chemical, have to be used
in high quantities to produce the special varieties. The chemicals seep
down into the groundwater and pollute the water to the point that it is no
longer potable. Many rivers and lakes such as the Huang He River (refer to
map of China) and the Ganges River (refer to map of India) have seen the
effects of this problem in the late 1960's when fish and waterfowl began
dying unexpectedly.
Another problem with the Green Revolution was that the new varieties,
or modern cultivars, had started to make the original varieties that
farmers had used for hundreds of years disappear. The amount of different
types of seeds started to rapidly disappear.
The modern cultivars have a major flaw. The flaw is that the varieties
are insect repelling. The rice's ability to fend off insects is a problem
because the next generation of insects are able to fight this repellence
and then new strains must be developed. If the new strains are not found
then insecticides must be used which also seeps into the groundwater and
poisons the potable water. New varieties must be constantly found in order
to fight the pests. The battle is never-ending but it is quite possible
that the insects may win the battle and become immune to all types of
insecticide.

The Green Revolution in Asia: The countries that this report is going
to look at is the growth of the Green Revolution in China, India, and a
little from Viet Nam.

Rice: Rice has been dated in Asia to 3000 B.C. while rice started
being cultivated in the United States from about the 1640's when a ship
that stopped while traveling to Madagascar left a 5 Kg of rice seed. This
started the Carolina Rice industry.

The rice plant is figure #1.

Rice is grown from uplands to waterlogged fields. Figure #2 is a
mountain in the Philippines where rice is grown. Figure #3 is Deepwater
rice being cultivated in Thailand.

Rice Pests and Solutions: Pests take their toll on Asias' rice
production every year. About 31.5% of the rice produced in Asia is taken
away by pests in the fields and also in the storage room.
Root Feeders are termites and rice water weevils. They usually take
their toll during a dry streak. The mature rice water weevil does not do
much damage to the plant but its larvae feeds on the roots which makes the
plant small, slow to develop, and makes for a low yield.
Leafhoppers and Planthoppers attack all parts of the plant to the
point that the plant dies. A plant that has been attacked by Hoppers look
like they have been burned. The term "hopper burn" has been given to plants
that have been attacked by these pests. An example of "Hopper burn" is
shown in figure P0, the brown area is "burned" while the rest of the field
is hopper resistant. They also carry rice diseases such as tungro virus
that can kill a whole crop. The brown planthopper, shown in figure P1 where
it can be found, transmits the grassy stunt virus. Other insects that
destroy rice are stink bugs which remove the white fluid, known as milk,
from the rice.
The Green Revolution is relying heavily on insecticides. This approach
may not be the proper way to do things. Insecticides seep down into the
groundwater and spoils the potable water, while insect repelling crops do
not last long before new strains of bugs come around. New ways, which are
not very new, have been developed in order to deal with the pests as well
as protecting the environment. Spiders live in all rice fields around the
world. An important spider is the Wolf spider ...