Summary
Pingali (2012) provides a retrospective assessment of the Green Revolution's multidimensional impacts, published in PNAS as part of a commemorative series. The paper evaluates gains in staple crop productivity and their contribution to reducing hunger, whilst also examining environmental costs and the distributional inequities of technology adoption. It likely argues that whilst the Green Revolution averted widespread famine, its legacy includes soil health pressures, agrobiodiversity loss, and incomplete nutritional outcomes in many low-income countries.
UK applicability
This paper focuses primarily on South and Southeast Asia and sub-Saharan Africa; its direct applicability to UK conditions is limited, though it offers relevant historical context for UK policy debates on agricultural intensification, agri-environment trade-offs, and the sustainability of high-input cereal systems.
Key measures
Cereal yield trends (t/ha); food price indices; poverty headcount rates; land use change; input use intensification; dietary diversity indicators
Outcomes reported
The paper reviews the documented impacts of the Green Revolution on crop yields, food prices, poverty reduction, and environmental consequences across developing regions. It likely assesses both productivity gains and unintended effects including soil degradation, water use, and dietary diversity changes.
Topic tags
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