The Green Revolution, beginning in the mid-20th century, shifted agricultural production methods globally, particularly in developing nations. This transformation involved adopting a technological package centered on high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of staple crops, especially wheat and rice. This package also required the heavy use of synthetic fertilizers, chemical pesticides, and large-scale irrigation systems. The initial goal was to dramatically increase food yields to prevent famine and address the rapidly growing global population. While the revolution successfully boosted cereal grain production, the long-term application of this intensive model created profound negative consequences across environmental, social, and nutritional domains.
Environmental Costs: Soil Health and Water Systems
The drive for maximum yield introduced a heavy dependency on synthetic nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium fertilizers. Intensive application often exceeds the plant’s absorption rate, leading to nutrient runoff into surrounding ecosystems. Excess nitrogen and phosphorus entering rivers and lakes results in eutrophication, triggering dense algal blooms that deplete oxygen. This creates hypoxic “dead zones” unable to support aquatic life.
The continuous cultivation of the same high-yielding cereal crops has caused a chemical imbalance in the soil. This practice has depleted micronutrients essential for long-term fertility, such as zinc and manganese. Furthermore, reliance on intensive irrigation, especially in arid regions, contributes to soil salinization. This occurs when water evaporates, leaving behind a damaging accumulation of salts in the topsoil, making the land less productive.
The extensive use of chemical pesticides and herbicides prompted an evolutionary arms race. Pest populations often develop resistance, requiring farmers to apply higher doses or shift to more potent compounds. This cycle degrades the soil microbiome, including beneficial bacteria and fungi, and contaminates groundwater sources with persistent chemical residues. The increased demand for irrigation water has also led to the rapid depletion of groundwater tables in many farmed regions.
Decline in Crop Genetic Diversity
The Green Revolution replaced thousands of locally adapted, traditional crop varieties (landraces) with a small number of genetically uniform HYVs. This process, termed genetic erosion, drastically reduced the genetic diversity available in the global food supply. The agricultural base narrowed to a few high-performing cereal strains, resulting in vast tracts of land planted with a single crop variety.
This practice of monoculture creates substantial vulnerability in the food system. When all plants share identical genetics, a single new disease or pest can rapidly overcome resistance and devastate an entire harvest. Historically, diverse systems maintained resilience by providing natural barriers to disease spread. Current dependence on a narrow genetic base means food security relies on constant technological intervention to develop new resistant strains.
Exacerbation of Socio-Economic Disparities
The Green Revolution technology was capital-intensive, requiring significant investment in seeds, fertilizers, pesticides, machinery, and irrigation infrastructure. These high upfront costs disproportionately favored large landowners who possessed the collateral to secure credit and purchase the necessary inputs. Small-scale farmers, often lacking access to formal credit markets, struggled to compete with the yields of their larger neighbors.
This financial barrier widened the gap in wealth and productivity between large and small landholders, increasing rural inequality. Many small farmers incurred debts to buy the technology package, and failure to achieve expected yields often trapped them in debt cycles. Consequently, many were forced to sell or mortgage their land, leading to land concentration among the wealthier class.
Large landowners recognized the increased profitability of their improved land and began evicting tenant farmers to cultivate the land themselves. This displacement swelled the ranks of the landless agricultural labor force, increasing insecurity. It also contributed to a significant migration of former farmers and laborers from rural areas to urban centers seeking employment. The technology thus reinforced existing social and economic hierarchies in the countryside.
Shifts in Nutritional Quality
The primary goal of the Green Revolution was to maximize caloric yield, focusing on staple grains like rice, wheat, and maize. This focus on bulk production neglected micronutrient density during the breeding process. HYVs of wheat and rice, while producing high quantities of carbohydrates, frequently contained lower concentrations of essential vitamins and minerals compared to the traditional varieties they replaced.
This shift contributed to “hidden hunger,” a form of malnutrition characterized by a deficiency in micronutrients despite adequate calorie intake. Over two billion people worldwide suffer from this condition, often lacking sufficient iron, zinc, and Vitamin A. The displacement of diverse, traditional crops—such as pulses, legumes, and millets—by the HYVs reduced the variety of nutrient sources, making populations reliant on a few nutritionally incomplete staples.