In the 60-70s. XX century A new concept has entered the international lexicon - the “green revolution”, which relates primarily to developing countries. This is a complex, multicomponent concept, which in the most general terms can be interpreted as the use of the achievements of genetics, selection and plant physiology to develop varieties of crops, the cultivation of which, under the conditions of appropriate agricultural technology, opens the way to more complete utilization of photosynthesis products. By the way, a similar evolution was carried out much earlier in developed countries the world (since the 30s of the 20th century - in the USA, Canada, Great Britain, since the 50s - in Western Europe, Japan, New Zealand). However, at that time it was called the industrialization of agriculture, based on the fact that it was based on its mechanization and chemicalization, although in combination with irrigation and selective breeding. And only in the second half of the 20th century, when similar processes affected developing countries, did the name “green revolution” firmly establish itself behind them.

The Green Revolution has spread to more than 15 countries in a belt stretching from Mexico to Korea. It is clearly dominated by Asian countries, and among them are countries with very large or fairly large population, where wheat and/or rice serve as the main food crops. Fast growth their population led to an even greater increase in pressure on arable land, which was already severely depleted. With extreme land scarcity and landlessness, the predominance of small and tiny peasant farms with low agricultural technology, more than 300 million families in these countries in the 60-70s. XX century were either on the verge of survival or experiencing chronic hunger. That is why the “green revolution” was perceived by them as a real attempt to find a way out of their critical situation.

The Green Revolution in developing countries includes three main components .

The first of them is the development of new varieties of agricultural crops . For this purpose, in the 40-90s. XX century 18 international research centers were created, specifically engaged in the study of various agricultural systems represented in the countries of the developing world. Their locations are as follows: Mexico (corn, wheat), Philippines (rice), Colombia (tropical food crops), Ivory Coast (rice) West Africa), Peru (potatoes), India (dry tropical food crops), etc.

The second component of the “green revolution” is irrigation . It is especially important because new varieties of grain crops can realize their potential only under conditions of good water supply. Therefore, with the beginning of the “green revolution” in many developing countries, especially Asian ones, they began to pay especially much attention to irrigation

In general, the share of irrigated land is now 19%, but it is in the areas of the “green revolution” that it is much higher: in South Asia - about 40, and in East Asia and in the Middle East - 35%. As for individual countries, the world leaders in this indicator are Egypt (100%), Turkmenistan (88%), Tajikistan (81) and Pakistan (80%). In China, 37% of all cultivated land is irrigated, in India - 32, in Mexico - 23, in the Philippines, Indonesia and Turkey - 15-17%.

The third component of the “green revolution” is the industrialization of agriculture itself, i.e., the use of machines, fertilizers, plant protection products . In this regard, not much progress has been made by developing countries, including the countries of the Green Revolution. This can be demonstrated by the example of agricultural mechanization. Back in the early 1990s. in developing countries, 1/4 of the arable land was cultivated manually, 1/2 with draft power, and only 1/4 with tractors. Although the tractor fleet of these countries increased to 4 million vehicles, all of them taken together had fewer tractors than the United States (4.8 million).

However, statistics indicate that over the past two to three decades, the tractor fleet in foreign Asia (primarily in India and China) has increased several times, and Latin America- two times. Therefore, the order large regions The size of this park has also changed and now looks like this: 1) foreign Europe; 2) foreign Asia; 3) North America.

Developing countries also lag behind in terms of chemicalization of agriculture. Suffice it to say that on average 60-65 kg of mineral fertilizers are applied per 1 hectare of arable land, while in Japan - 400 kg, in Western Europe - 215, in the USA - 115 kg.

Consequences of the green revolution:

The positive consequences of the Green Revolution are undeniable. The main thing is that it is relatively short terms led to an increase in food production - both overall and per capita. According to FAO, in 11 countries of East, Southeast and South Asia, the area under rice increased by only 15%, and its harvest increased by 74%; similar data on wheat for 9 countries in Asia and North Africa - minus 4% and 24%. All this led to some easing of the severity of the food problem and the threat of famine. India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, China, and some other countries have reduced or completely stopped grain imports. And yet, the story about the successes of the “green revolution” must, apparently, accompanied by some caveats.

The first such clause concerns its focal nature, which, in turn, has two aspects. First, according to data from the mid-1980s, new high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice are distributed on only 1/3 of the 425 million hectares that are occupied by grain crops in developing countries. Secondly, the catalysts of the “green revolution” can be considered three grain crops - wheat, rice and corn, while it had a much weaker effect on millet, leguminous and industrial crops. The situation with leguminous crops, which are widely used as food in most countries, is especially alarming. Due to their high nutritional value, they are even called tropical meat.

Second caveat concerns social consequences"green revolution". Since the use of modern agricultural technology requires significant capital investment, its results were primarily used by landowners and wealthy peasants (farmers), who began to buy land from the poor in order to then squeeze out as much income as possible from it. The poor do not have the means to buy cars, fertilizers, varieties, or sufficient plots of land. Many of them were forced to sell their land and either became farm laborers or joined the population of the “poverty belts” in big cities. Thus, the “green revolution” led to increased social stratification in a village that is increasingly developing along the capitalist path.

Finally, third clause concerns some unwanted environmental consequences"green revolution". These primarily include land degradation. Thus, approximately half of all irrigated land in developing countries is susceptible to salinization due to ineffective drainage systems. Soil erosion and loss of fertility have already led to the destruction of 36% of irrigated crop areas in Southeast Asia, 20 in South-West Asia, 17 in Africa and 30% in Central America. The advance of arable land into forest areas continues. In some countries, the intensive use of agricultural chemicals also poses a major threat to environment(especially along the rivers of Asia, the waters of which are used for irrigation) and human health.

The attitude of developing countries themselves towards these environmental problems not the same, and their capabilities are different. In countries where there are no clearly defined land ownership rights and little economic incentive to implement environmental measures in agriculture, where, due to poverty, scientific and technical capabilities are severely limited, where a population explosion continues to be felt, and tropical nature is also particularly vulnerable, it is difficult to expect any positive changes in the foreseeable future. Developing countries in the “upper echelon” have much greater opportunities to avoid undesirable environmental consequences. They believe, for example, that many rapidly developing Asia-Pacific countries can not only quickly and effectively implement agriculture new equipment and technology, but also adapt them to their natural conditions.

What is the green revolution, its meaning and consequences? How does the green revolution relate to the use of fertilizers and pesticides?

The concept of “Green Revolution” dates back to the middle of the 20th century, give or take a decade. Primarily characteristic of the West, it means a chain of quite significant changes in agriculture, as a result of which the share of world agricultural production has increased several times.

The green revolution took place in a number of developing countries literally before the eyes of one generation. The introduction of new, more productive plant varieties, the expansion of irrigation, the use of new types of fertilizers, pesticides and modern agricultural machinery - all that the revolution gave to the planet's agro-industrial complex.

The term Green Revolution itself was coined by former USAID Director William Goud in 1968, when half the world was reaping the labors of this process.

It all started in 1943 in Mexico. It was there that the agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation gained great momentum, thanks to which the development of innovations for agriculture began. The most prominent agricultural scientist of that time was Norman Borlaug, who developed several highly effective varieties of wheat. One of them, with a short stem (9 which protects wheat from lodging) is used for crops to this day. Thus, by the mid-50s, Mexico was 100% self-sufficient in grain and was able to begin exporting it. The fact that grain yields have increased 3 times in 15 years is entirely the merit of the Green Revolution. The developments used in Mexico were adopted by Colombia, India, and Pakistan. Norman Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970.

The Green Revolution continued to spread around the world, mainly among developing countries. Thus, in 1963, on the basis of Mexican research institutions, the International Center Improvement of Wheat and Corn Varieties (CIMMYT), which carried out breeding work with the best varieties, significantly improving their productivity and survival.

The advantages of the Green Revolution are obvious: thanks to it, the growing population of the Earth remained well-fed, and the quality of life in some areas has increased markedly, because the number of calories in food consumed per day has increased by 25% in developing countries.

The disadvantages began to clearly appear a little later. Due to the spread of mineral fertilizers and pesticides, environmental problems have begun to arise more and more often. The intensification of agriculture has disrupted water regime soils, which caused large-scale salinization and desertification.

Copper and sulfur preparations, which cause soil contamination with heavy metals, were replaced by aromatic, heterocyclic, chlorine and organophosphorus compounds (karbofos, dichlorvos, DDT, etc.) by the middle of the 20th century.

They act in much lower concentrations, which makes it possible to reduce chemical treatment costs. But many of them turned out to be unpredictably stable and did not decompose in nature for several years.

A striking example of such a drug is DDT. This substance was later found even in animals of Antarctica, thousands of kilometers from the nearest places where this chemical was used.

And another consequence of the Green Revolution is rapid globalization and the capture of the markets for seeds, fertilizers, pesticides and agricultural equipment in developing countries by American companies.

One of the problems of human society is modern stage development is the need to increase food production. This is due to the increase in the planet's population and the depletion of its soil resources.

Temporary positive results in increasing the production of grain crops were achieved in the third quarter of the 20th century. They were achieved in countries where energy consumption increased significantly, progressive forms of agricultural technology were used, and mineral fertilizers were used. Yields of wheat, rice, and corn have increased. New high-yielding plant varieties were developed. The so-called green revolution took place. This revolution did not affect countries that did not have sufficient resources.

« Green revolution“occurred both in traditionally used agricultural territories and in newly developed ones. Agrocenoses created by humans for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products have low environmental reliability. Such ecosystems cannot self-heal and self-regulate.

As a result of the "green revolution" there was a great impact on the planet's biosphere. Getting energy inevitably came with pollution. atmospheric air and water. Agrotechnical measures used in soil cultivation have led to soil impoverishment and degradation. The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the atmospheric and riverine anthropogenic influx of nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, and organochlorine compounds into the waters of the World Ocean.

Wide Application organic fertilizers became possible due to an increase in their production volumes.

Facilities for the production and storage of fertilizers and pesticides have made a significant contribution to the accumulation of biosphere pollution.

The Green Revolution arose as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the development of science.

During the Green Revolution, large areas of virgin land were developed. For several years, high yields were collected. But “nothing is given for free” according to one of the provisions of B. Commoner. Today, many of these areas are depleted, endless fields. It will take centuries to restore these ecosystems.

Human increases in the productivity of ecosystems have led to an increase in the costs of maintaining them in a stable state. But there is a limit to such an increase before it becomes economically unprofitable.

As a result of the “green revolution”, humanity has added global environmental problems.

Previous materials:

In the 60-70s. XX century A new concept has entered the international lexicon - the “green revolution”, which relates primarily to developing countries. This is a complex, multicomponent concept, which in the most general terms can be interpreted as the use of the achievements of genetics, selection and plant physiology to develop crop varieties, the cultivation of which under the conditions of appropriate agricultural technology opens the way to more complete utilization of photosynthesis products.
Strictly speaking, there is nothing particularly revolutionary in this process, because people have been striving for such goals for a long time. Therefore, apparently, it would be more correct to call it not revolution, but evolution. By the way, a similar evolution was carried out much earlier in developed countries of the world (since the 30s of the twentieth century - in the USA, Canada, Great Britain, since the 50s - in Western Europe, Japan, New Zealand). However, at that time it was called the industrialization of agriculture, based on the fact that it was based on its mechanization and chemicalization, although in combination with irrigation and selective breeding. And only in the second half of the twentieth century, when similar processes affected developing countries, did the name “green revolution” firmly establish itself behind them. However, some modern authors, for example, American ecologist Tyler Miller, put forward a kind of compromise option and began to write about two “green revolutions”: the first in developed countries and the second in developing countries (Fig. 85).
Figure 85 gives general idea on the geographical spread of the second “green revolution”. It is clearly visible that it covered more than 15 countries located in a belt stretching from Mexico to Korea. It is clearly dominated by Asian countries, and among them, countries with very large or fairly large populations, where wheat and/or rice are the main food crops. The rapid growth of their population led to even greater pressure on arable land, which was already severely depleted. With extreme land scarcity and landlessness, the predominance of small and tiny peasant farms with low agricultural technology, more than 300 million families in these countries in the 60-70s. XX century were either on the verge of survival or experiencing chronic hunger. That is why the “green revolution” was perceived by them as a real attempt to find a way out of their critical situation.

Rice. 84. Main agricultural areas of the world
The Green Revolution in developing countries has three main components.

The first of them is the development of new varieties of agricultural crops. For this purpose, in the 40-90s. XX century 18 international research centers were created, specifically engaged in the study of various agricultural systems represented in the countries of the developing world. Their locations are as follows: Mexico (corn, wheat), Philippines (rice), Colombia (tropical food crops), Nigeria (food crops of humid and sub-humid tropical areas), Ivory Coast (rice growing in West Africa), Peru (potatoes), India (food crops of the arid tropical regions), etc. The best known of these centers are the first two.
The International Center for the Improvement of Wheat and Corn Varieties was created in Mexico back in 1944. It was headed by the young American breeder Norman Borlaug. In the 1950s High-yielding varieties of short-stem (dwarf) wheat were developed here. Since the early 1960s. they began to spread in Mexico, leading to an increase in yield from 8-10 to 25-35 c/ha. Thus, it was Mexico that became the founder of the “green revolution”. Norman Borlaug's achievements were recognized Nobel Prize. In subsequent years, wheat varieties more adapted to local conditions were obtained on this basis in India and Pakistan. The increase in yield here was not as great as in Mexico, but still in India, for example, it rose from 8 to 15 c/ha, and some peasants began to harvest up to 40–50 c/ha.

The International Rice Breeding Institute in Los Baños (Philippines) has also achieved great success, where they have developed new varieties of rice - with shorter stems, more resistant to pests, but most importantly - faster ripening. Before the advent of new varieties, farmers in monsoon Asia typically planted rice as soon as the rainy season began and harvested it in early December, allowing for a 180-day growing season. The new rice variety R-8 had a growing season of 150 days, while the R-36 variety had a growing season of only 120 days. Both varieties of “miracle rice” have become widespread primarily in the countries of South and Southeast Asia, where they occupy from 1/3 to 1/2 of all crops of this crop. And already in the 1990s. Another variety of rice was developed, capable of giving an increase of 25% without expanding the area under crops.
The second component of the Green Revolution is irrigation. It is especially important because new varieties of grain crops can realize their potential only under conditions of good water supply. Therefore, with the beginning of the “green revolution” in many developing countries, especially Asian ones, they began to pay especially much attention to irrigation. As an analysis of Table 120 shows, of the 20 countries with irrigated land areas of more than 1 million hectares, half are developing. But the total area of ​​irrigated land (about 130 million hectares) is much larger in them than in economically developed countries.
In general, in the world the share of irrigated land is now 19%, but in the areas where the “green revolution” is spreading it is much higher: in South Asia - about 40%, and in East Asia and the Middle East - 35%. As for individual countries, the world leaders in this indicator are Egypt (100%), Turkmenistan (88%), Tajikistan (81) and Pakistan (80%). In China, 37% of all cultivated land is irrigated, in India - 32, in Mexico - 23, in the Philippines, Indonesia and Turkey - 15-17%.
Table 120

The third component of the “green revolution” is the industrialization of agriculture itself, that is, the use of machines, fertilizers, and plant protection products. In this regard, not much progress has been made by developing countries, including the countries of the Green Revolution. This can be demonstrated by the example of agricultural mechanization. Back in the early 1990s. in developing countries, 1/4 of the arable land was cultivated manually, 1/2 with draft power, and only 1/4 with tractors. Although the tractor fleet of these countries increased to 4 million vehicles, all of them taken together had fewer tractors than the United States (4.8 million). It is not surprising that in Latin America there were on average only 5 tractors per 1000 hectares, and in Africa - 1 (in the USA - 36). Based on another calculation - how many tractors are there on average per 1000 people employed in agriculture, then with the world average of 20 tractors in Pakistan it is 12, in Egypt - 10, in India - 5, and in China, Indonesia and the Philippines – 1 tractor.
The famous scientist and publicist Zh. Medvedev gave the following example in one of his works. The total area of ​​all farms in the United States is about 400 million hectares, that is, it is equal to the total area of ​​cultivated land in India, China, Pakistan and Bangladesh combined (165, 166, 22 and 10 million hectares, respectively). But in the USA this area is cultivated by 3.4 million people, and in these Asian countries - more than 600 million! This sharp difference is largely explained by completely disparate levels of mechanization of field work. For example, in the USA and Canada, absolutely all work in grain farming is performed by machines, and in India, China, and Pakistan, humans and draft animals account for at least 60–70% of this work. Although when growing wheat, the share of manual labor is still less than when growing rice. Of course, by spending similar comparisons, we cannot ignore the fact that rice sowing has always been primarily labor-intensive; besides, tractors are generally of little use in rice fields.
However, statistics show that over the past two to three decades, the tractor fleet in foreign Asia (primarily India and China) has increased several times, and in Latin America - doubled. Therefore, the order of large regions in terms of the size of this park has also changed and now looks like this: 1) foreign Europe; 2) foreign Asia; 3) North America.
Developing countries also lag behind in terms of chemicalization of agriculture. Suffice it to say that on average 60–65 kg of mineral fertilizers are applied per 1 hectare of arable land, while in Japan - 400 kg, in Western Europe - 215, in the USA - 115 kg. Nevertheless, it was precisely in the chemicalization of their agriculture that the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America achieved, perhaps, greatest success. Their share in global consumption of mineral fertilizers increased from 1/5 in 1970 to almost 1/2 in 2000.
It can be added that the most mineral fertilizers per 1 hectare of arable land from developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America are used: in Egypt (420 kg), in China (400), in Chile (185), in Bangladesh (160), in Indonesia (150), in the Philippines (125), in Pakistan (115), in India (90 kg). This especially applies to nitrogen fertilizers, which in the countries of the “green revolution” are most needed for feeding rice fields. The same applies to many pesticides. China, for example, overall dimensions their consumption is only two times lower than the United States and exceeds many countries Western Europe. On the other hand, general indicators of chemicalization often hide very significant geographical differences. Thus, in many countries of East and South Asia, North Africa, an average of 60–80 kg of mineral fertilizers are applied per 1 hectare of arable land, and in sub-Saharan Africa - only 10 kg, and in the agricultural “outback” they are mostly not used at all .
The positive consequences of the Green Revolution are undeniable. The main thing is that in a relatively short time it led to an increase in food production - both in general and on a per capita basis (Fig. 86). According to FAO, in 1966–1984. in 11 countries of East, Southeast and South Asia, the area under rice increased by only 15%, and its harvest increased by 74%; similar data for wheat for 9 countries in Asia and North Africa – minus 4% and 24%. All this led to some easing of the severity of the food problem and the threat of famine. India, Pakistan, Thailand, Indonesia, China, and some other countries have reduced or completely stopped grain imports. Nevertheless, the story about the successes of the “green revolution” must, apparently, be accompanied by some reservations.
The first such reservation concerns its focal nature, which, in turn, has two aspects. First, according to data from the mid-1980s, new high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice are distributed on only 1/3 of the 425 million hectares occupied by grain crops in developing countries. At the same time, in Asian countries their share in the grain wedge is 36%, in Latin America – 22%, and in Africa, which is almost completely unaffected by the “green revolution”, only 1%. Secondly, the catalysts of the “green revolution” can be considered three grain crops - wheat, rice and corn, while it had a much weaker effect on millet, leguminous and industrial crops. The situation with leguminous crops, which are widely used as food in most countries, is especially alarming. Due to their high nutritional value (they contain twice as much protein as wheat and three times more than rice), they are even called the meat of the tropics.

The second caveat concerns the social consequences of the Green Revolution. Since the use of modern agricultural technology requires significant capital investment, its results were primarily used by landowners and wealthy peasants (farmers), who began to buy land from the poor in order to then squeeze out as much income as possible from it. The poor do not have the means to buy cars, fertilizers, varietal seeds (it is no coincidence that Asian peasants nicknamed one of the new varieties the “Cadillac” variety, after the name of the brand of an expensive American car), nor sufficient plots of land. Many of them were forced to sell their land and either became farm laborers or joined the population of the “poverty belts” in big cities. Thus, the “green revolution” led to increased social stratification in the countryside, which is increasingly developing along the capitalist path.
Finally, the third caveat concerns some of the undesirable environmental consequences of the Green Revolution. These primarily include land degradation. Thus, approximately half of all irrigated land in developing countries is susceptible to salinization due to ineffective drainage systems. Soil erosion and loss of fertility have already led to the destruction of 36% of irrigated crop areas in Southeast Asia, 20 in Southwest Asia, 17 in Africa and 30% in Central America. The advance of arable land into forest areas continues. In some countries, the heavy use of agricultural chemicals also poses a major threat to the environment (especially along Asian rivers used for irrigation) and human health. According to WHO estimates, the number of accidental pesticide poisonings reaches 1.5 million cases per year.
The attitude of developing countries themselves to these environmental problems is not the same, and their capabilities are different. In countries where there are no clearly defined land ownership rights and few economic incentives for environmental conservation in agriculture, where scientific and technological capabilities are severely limited due to poverty, where a population explosion continues to be felt, and where the tropical environment is also special vulnerability, it is difficult to expect any positive changes in the foreseeable future. Developing countries in the “upper echelon” have much greater opportunities to avoid undesirable environmental consequences. It is believed, for example, that many rapidly developing Asia-Pacific countries can not only quickly and effectively introduce new equipment and technology into agriculture, but also adapt them to their natural conditions.

State Autonomous Educational Institution of Secondary Professional Education of the Vladimir Region

"Gus-Crystal Technological College"

on the topic: Green revolution.

3rd year full-time students.

Specialties "Management".

Checked:

Ecology teacher

Prepared by:

Tatarovskaya Natalya

Green revolution.

One of the problems of human society at the present stage of development is the need to increase food production. This is due to the increase in the planet's population and the depletion of its soil resources.

Temporary positive results from increasing grain production were achieved in the third quarter of the 20th century. They were achieved in countries where energy consumption increased significantly, progressive forms of agricultural technology were used, and mineral fertilizers were used. The yields of wheat, rice and corn have increased. New high-yielding plant varieties were developed. The so-called green revolution took place. This revolution did not affect countries that did not have sufficient resources.

Green revolution– this is a transition from extensive farming, when the size of fields was increased, to intensive farming – when productivity was increased, all sorts of new technologies were actively used. This is the transformation of agriculture based on modern agricultural technology. This is the introduction of new varieties of grain crops and new methods leading to increased yields.

This expression began in Mexico in 1943 with an agricultural program of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation. In the 1950s and from the mid-60s. New high-yielding varieties of rice and wheat began to be cultivated in many Third World countries.

The “Green Revolution” is one of the forms of manifestation of scientific and technological revolution. It includes the following main components:

development of new early ripening varieties of grain crops, which contribute to a sharp increase in yield and open up the possibility of using further crops;

land irrigation, as new varieties can show their best qualities only under the condition of artificial irrigation;

wide application modern technology, fertilizers.

As a result of the Green Revolution, many developing countries began to meet their needs through their own agricultural production. Thanks to the Green Revolution, grain yields have doubled.

However, it should be noted that the “green revolution” became widespread in Mexico and the countries of South and Southeast Asia, but had little effect on many other regions. In addition, it affected only lands owned by large owners and foreign companies, changing almost nothing in the traditional consumer sector.

The “Green Revolution” took place both in traditionally used agricultural areas and in newly developed ones. Agrocenoses created by humans for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products have low environmental reliability. Such ecosystems cannot self-heal and self-regulate.

Agrocenoses – biogeocenoses created for the purpose of obtaining agricultural products and regularly maintained by humans (fields, pastures, vegetable gardens, orchards, protective forest plantings, etc.). Without human support, agroecosystems quickly disintegrate, returning to their natural state.

As a result of the "green revolution" there was a great impact on the planet's biosphere. The production of energy was inevitably accompanied by air and water pollution. Agronomic measures used in soil cultivation have led to soil consolidation and degradation. The use of mineral fertilizers and pesticides contributed to the atmospheric influx of nitrogen compounds, heavy metals, and organochlorine compounds into the waters of the World Ocean.

The widespread use of organic fertilizers has become possible due to an increase in their production volumes.

Facilities for the production and storage of fertilizers and pesticides have made a significant contribution to the pollution of the biosphere.

The Green Revolution arose as a result of the rapid growth of industry and the development of science.

During the Green Revolution, large areas of virgin land were developed. For several years, high yields were collected. But “nothing is given for free” according to one of the provisions of B. Commoner. Today, many of these areas are depleted, endless fields. It will take centuries to restore these ecosystems.

Human increases in the productivity of ecosystems have led to an increase in the costs of maintaining them in a stable state. But there is a limit to such an increase before it becomes economically unprofitable.

Consequences of the "green revolution".

Intensive farming is not in vain, the land “gets tired” much faster, water sources are depleted;

Agronomic measures used in soil cultivation have led to soil consolidation and degradation;

The fall in prices for agricultural products is a serious test for those who work on the land; a lot of farmers went bankrupt as a result of the “green revolution”.

Erosion of arable land, especially in the arid zone, pollution of fields and products chemicals, flushing of mineral fertilizers and water pollution