The Green Revolution and Belize

The Green Revolution was highly productive agricultural techniques developed since the 1960s that entail that the use of new hybrid plant varieties combined with larger applications of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. The term is generally applied to agricultural changes in developing countries, particularly India. The Green Revolution had its positive and negative effects on  the countries that were introduced to it. Some of the positive were, it helped agricultural growth keep up with population growth, and it helped developing countries to become more self sufficient. Although the Green Revolution had its positive effects, it also had it negatives; such as serious environmental problems that resulted from the chemical dependency of the new crop strains, and social problems, such as only the more prosperous farmers were able to afford the new seed strains, irrigation equipment, farm machinery, fertilizers, and pesticides. Many of these harmful pesticides that are used are not only harmful to the environment, but are also harmful to the human body as well. The Green Revolution has fed many of the South Asian population more many decades, but it still remains unclear on if it will be able to continue to do so.

         Belize, however, did not participate in the Green Revolution. It is believed that one of the main reasons that Belize did not participate in the Green Revolution was because they produce cacao (or chocolate beans), and to produce cacao they must grow it organically and with an agro-forestry-based-system. If they were to participate in the Green Revolution then they would be harming the environment, and potentially harming the cacao industry.

Figure 1: Pictured above is some of the different types of Cacao beans in Belize.

Figure 2: Pictured above are two Indian boys who are using harmful pesticides because of the Green Revolution.

Works Cited:

Rowntree, Les, Martin Lewis, Marie Price, and William Wyckoff. Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World. Fourth ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2008. Print

Figure Sources:

Figure 1: https://www.google.com/search

Figure 2: https://www.google.com/search