Seeds of revolution

Abstract

The most significant technological innovation of the postwar period, from the point of view of the Third World, has been the development of new, high-yield hybrids of food grains such as wheat, corn and rice, which are especially well adapted to tropical climatic patterns. The development and spread of the use of these seeds and their associated agricultural technologies is of such recent date and as yet so incomplete that the above statement may seem premature. Nevertheless, the experience of the last four years and the prospects for the future, as well summarized in Mr. Brown's book. suggest that the rubric “The Green Revolution” may be much more than another typically American confusion of the terms “revolution” and innovation.