GEF

Unit 3  |  Primary Sustainability Issues 68 runoff from farm fields contribute to the eutrophication of lakes and rivers and jeopardize drinking water supplies. “Business as usual” agriculture has consequences we are just begin- ning to understand. 3.4  The Green Revolution of Agriculture In the twentieth century, advances in seed hybridization, irri- gation technologies, and petroleum-based pesticides and nitrogen fertilizers fueled the Green Revolution in agricul- ture. Beginning in the 1950s and accelerating in the following decades, these new agricultural technologies helped world food production increase at a rate faster than population growth, with a doubling of global food production in the 1960s alone. However, these increases relied on synthetic fertilizers and large scale irrigation because new plant varieties could produce high yields only with high inputs of nutrients and water. Synthetic fertilizers and pesticides are expensive, and often present an insurmountable economic burden to small-scale farmers in the developing world. EUTROPHICATION The process in which a body of water becomes exces- sively enriched with nutrients, resulting in growth of aquatic life and depleting the oxygen availability for other organisms. GREEN REVOLUTION A series of technological developments in agriculture, such as high-yield crops, irrigation, and increased pes- ticide and fertilizer use, which are credited with increasing agricultural production in developing countries.