Thailand and The Green Revolution

According to The New York Times, the "green revolution" of the 1940's and 50's in Mexico, made its way to Asia in the 1960's.  The father of the green revolution, Norman Borlang , created bio-genetically altered strains of rice, corn, and wheat that would prosper in different harsh climates around the world.  Upon the success in Mexico, the scientist turned his attention to the hunger issues in Asia.  Famine was wreaking havoc on the continent and Borlang decided to attempt his experiment in Southeast Asia.  The staple crop of the region was rice.  Borlang again used his scientific approach to produce record numbers of rice in the region.  The new farming techniques replaced  the traditional smallholders, or family farms.  Large scale industrial farming practices were implemented with the clearing of large plots of land and practice of using chemical fertilizers and pesticides to grow the rice.  From 1961 to 1995, the amount of large farms increased from 6.5 million hectares to 11.5 million hectares.  The tonnage of cereal produced increased from 10.8 million tons to 31.5 million tons.  This made Thailand the number one producer of rice in the world.

This photo is of large scale mono-culture rice farming in Thailand.  These practices are harming the environment on the country which had already faced a water shortage in the past.

The negative aspects are the environmental concerns of the over use of chemicals that leech into the fresh water supplies and the usage of watersheds to irrigate the large farms. Sociologically, there has been a dramatic effect on the "smallholder", or family, farms.  The new agricultural ideals have separated the traditional farming practices and the more successful farmers in the region.  Only the more wealthy can afford the farming machinery necessary and the more expensive seeds and chemical fertilizers needed to continue this type of farming.  According to The Climate Spectator, a world environmental watchdog publication, "over the last 20 years the contribution of agriculture in Thailand to the national economy has dipped from 25 percent to less than 10 percent."  The yield of production has declined due to the amount of arable land able to be farmed has decreased due to pollution of the soil and the salinization of the farmland in the region.  Many farmers are reverting to the more traditional farming techniques of the old days, producing many different crops in small farms to satisfy the needs of a small few people in stead of the mono-culture farming practices of the green revolution.

This photograph is of a banana plantation, many of which have disappeared due to the demands for farmland necessary for large scale mono-culture farms.

 Morrissey, Lily. "Thailand's New Green Revolution." Business Spectator. Web. 1 Dec. 2014. 

Rowntree, Lester. Globalization and Diversity: Geography of a Changing World. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2014. Print.

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