A Study On The Mexico’s Green Revolution,1940-1982

Green revolution is a term particularly referring to the agricultural modernization of the third world by western developed countries. Green revolution was in fact a process to reform traditional agriculture. It represented the renovation of agricultural technology, aimed at increasing capital concentration in agriculture production. And the popularization of highly-yield crops form the core content of green revolution. There had been four great agricultural revolutions from the late19th century to the21st century. However, green revolution has been the one with the widest and deepest influence up till now, whether in terms of depth and width of influence, or political, economic and social influence that it caused. As Mexico was the origin of green revolution, this paper does a case research of Mexico, Exploring the role and its impact of the Green Revolution in Mexico’s agricultural development and evaluating it.In1943, the Rockefeller Foundation of the U.S. set up a special research office with Mexican Department of Agriculture and signed the agriculture cooperation plan, which was the origin of the green revolution. The start of Mexican agriculture plan was the first overseas agriculture assistance program, aimed at increasing Mexican crop production by cultivating highly-yielding crop products. The propose of the plan was related to American geopolitics of1930s and1940s, as well as Mexican particular political and economic background. It was both linked to the push from Mexican inner part, also to the outer pulling of Rockefeller Foundation and the US. Mexican green revolution was kicked off especially with the foundation of special research office. Mexican agriculture had been going on the track of green revolution since1940s and green revolution had become the main mode of Mexican agricultural modernization for quite a long time. In other words, Mexican agriculture modernization is indeed green revolution.In the initial stage of green revolution popularization, the agriculture policies of the Mexican government focused more on capitalized private agriculture. In1950s to 1960s, green revolution made initial progress, for crop had become self-sufficient, with a little surplus for export. Based on agriculture development, Mexican economy was developing rapidly. Thus, this period was known as "Mexican economic miracle". Many developing countries will also regard Mexican agriculture as an example and popularize green revolution. However, starting from mid-1960s, green revolution was frustrated. Mexican agriculture had been in fact sluggish and the most noticeable demonstration was that there was serious lack of supply for Mexican crop within the country and many important crops still needs to be imported. To solve the agricultural crisis, since1970s, Mexican government has made some changes upon the road of green revolution in that the focus of agriculture development had been shifted from capitalistic commercialized agriculture to backward production districts and units like villages. This kind of mode of development is called "little" green revolution. Thus, it can be said that Mexican agriculture development had been reverted from "big" green revolution to "little" green revolution since1970s.In1982, the green revolution basically came to a stop due to the outburst of Mexican credit crunch. Green revolution had exerted a far-reaching effect on Mexico for nearly40years. The green revolution promoted Mexico to achieve the transformation from traditional agriculture to modern agriculture, accompanying with many negative effects. Agricultural development appeared a situation of imbalance, exacerbated by the dual structure. The green revolution expanded the gap between the rich and the poor in countryside and changed rural class structure, which had an impact on the political forces in Mexico. At the same time, the relationship between urban and countryside had changed. To sum up, the conclusion is that the Green Revolution should be worthy of recognition because it is one of the effective road to the modernization of agriculture in developing countries. The many problems of the Green Revolution in Mexico itself does not lie in the green revolution, improper economic development strategies and agricultural policies of Mexico government is the direct cause, the root will be Mexico’s inherent political and economic structure.