By Danilo P. Padua, PhD
For this issue, I am giving way to the article of Dr. William Dar, former DA Secretary under the Duterte administration, to take over. This article appeared in the Manila Times on Mar 09, 2023. Here’s the article almost in full.
“THE next Green Revolution or the Evergreen Revolution [as Dr. M.S. Swaminathan calls it] will have to bring about food and nutritional security to the billions in the country but without further damaging the fragile ecosystem.”
The statement above is part of my preface as then-director general of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) for the report titled “Second Green Revolution, Growth Engine for Transformation” released in 2011 that discusses the need for another “revolution” to transform India’s food system into one that is resilient and sustainable, benefiting producers and consumers.
The report was a project of the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (Assocham) with ICRISAT as knowledge-partner.
Dr. M.S. Swaminathan was a most distinguished global leader in agriculture and the “Father of the Indian Green Revolution.” And in 1990, he envisioned the “Evergreen Revolution,” which is “his vision of productivity in perpetuity without associated ecological harm.”
So, that means that from 1990, there were already calls for a second revolution to transform the global food system into one that is sustainable and inclusive.
I also came across an article in The New York Times website titled “The Second Green Revolution” written in October 1981 where the author discussed the need to level up food production using approaches lacking in the first Green Revolution.
While the Green Revolution saw the production of major staples like rice and wheat increase significantly, it made farmers dependent on chemical inputs.
And with the world population growing from 3.7 billion in 1970 to 8 billion in 2022, we now need a new approach or paradigm shift to increase global food supply while preserving the now fragile environment.
Of equal importance is the involvement of more actors or stakeholders, most especially farmers and fishers, as their welfare must also be taken into account when increasing food production.
Now, the big question is: Has the Second Green Revolution already started?
My answer would be “yes,” and I give credit to scientists like Dr. Swaminathan for planting the seeds for the Second Green Revolution many years ago, and Dr. Bjorn Lomborg, president of the Copenhagen Consensus and visiting fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, for advocating that today.
Dr. Lomborg recently wrote an article on the need for a Second Green Revolution, emphasizing an increase in investments for agricultural research and development (R&D) in poorer nations. I agree with him.
The role of technology
Clearly, technology will play a big role in the Second Green Revolution as stated by the Assocham report and Dr. Lomborg. But the type of technologies to be developed and disseminated should be those that can be easily adopted and scaled up by smallholder farmers and fishers.
There are also technologies developed from the first Green Revolution that can still benefit smallholders like small farm machines and high-yielding seeds.
Furthermore, I see technologies from the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4ID) and Agriculture 4.0 that can provide ground-breaking strides for the Second Green Revolution such as geomapping, robotics, artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things, digitalization, sensors, drones, among others.
Sensors and geomapping can assist farmers in monitoring climactic and weather conditions, and soil and water conditions of their farmlands.
Drones are starting to become a craze among farmers as this can reduce the use of chemical inputs by as much as 50 percent and water use by 90 percent. As drones become more popular, more manufacturers are expected to offer lower-priced models that can be acquired by smallholder farmers.
Sensors, geomapping and drones are among the technologies from 4ID and Agriculture 4.0 that can also help preserve or rejuvenate the fragile farming ecosystem we have today.
Hence, let me state that the Second Industrial Revolution is also necessary as extreme weather events are wreaking havoc on the global food system.
The need for convergence
I have yet to see or hear a global declaration that the Second Green Revolution has begun or is taking root. But it is encouraging that almost all the technologies for the revolution to succeed are already there, thanks to the accelerated phase of R&D and the rush toward digitalization and AI.
Social media also enables farmers, most especially the younger ones, to be updated on the latest technological developments for agriculture and food production.
However, the technological advances for the agriculture sector is just one of the two major components for the Second Green Revolution to succeed — the other component is convergence.**
