In print
The Doubly Green Revolution
Food for all in the 21st century
by Gordon Conway 1997
published by Penguin UK, 27 Wrights Lane, London W8 5TZ, UK
334pp, price £9.99, PBK, ISBN 0 14 026616 X
The "doubly green" revolution of the book's title is one that not only increases farmers' harvests even further than has been achieved to-date but one that does so without damaging the environment.
Is this possible? We may well ask, because the green revolution of 20-30 years ago managed to more than double yields of rice, wheat and maize by combining remarkable achievements in plant breeding with irrigation, fertilizer and agrochemical pest control. How can we get almost the same yield increases but without increasing dependence on agrochemical fertilizers and water and without the risk of pollution and erosion. We also have to bear in mind that water shortage is likely to be a serious constraint?
Well, for a start, the plant breeders are going to have to deliver more miracles.
And Professor Conway believes this will require biotechnology as well as conventional plant breeding. For the wet tropics the rice plant is even now being totally re-designed so that all unproductive side-shoots or tillers are eliminated and more energy goes into the grain. In addition the crops of the dry tropics, for so long ignored or overlooked, are now also in the spotlight: crops like sorghum, millet, pigeonpea and chickpea. New varieties of these crops are being bred to mature in only two-thirds of the time of traditional varieties - 70-80 days instead of 110 days. And now varieties are being bred with disease and pest resistance. Both of these advances optimize land use, boost yield and neither of them has an adverse environmental impact. Indeed, the greater use of legumes like pigeonpea and chickpea improve soil fertility as well as human nutrition.
A further need is to work more closely with farmers, what Professor Conway and others call the 'participatory' approach to research and development. So, extension staff and scientists need to change their mind-set or attitude towards farmers.
"To die of hunger is the bitterest of fates", writes Professor Conway quoting from Homer's Odyssey. Bitter indeed when so many die not because of the absence of food but because they cannot afford to buy it. And here governments must accept the responsibility to ensure that the economic structure in their countries encourages food production, proper marketing and affordable prices.
Credit is another essential need if impoverished farmers are to improve productivity and Professor Conway quotes several dramatic examples of how credit has been the key to increased output.
Loans and other forms of aid on an international scale must also continue if international research and national agricultural efforts are to succeed. Donor funding has been declining these last years and yet, as the author points out, donors such as the US and the European countries have themselves also reaped benefits from the improved cereal varieties that have been developed by international research centres. In fact, the benefits they have derived have far exceeded the costs. A truly win-win situation.
"In today's world hunger and poverty affect us all," writes Professor Conway - and this easy to read book very clearly lays out the options for eliminating both. At under £10, a book well worth buying - or using that book token received for Christmas.
Postharvest physiology and storage of tropical
and subtropical fruits 
