Few 20th-century transformations did more to remake the world than the “Green Revolution”. From the 1950s onwards, new high-yielding crop varieties, synthetic fertilisers, chemical pesticides and large-scale irrigation drove a sharp increase in the output of staple crops such as wheat and rice. In its more celebratory accounts, this transformation pushed back famine and helped support rapid population growth across much of Asia and Latin America. India, one of the key centres of the Green Revolution, more than doubled wheat production between the mid-1960s and early 1970s.
20世纪几乎没有哪场变革比“绿色革命”更深刻地重塑世界。自20世纪50年代起，新的高产品种、合成化肥、化学农药和大规模灌溉推动了小麦、水稻等主粮作物产量的大幅增长。在较为颂扬的叙述中，这场变革遏制了饥荒，并帮助支撑了亚洲和拉丁美洲大部分地区人口的快速增长。作为绿色革命的关键中心之一，印度在20世纪60年代中期到70年代初期间，小麦产量增长了一倍以上。