787 



fourth of this area was being irrigated by 1966.-^ The FAO suggests 

 that wherever possible large irrigation schemes should be constructed 

 in increments which can be completed and brought into operation se- 

 quentially.^" But Brown notes that Asian finance ministers are begin- 

 ning to encourage small-scale irrigation financed by individual farm- 

 ers to reduce pressure on the government's budget.^i -p^ expand pro- 

 duction in Pakistan by the use of wells and pumps in the dry season is 

 cheaper than to build the flood-control works necessary in the wet 



Whatever methods are used to increase irrigated acrejiije, the dis- 

 tribution of irrigated land is still highly uneven, and the total acreage 

 far from adequate. Increasing population pressure on food supplies 

 inevitably means increasing pressure on water supplies as well. The 

 efficiency with which water is used will be an increasingly important 

 determinant of the whole food supply. That is why a solution to the 

 irrigation problem is vital to the ultimate success of the Green 

 Revolution. 



THE PROBLEM OF FERTILIZER 



Chemical fertilizers are another key element in the Green Revolu- 

 tion. The new cereal varieties require large applications of fertilizer 

 to produce their enormously increased yields. Increased use of fertil- 

 izers is needed to obtain high yields in areas of high population pres- 

 sure, where opportunities for the expansion of arable land are limited. 

 The larger the investment in the irrigation or mechanization of agri- 

 culture, the greater the need for fertilizer use. Fertilizers widen the 

 opportunities for crop diversification. They can help bring soils of 

 very low natural fertility into production. Indeed, the expanded use of 

 fertilizers is foreseen not onlj for food crops, but for industrial ci-ops, 

 and for the modernized cultivation of grasslands under high tropical 

 rainfall. 



But there are several bottlenecks to the expanded use of fe»tilizers. 

 First, the poor countries must be able to produce sufficient fertilizer 

 domestically, or import it at reasonable prices from abroad. Techno- 

 logical development of a process of synthesizing ammonia from at- 

 mospheric nitrogen has given the developed countries an excess fer- 

 tilizer capacity. New potash fields in Canada, in the Mediterranean 

 area, and elsewhere are expected to meet world needs for centuries to 

 come. With supplies plentiful and prices down, the situation would 

 seem made to order for the LDCs to expand their imports 

 of fertilizer from the developed countries. But the LDCs have been 

 increasing their use of fertilizer at the rate of 16 percent a year, and 

 their foreign exchange resources will not support this rate of in- 

 crease. Foreign assistance can help fill this gap. or the countries in- 

 volved can try to develop their own capabilities to produce fertilizer. 

 The latter option, however, means that the LDCs have to import raw 

 materials, manufacturing equipment, and technological skills, which 

 imposes a further strain on their foreign exchange reserves. One solu- 

 tion has been to encourage multinational corporations to invest in fer- 



*» Brown, "Seeds of Change," op. clt.. page 26. A hectare Is a little less than 2'^> acres. 

 •"Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, "Provisional Indicative 

 World Plan for Agricultural Development," op. clt.. page 60. 

 *^ Brown, "Seeds of Change," op. cit., page 27. 



