GGR107H1 Chap.6 Technology in Agriculture and the Green Revolution
Technology in Agriculture and the Green Revolution
Good for whom?
Week 5 asks whether technological advancement in agriculture is always good, and for whom.
The lectures cover the Green Revolution and beyond, ideas from Vandana Shiva, a talk on communicating about GMOs and the Green Revolution in Ghana, with case studies from India and Africa.
Sources of different kinds
The readings include an interview feature with Shiva and a peer-reviewed article on mechanization, environmental degradation and gendered livelihoods in northern Ghana; the tutorial reading is a commentary arguing that fertilizers will not fix Africa's food crisis.
How to read the week
Week 5 is built for comparison.
It sets a talk on communicating about GMOs beside critics of the Green Revolution model, and an empirical study from northern Ghana beside opinion pieces about Africa.
Before deciding what you think, use the context step: who is speaking, to whom, in what kind of text, and with what evidence.
Links to the assignments
The tutorial practises critical reading on a commentary about fertilizers, preparing you for Part Two of the Worldview Reflection, whose article is an opinion piece on a Western-led Green Revolution in Africa.
The week's skill-building module, on responsible use of generative AI, connects to the team project's AI rules.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Views of technology as worldviews
- 02
The Green Revolution in India and Africa
- 03
Monoculture of the mind
- 04
Mechanization and gendered livelihoods in northern Ghana
- 05
Critical reading of a recorded talk
- 06
Generative AI as a technology to evaluate
Worked example · free
Judge a technology claim by who gains and who pays
- 1Who owns or can afford the machine, and who loses work because of it.
- 1Its environmental effects on the soil and land where it is used.
- 1Whether the extra grain reaches the people who need food, or is sold elsewhere.
Key terms
- Green Revolution
- The spread of new agricultural technology that the course studies through case studies in India and Africa.
- Monoculture of the Mind
- Vandana Shiva's phrase for a single dominant way of thinking that crowds out other knowledge.
- Agricultural Mechanization
- The replacement of human or animal labour in farming with machines.
- Gendered Livelihood
- A way of making a living whose costs and benefits fall differently on women and men, a focus of the Ghana reading.
Technology in Agriculture and the Green Revolution FAQ
Why does the course ask whether technology is good for whom?
Because the same technology can benefit one group while costing another. The Week 4 worldview exercise first asks whether scientific or technological advancement is always good, and for whom, and Week 5 applies the question to agriculture through the Green Revolution in India and Africa.
How can you critically read a video?
Use the same five steps as for a text. In Week 5 the lecture critically reads a recorded talk on communicating about GMOs, so the speaker, the intended audience and the evidence shown on screen are examined just as you would examine an author, a readership and the sources cited.
Which Week 5 reading is used for the tutorial?
The tutorial uses a 2024 Project Syndicate commentary by Bollmohr and Warui titled Fertilizers Will Not Fix Africa's Food Crisis. Groups critically read it, starting from the preparation exercise and drawing on the week's readings and lectures, before a final question session on Assignment 1.
What does monoculture of the mind mean?
It is Vandana Shiva's phrase, used in the title of the Week 5 interview feature. It borrows the image of a field planted with a single crop to describe a single dominant way of thinking that crowds out other knowledge, linking agricultural technology to worldview.
Why does the course study the Green Revolution in more than one place?
Because the same technological package can play out differently depending on soils, land rights, gender roles and markets. Comparing cases from India and from Africa, including northern Ghana, keeps place at the centre of the analysis, which is the geographer's contribution to debates about agricultural technology.
Exam move
For each Week 5 source, write one line on its type of writing and one on what you would check; then answer 'good for whom?' about one technology in two contrasting places. For revision, draw two columns, promised benefits and possible costs, for one agricultural technology, and fill each with a group of people and a place.
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