What is "green revolution"

n. the introduction of pesticides and high-yield grains and better management during the 1960s and 1970s which greatly increased agricultural productivity

The Green Revolution refers to a set of research and development of technology transfer initiatives occurring between the 1930s and the late 1960s (with prequels in the work of the agrarian geneticist Nazareno Strampelli in the 1920s and 1930s), that increased agricultural production worldwide, particularly in the developing world, beginning most markedly in the late 1960s. The initiatives resulted in the adoption of new technologies, including:

...new, high-yielding varieties (HYVs) of cereals, especially dwarf wheats and rices, in association with chemical fertilizers and agro-chemicals, and with controlled water-supply (usually involving irrigation) and new methods of cultivation, including mechanization. All of these together were seen as a 'package of practices' to supersede 'traditional' technology and to be adopted as a whole.

The initiatives, led by Norman Borlaug, the "Father of the Green Revolution," who received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970, credited with saving over a billion people from starvation, involved the development of high-yielding varieties of cereal grains, expansion of irrigation infrastructure, modernization of management techniques, distribution of hybridized seeds, synthetic fertilizers, and pesticides to farmers.

The term "Green Revolution" was first used in 1968 by former US Agency for International Development (USAID) director William Gaud, who noted the spread of the new technologies: "These and other developments in the field of agriculture contain the makings of a new revolution. It is not a violent Red Revolution like that of the Soviets, nor is it a White Revolution like that of the Shah of Iran. I call it the Green Revolution."

The term Green Revolution has several meanings. It can refer to:

• The Green Revolution was a massive increase in agricultural yields between 1943–1970 that occurred worldwide.
• The Green Revolution in India, a massive increase in agricultural products in India
• The 2009 Iranian presidential election protests, an attempted revolution after Iran's 2009 presidential election. Green reflecting presidential candidate Mousavi's campaign color
• The rise of Muammar Gaddafi's regime in Libya
• Environmental Revolution, an ongoing process of mitigation of climate change and use of sustainable technologies