Internal Resources for Sustainable Agriculture

The "Green Revolution" has been most successful where capital, infrastructure, and price incentives have combined to help farmers take advantage of the new production package. New varieties, the heart of the package, have responded to added fertiliser, improved weed control, and protection by chemical pesticides. This production technology has helped countries to buy time while working to control population and further develop agriculture
and industry (Francis and Harwood, 1985). But the majority of Third World farmers have been untouched by the new technology. The
substantial inputs of chemical fertilisers, pesticides, and other fossil fuel derived production inputs needed for these technologies continue to be unavailable or unaffordable to most
resource poor farmers.