For South Asia, the impact of Green Revolution has been characterized by a slowing of the rate of growth of farm yields, high input-use intensity, and an apparent decreasing efficiency of inputs. Patterns of declining yield have recently happened for rice-wheat systems in India and Nepal (Ibid). Overall, the slowing yield growth rates and decreasing input efficiency in irrigated rice, and low and declining yields in non-irrigated rice, have meant that the sustainability of GR rice production systems has been called into question (Ramprasad, 2005). FAO had admitted this fact: “productivity levels have not only reached a plateau but even declined in the high yielding production systems which have been major contributions to the national food basket” (FAO, 1994).

In the Philippines, long-term soil degradation as a result of GR farming is pointed to as a main cause of decreasing yield statistics, particularly in its main rice granaries. The Bureau of Soil and Water Management noted important results of soil analysis, primarily zinc deficiency found to be a major cause of low rice yields in the major rice producing provinces such as Iloilo, Cagayan Valley, Nueva Ecija, Bulacan, Camarines Sur and in flooded ricelands in Samar and Leyte, Bicol River Basin and CARAGA rice areas (Searice 2005).

In Indonesia, yield performance became stagnant since 1990s, from 4.3 metric tons per hectare to 4.4 metric tons per hectare in 2002 (Bulog). It appears that the irrigation, compaction of soil through use of heavy machinery and chemical inputs have had serious impacts on the soil health, reducing its ability to sustain health crops (Paul & Steinbrecher, 2003).

Finally, ADB had agreed to these attestations: “An investigation into production performances over the past two decades has revealed some early indications of unsustainability. Firstly, the growth of yield per unit area of some major staple crops, is demonstrating a declining trend, and this slowdown is most obvious for rice. The GR package was based on a powerful technology that offered a remarkable increase in yields, which were many times greater than the yield of the more productive traditional varieties. However, it had experienced second generation problems detected by scientists in the intensive mono-cropping aspect of the system. High input use has led to increased pest resistance and health problems.”

The impact is an intensification of the application of synthetic fertilizers and harmful pesticides, further resulting in higher productions costs, decreased incomes, and further indebtedness.

GR poisoned farmers and populations

Poverty, food, and health are inextricably linked in a vicious cycle centered on the GR production system where pesticides are its main crutch. Pesticides, along with synthetic fertilizers, consist of an unavoidable requirement of GR-style cropping but with effects that pervasively victimize the poor. The greater the poverty, the greater the level of exposure to the worst pesticides, and hundreds of millions of people are exposed to such every year. An estimated 50 million people work in plantations in developing countries and an additional 500 million in other forms of agriculture, including seasonal work (Pronczuk de Garbino et al. 2003). Many others are exposed indirectly through contamination of food, water, household dust, etc. A third form of exposure is intentional, i.e., suicide, that is mostly brought upon by indebtedness (Meriel, 2005)

Harm done by GR chemicals to users have been widely documented, and had compelled admission of IRRI that led to some consequent adjustment of its research priorities. Estimates may vary, but as the Asian Development Bank admitted, the impact of pesticide use on human health is believed to be great (Kaosa-ard & Rerkases 1999, Vol 2(3):15). Oxfam found about 375,000 people in the Third World being poisoned and 10,000 of them fatally by pesticides each year. These figures do not include chronic and long-term results such as cancer, birth defects or sterility. The effects of these poisons are seen after their long use. The World Health Organization (WHO) on the other hand estimates that some 25 million workers suffer from pesticide poisoning, where 200,000 people are killed annually. The Word Research Institute reported figures of 50 million to 100 million people affected, or 547 men, women and children every day killed by pesticides. A pesticide surveillance in Central America (Murray et al. 2002) indicated a 98 percent rate of under-reporting of pesticide poisoning, with a regional estimate of 400,000 poisoning per year, 76 percent of the incidents being work-related. If the same percentage is applied to Asia, the total poisoning per year (based on the ADB 1997 population estimate of 3,538,452,000) would be 67,230,000. On a global scale that is 111,125,880, slightly above the 100-million estimate by the WRI. (Meriel, 2005)

Rice crop biodiversity lost to GR

Before the introduction of HYVs (and hybrid rice subsequently) mainly for irrigated fields, rice production in Asian countries was dominated by traditional or indigenous varieties under the care and management of farmers in all rice growing typologies. Rice production in the Philippines was dominated by traditional varieties which could only yield about 20-30 cavans per hectare, but are resistant to most pest and diseases and with good eating qualities (e.g., tasteful and aromatic). These varieties, numbering thousands, needed no external inputs, were accessed and kept by farmers for the next planting season, and formed the source of constant selection process mostly handled by the women.

But the widespread adoption of just a few HYVs of rice had led to the depletion and loss of traditional varieties. By the end of the century, as few as 12 varieties of rice had covered 75 percent of the fields in India (FAO Towards a New GR). A variety of rice hybrid called IR36 now extends over 60 percent of Asia where thousands of varieties

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