THE WORLD BANK AND THE IMF/119production, in spite of outside control of any surplus production, at
the time the peasantry could still keep 40 per cent of the harvest in
order to ensure the following year's production. Compared to the
Green Revolution, this actually appears rather generous. The real
objective of the Green Revolution was to limit the spread of the
Chinese Revolution. The Green Revolution burdened the peasantry
with debt, making them dependent. To produce 1,000 units,
peasants and small farmers are obliged to take on debts equivalent in
value to 3,000 units. They have to borrow to buy seeds (every year),
fertiliser, pesticides, herbicides, tractors (which often have to be
abandoned owing to the lack of spare parts), and so on. They rarely
produce enough to pay back their loans. After two growing seasons,
they sell their land to the banks and big landowners, and go to swell
the ranks of the urban slums.
BOX 4 THE UNDP PRAISES THE GREEN REVOLUTION
In spite of these arguments, backed by demonstrations of hundreds
of thousands of peasants and small farmers, the 1997 Report on
Human Development contains deplorable praise for 'progress'
made thanks to the Green Revolution. 'The first Green Revolution
has helped millions of small farmers and urban consumers get out
of poverty, thanks to technological breakthroughs in wheat, corn
and rice farming in high-potential agricultural areas' (UNDP,
1997). Yet only three years earlier, the Report had explained the
1943 famine in the following way: 'nature is doubtless responsible
for local food shortages, but it is human beings that turn these
shortages into large-scale famines. Hunger is not due to an absence
of food, but to a lack of means for acquiring this food' (UNDP,
1994). But now, the UNDP is calling for a second Green Revolution- this time to benefit poor farmers in the poorest areas! This was the
very argument used by the World Bank to promote the first Green
Revolution.
The Power to Intervene in National Economies
Although the World Bank had only limited means at its disposal in
the period preceding McNamara's stewardship, it was able to set up
a network of influence that would be of great service later on. The
Bank set about creating demand for its services in the Third World.