The Rockefeller Foundation and the Conservation of Genetic Diversity in Agricultural Crops

Jan 01, 2016 | by
  • Description

In 1943, the Rockefeller Foundation launched a program that aimed to increase agricultural production in Mexico through greater research and training in agricultural sciences. This program (the Mexican Agricultural Program) is often described as the starting point of what we today call the Green Revolution, the transition in agricultural production seen in parts of the Global South in the 1950s and 60s. It is less often noted that the Mexican program was also the starting point of more than five decades of Rockefeller Foundation involvement in the collection and conservation of genetic diversity in agricultural crops.