Question

Chapter 7 – Appropriate Technology1. Describe why the Green Revolution has been considered a failure.2. How are counter-culturalists and AT connected?3. Why does AT have limited understanding of context?

Answer 1

1. Green revolution – a failure:
Green revolution led to increased yield & production of crops and improved the
economic status farmers, but there is a dark aspect of this development.
The improved & genetically modified dwarf varieties of wheat and rice required more
water, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. This led to alarming rate of
groundwater depletion and soil degradation. The natural resources are completely spoilt
due to Green Revolution. The worst consequence of green revolution has been the
terrific water pollution; salinity; water logging.
The large fertilizers, seeds and pesticides companies launched massive campaigns to
sell their products. Thus farmers has to invest more on these products for which they
got loans from banks. Since the yield is more & the supply is more than the demand,
the farmers had to sell their harvested products at a cheaper rate. Thus they could not
repay the loan & committed suicides in countries like India.
On top of all these issues using too much of pesticides on crops lead to many diseases
among the people who consumes the food.
2. Counter culturist & Appropriate technology:
Counter culturists follows a subculture whose values and norms differ substantially
from those of technological capitalistic society and in opposition to them.
Appropriate technology is small-scale technology. It is simple enough that people can
manage it directly and on a local level. Appropriate technology makes use of skills and
technology that are available in a local community to supply basic human needs, such
as gas and electricity, water, food, and waste disposal.
The Counter culturist and the Appropriate Technology is connected by Anti-
globalisation, which is against the Nature’s law which will deplete the nature & earth.
Both are connected through adapting environmental friendly technologies to fulfil the
basic needs of localised societies. Consumer-producers are more likely to care more
about their work. As a result, service and goods are more reliable and of higher quality.
3. Appropriate technology - Limitations:
Most appropriate technology applications are built for small scale use, that work well
for small, remote villages. But appropriate technological solutions pose more problems
for large scale applications. Some forms of sustainable resources are very expensive
and not practical for extensive use. Therefore, the cost becomes much greater than
current methods making it not as economically feasible. For instance, the goods like
Cars, computers, mobile phones which have become a basic need of people couldn’t be
produce by Appropriate Technology. This is especially true for countries that are
already technologically advanced.