DETAILS
Used database:
Date:
Category:
A GREEN REVOLUTION IN THE 18TH CENTURY?
Read the full article or consult the POPPKAD website.
Article:
De Graef, Pieter. “A Green Revolution from below? A social approach to fertiliser use in eighteenth-century Flanders”. Continuity and Change 32, no. 3 (2017): 379–410.
Abstract:
“Profound changes in output and productivity characterised eighteenth-century agriculture, both in regions of large-scale capitalist farming and smallholding cultivation. Aggregate, macro-level studies offer valuable insights, but often prove unable to explain yield increases. Therefore, this article proposes a social approach to agricultural production through a micro-level analysis of fertilisation strategies, taking the smallholding economy of inland Flanders as a starting point. The household perspective demonstrates that a green ‘fertiliser’ revolution with increasing levels of fertilising intensity and off-farm nutrient inputs was instigated from below on both small and large holdings as a response to the broader economic and societal situation.”