5.3.3.1  Impact
There is a body of evidence that suggests millions of lives in the ESAP region were saved, and that the view that the rich became richer and the poor even poorer as a conse­quence of the Green Revolution is over-generalized (Acha-rya, 1982; Lipton and Longhurst, 1989; Paul, 1989; Kar, 1991; David and Otsuka, 1993; Edmundson, 1994; Os-mani, 1998). While pesticide dependence undoubtedly had negative implications for environmental quality and human health, the increased productivity engendered by Green Revolution technologies reduced the need to bring natural ecosystems under cultivation by about a billion hectares of land for 1999 levels of productivity globally (Borlaug and Dowswell, 2005). Adoption of the Green Revolution pack­age was largely focused on irrigated and high yield-potential areas to the neglect of marginal areas (IFAD, 2002) where a large percentage of the rural poor live. However, adop­tion since 1977 has increasingly been in rainfed and abiotic stress-prone areas—particularly in the case of wheat (By-erlee and Moya, 1993; Heisey et al., 2002; Lantican et al., 2003).
     Advances in animal breeding and health have increased both the quantity and quality of animal protein available to consumers in the region. Livestock plays a vital role in eco­nomic development and in the life of Asian farmers. Animal products such as meat, milk and eggs provide daily cash income to farmers and also provide much required nutrition to the rural population. It also contributes to draft power and the dung adds not only to soil fertility but also is used as a material for house construction and cooking fuel. For the poor, livestock has multiple uses. This perspective needs to be kept in focus when designing and promoting livestock sector interventions.
     Although it is commonly viewed narrowly as the "in­tensive culture of salmon and shrimp to provide high value products for luxury markets,"  conventional aquaculture actually comprises diverse systems of farming plants and animals in inland and coastal areas, many of which have relevance for the poor (Edwards, 2000). The ESAP region was responsible for about 91% of the world's aquaculture production in 2003, with China alone accounting for almost 71% (FAO, 2005). Nine of the top ten aquaculture produc­tion countries are in this region, with China, India and the Philippines topping the list (FAO, 2006). Thus, aquaculture contributes to both the overall growth of many states and to the livelihoods of the poor in many parts of Asia where it is traditional practice. It is a major foreign exchange earner in addition to being a food source and employing the poor. In Thailand, for example, shrimp farming is dominated by small-scale farmers (Apu and Middendorp, 1998).
     Conventional aquaculture and fisheries offer options for employment for landless laborers. These options include cage and pen culture, enhanced fisheries in large communal water bodies (e.g., grass carp in Vietnam, Chinese carps in Nepal) and farming molluscs and seaweeds in coastal bodies (Indonesia and the Philippines). Inland aquaculture systems may have the greatest potential for expansion because aqua­culture can be integrated with existing agricultural practices of small farmers, resulting in increased overall production through the synergies of integrated practices. Aquaculture

can utilize irrigation systems as well as saline areas and swamps which would otherwise be of marginal use to agri­culture (Edwards, 2000).
     In general, technologies generated by formal institu­tions are designed to suit a wide range of environments and may prove beneficial in changing agroecological environ­ments. High input, mechanized, increasingly consumer- and market-driven systems have substantially increased the pro­ductivity of agricultural and animal systems in the ESAP region while resulting in substantial labour savings. This often translates to less time expended in physically demand­ing work for the women who are the primary agricultural workers in the ESAP region and a decreased need for the entire family, including children to be involved in field work. This may be a positive or negative effect depending on the level of income generated by the farm and the availability of other means of income generation.

5.3.3.2   Challenges
Conventional  practices—particularly  those  placing  high dependence on pesticides and improved seed—may have unintended  economic,   social   and  environmental  effects (Bautista, 1997; Whitten and Settle, 1998). Although risk of crop failure is generally lower with such practices, the risk of disease outbreaks is higher. The economic outlay re­quired for seed, pesticide and fertilizer inputs to maximize success is high and translates to a greater risk undertaken by farmers with much to lose if crops should fail. These technologies too often did not focus on ways to achieve in­creased food production in a resource-efficient manner that is environmentally benign.
     Regardless of how the Green Revolution is viewed, there is no doubt that yields throughout the ESAP region have begun to stagnate or drop despite increased inputs, reflect­ing declining soil biological activity, fertility and structure (Harrington et al., 1989; Abrol and Gill, 1994; Kijne, 1994; Singh and Paroda, 1994; Huang et al., 2002). The rice yield in Asia declined sharply during the 1980s from an annual growth rate of 2.6% in the 1970s to 1.5% in the 1990s (Pingali and Rosegrant, 1994; Gruhn et al., 2000; Gupta and Seth, 2007). Clearly productivity cannot be sustained in the long term in such intensive cereal monocultures by using increasing levels of chemical inputs. Additionally, the adverse livelihood-related and environmental consequences resulting from the mismanagement of Green Revolution technologies are now well recognized. The negative effects of insecticide use on human health, the environment and on beneficial insects have been documented (IRRI, 1994; Way and Heong, 1994; Pingali and Roger, 1995). Many farmers entered a spiral of debt precipitated by rising costs of inputs and falling prices for outputs: rice farmers in the Philippines were found to be economically better off before they shifted away from the mixed cropping enterprises to the high-yield­ing monocultures (UNESCAP, 2002).

     Much of the previous effort in livestock farming focused on breed improvement and development of vaccines. Com­petition from both developed and developing countries and more sophisticated and changing sets of domestic and inter­national trade norms and standards are increasing pressure on developing country producers. Throughout the region,