Green Revolution. Deficiency of vitamin A affects at least 40 countries. Out of an estimated 14 million with resulting eye damage, vitamin A deficiency blinds up to half a mil­lion preschool children each year. Important recent research shows that improving vitamin A status in children in defi­cient populations reduces mortality among young children by almost one-quarter. Vitamin A supply in some parts of South Asia is so low that deficiency is almost inevitable. The extent of stunting, underweight and wasting in women in developing countries shows that these problems are exten­sive in developing countries of Asia, particularly low body weight and thinness. Malnutrition in women is generally as­sociated with low birth weight. This has intergenerational effects; malnourished women have small babies, who grow up to be small mothers.
     Poverty is clearly a major determinant of nutritional outcome. Rapid economic growth has been a major solu­tion to malnutrition in Southeast Asia. China has far less malnutrition than India. Their average incomes are similar, although allowing for price adjustments puts China consid-

erably ahead. Within India, the relatively low rate of mal­nutrition in Kerala, one of the poorer states, was parallel to China. The percentages of underweight preschool children were 58.5% in South Asia, 31.3% in Southeast Asia and 21.8% in China in 1990. In 1990 South Asia had 101.2 million  underweight  preschool  children,  Southeast  Asia had 19.9 million and China 23.6 million (Martorel, 2002). Technology and access to technology and innovation did not benefit many poor people in South Asia. Technology development was geared to market pressure and the needs of the industrial world, not to the needs of countries that had little purchasing power.
     Monocropping  negatively  affected  human  nutrition. Little-known mammals, birds and snails, which had tradi­tionally served as cheap protein, were killed by pesticides. Traditional plant foods were eliminated because farmers did not prefer them. For example, in South India, sorghum was intercropped, with each acre yielding about 70 kg of dif­ferent pulses and 10 kg of local oilseeds. The new uniform planting of sorghum varieties reduced the availability of lo-