Abstract
Northeast Asia witnessed the spread of new methods of cultivation before 1945 similar to the Green Revolution witnessed in other parts of Asia since the 1960s. This paper examines the process of this Northeast Asian version of the "Green Revolution". It reveals first that the expansion of paddy cultivation in cold regions in Northeast Asia was largely due to the invention and spread of hardy varieties of rice. Second, the Northeast Asia rice cultivating regions witnessed a spread of manure-durable varieties in connection with an increasing supply of nitrogenous fertilizers. The spread of new varieties required an increase in the use of fertilizer, and the increased production of the latter promoted the spread of the former. In Japan an expansion of nitrogenous fertilizer production stimulated the invention and spread of manure-durable varieties, whereas in Korea the spread of varieties developed in Japan led farmers to increase the application of fertilizers, thus forming a complementary relationship between new varieties and fertilizers. In Northeast China, similar manure-durable varieties spread increasing the consumption of manure up to 1937. However, a decline in the local production of nitrogenous fertilizers leads to a disruption in the complementary connection between the increasing fertilizer supply and the spread of manuredurable varieties.
