In the last century most of the advances in agricultural technology have
come in Western Europe and the United States. Chemical fertilizers were first
developed in Britain and Germany, milking machines in Scotland, pesticides
in France, the tractor and the combine harvester in the -United States. Great
improvements in the breeding of livestock and crops have taken place.
Farmers in the western world were comparatively slow to adopt these
innovations for various reasons; for the most part they were adopted if they
were seen to increase output and profit. Thus the rate of adoption has greatly
accelerated in the last 40-50 years, during the period in which farmers in
western Europe and North America have been protected from competition,
and farmers have had an unrivalled period of prosperity.