The Formative Years of Atomic Agriculture in Pakistan in a Long-Term Perspective

This article considers atomic agriculture as the nexus between nuclear enthusiasm and the Green Revolution, focusing on the case of Pakistan. The beginning of atomic agriculture in Pakistan cannot be considered in isolation. The biographies of the scientists, the genealogies of the objects, the geographies of the research centers, the institutional relationships, and the continuity of political-economic requirements show that it was part of a broader and more complex historical process. Ideas of agricultural efficiency and productivity constitute the fil rouge linking the colonial past with the postcolonial condition. Using internal documentation of the Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission and other unpublished sources, this article investigates the formative years of atomic agriculture in Pakistan. In so doing, it argues for the relevance of agriculture in a nuclear program centered on fuel cycle engineering; the importance of taking a long-term perspective on the relationships between atomic agriculture and agricultural research in general; and the significance of the concrete implementation of atomic agriculture from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s.