You don't show the passage, but according to an excerpt I've seen, I'd go with the answer: They no longer needed to fear famine thanks to new high-yield rice varieties.
"The Green Revolution" refers to Green Revolution refers to advances in agricultural practices that began in Mexico in the 1940s, and spread from there to other countries around the world in the 1950s and 1960s, The Green Revolution had a huge impact on developing agricultural economies, enabling significantly increased production per acre.
The beginnings of the movement, in Mexico, had support from not only the Mexican government, but also the U.S. government, the United Nations, and other organizations and foundations. A key figure in spearheading new approaches to agriculture in Mexico was Norman Borlaug, an American scientist with a PhD in plant pathology and genetics. He had begun agricultural research in Mexico in the 1940s, developing disease-resistant, high-yield wheat.
In 1961, when India was facing the potential of massive famine, Borlaug was invited to India to help with renovation of agricultural methods there.
The IR8 variety of rice was developed in the 1960s in the Philippines. The Republic of the Philippines government, along with the Ford Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, established the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). IR8 rice was introduced in 1966, and had an enormous impact not only on agriculture in the Philippines, but then India and China and elsewhere also.
