15 September 2009
Norman Borlaug, “Father of the Green Revolution,” Dies at Age 95
Developed grain varieties that saved more than 1 billion lives
Washington — Norman Borlaug, the plant scientist recognized around the world as the “father of the Green Revolution,” died September 12 in his home in Dallas. He was 95 years old.
Borlaug is credited with saving more than 1 billion lives from starvation in Pakistan and India during the 1960s and early 1970s. These years were “the greatest period of food production in human history,” said Kenneth Quinn, president of the Iowa-based World Food Prize Foundation. Borlaug founded the foundation in 1996.
“Dr. Borlaug’s passion for harnessing science to provide meaningful benefits in peoples’ daily lives continues to inspire us as we work to meet the global challenges posed by disease, hunger and poverty,” said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack in a joint statement. “His life-long commitment to the developing world and the broad impact of his work demonstrate the important role that science must play in achieving global progress.”
Borlaug was born in a small town in Iowa, in the heart of America’s “corn belt,” the primary maize-growing area comprised of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa and Minnesota. In 1944, after earning a doctoral degree in plant pathology from the University of Minnesota, he joined a research project at the Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maiz y Trigo — the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center — located outside Mexico City.
Over the next two decades, Borlaug developed a “miracle wheat” that tripled grain output and by 1958 had enabled Mexico to achieve wheat self-sufficiency. Later, he took his high-yield, disease-resistant wheat to South Asia. Borlaug’s approach to wheat breeding was soon introduced in the Middle East and North Africa by scientists who had worked with him in Mexico.
In 1986, Borlaug began working with the Sasakawa Africa Association, which aims to defeat malnutrition and poverty in Africa. In March 2009, Borlaug brought together in Mexico 300 international agricultural experts to share the latest information about their collaborations and about signs that a virulent strain of wheat rust first identified in 1999 in Uganda may be spreading. (See “Foundation Grant Helps Advance Fight Against Wheat Disease.”)
Also in 1986, Borlaug established the World Food Prize, awarded annually to people whose efforts have made significant contributions to improving the quality, quantity and availability of food in the world. (See “Ethiopian American Wins 2009 World Food Prize.”)
In 1970, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Asia. His other awards include the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal. In 1999, Time magazine named Borlaug one of the 100 most influential minds of the 20th century.
