   #copyright

Norman Borlaug

2007 Schools Wikipedia Selection. Related subjects: Human Scientists

                            Norman Borlaug
   Norman Borlaug speaking at the Ministerial Conference and Expo on
   Agricultural Science and Technology in June 2003
   Born March 25, 1914
        Cresco, Iowa, USA

   Norman Ernest Borlaug (born March 25, 1914) is an American agricultural
   scientist, humanitarian, Nobel laureate, and the father of the Green
   Revolution. Borlaug received his Ph.D. in plant pathology and genetics
   from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He took up an agricultural
   research position in Mexico, where he developed semi-dwarf high- yield,
   disease-resistant wheat varieties.

   During the mid-20th century, Borlaug led the introduction of his grain
   and modern agricultural production techniques to Mexico, Pakistan, and
   India. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963.
   Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and
   India, greatly improving the food security in those nations. These
   collective increases in yield have been labeled the Green Revolution,
   and Borlaug is often credited with saving over a billion people from
   starvation.^ He was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 in
   recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food
   supply.

   More recently, he has helped apply these methods of increasing food
   production to Asia and Africa. Borlaug has continually advocated the
   use of his methods and biotechnology to decrease world famine. His work
   has faced environmental and socioeconomic criticisms, though he has
   emphatically rejected many of these as unfounded or untrue. In 1986, he
   established the World Food Prize to recognize individuals who have
   improved the quality, quantity or availability of food around the
   globe.

Early life, education, and family

   Borlaug is the great-grandchild of Norwegian immigrants to the United
   States. Ole Olson Dybevig and Solveig Thomasdotter Rinde, from
   Leikanger, Norway, emigrated to Dane, Wisconsin, in 1854. Two of their
   children, Ole Olson Borlaug and Nels Olson Borlaug (Norman's
   grandfather), were integral in the establishment of the Immanuel
   Norwegian Evangelical Lutheran Congregation in the small
   Norwegian-American community of Saude, near Cresco, Iowa in 1889.

   The eldest of four children—his three younger sisters were Palma
   Lillian (Behrens; 1916-2004), Charlotte (Culbert; b. 1919) and Helen
   (1921-1921)—Borlaug was born to Henry Oliver (1889-1971) and Clara
   (Vaala) Borlaug (1888-1972) on his grandparents' farm in Saude. From
   age seven to nineteen, he worked on the 106 acre (429,000 m²) family
   farm west of Protivin, Iowa, fishing, hunting, and raising maize, oats,
   timothy hay, cattle, pigs and chickens. He attended the one-teacher,
   one-room New Oregon #8 rural school in Howard County up through eighth
   grade. Today, the school building, built in 1865, is owned by the
   Norman Borlaug Heritage Foundation as part of "Project Borlaug Legacy".
   At Cresco High School, Borlaug played baseball and wrestled, where his
   coach continually encouraged him to "give 105%."

   He attributes his decision to leave the farm and pursue further
   education to his grandfather, Nels Olson Borlaug (1859 to 1935), who
   strongly encouraged Borlaug's learning, once saying, "You're wiser to
   fill your head now if you want to fill your belly later on." Through a
   Depression-era program known as the National Youth Administration, he
   was able to enroll at the University of Minnesota in 1933. Initially,
   Borlaug failed the entrance exam, but was accepted to the school's
   newly created two-year General College. After two quarters, he
   transferred to the College of Agriculture's forestry program. While at
   the University of Minnesota, he was a member of the varsity wrestling
   team, reaching the Big Ten semifinals, and helped introduce the sport
   to Minnesota high schools by putting on exhibition matches around the
   state. "Wrestling taught me some valuable lessons ... I always figured
   I could hold my own against the best in the world. It made me tough.
   Many times, I drew on that strength. It's an inappropriate crutch
   perhaps, but that's the way I'm made". Borlaug was inducted into the
   National Wrestling Hall of Fame in Stillwater, Oklahoma in 1992.

   To finance his studies, Borlaug periodically had to put his education
   on hold and take a job. One of these jobs, in 1935, was as a leader in
   the Civilian Conservation Corps, working with the unemployed on US
   federal projects. Many of the people who worked for him were starving.
   He later recalled, "I saw how food changed them...All of this left
   scars on me". From 1935 to 1938, before and after receiving his
   Bachelor of Science forestry degree in 1937, Borlaug worked for the
   United States Forestry Service at stations in Massachusetts and Idaho.
   He spent one summer in the middle fork of Idaho's Salmon River—the most
   isolated piece of wilderness in the lower 48 states at the time.

   At the end of his undergraduate education, Borlaug attended a lecture
   by Elvin Charles Stakman, a professor and soon-to-be head of the plant
   pathology group at the University of Minnesota. The event was pivotal
   for Borlaug's future life. Stakman, in his speech titled "These Shifty
   Little Enemies that Destroy our Food Crops", discussed the
   manifestation of the plant disease rust, a parasitic fungus that feeds
   on phytonutrients, in wheat, oat and barley crops across the US. He had
   discovered that special plant breeding methods created plants resistant
   to rust. His research greatly interested Borlaug, and when Borlaug's
   job at the Forest Service was eliminated due to budget cuts, he asked
   Stakman if he should go into forest pathology. Stakman advised him to
   focus on plant pathology instead, and Borlaug subsequently re-enrolled
   to the University to study plant pathology under Stakman. Borlaug
   received his Master of Science degree in 1940 and Ph.D. in plant
   pathology and genetics in 1942.

   Borlaug met his wife, Margaret Gibson, while in college, as he waited
   tables at a Dinkytown coffee shop where they both worked. They would go
   on to have two children, Norman Jean "Jeanie" (later married "Laube")
   and William Borlaug. The Borlaugs currently have five grandchildren and
   four great-grandchildren. Their current residence is in northern
   Dallas, although Borlaug is only there a few weeks of the year. His
   wife, Margaret, who is now blind, has assistance from their daughter
   Jeanie.

Career

   From 1942 to 1944, Borlaug was employed as a microbiologist at DuPont
   in Wilmington, Delaware. It was planned that he would lead research on
   industrial and agricultural bacteriocides, fungicides, and
   preservatives. However, following the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl
   Harbour, Borlaug tried to enlist in the military, but was rejected
   under wartime labor regulations; his lab was converted to do research
   for the United States armed forces. One of his first projects was to
   develop glue that could withstand the warm saltwater of the South
   Pacific. The Imperial Japanese Navy had gained control of the island of
   Guadalcanal, and patrolled the sky and sea by day. The only way that US
   forces could supply the troops stranded on the island was by
   approaching at night by speedboat, and jettisoning boxes of canned food
   and other supplies into the surf to wash ashore. The problem was that
   the glue holding these containers together disintegrated in saltwater.
   Within weeks, Borlaug and his colleagues had developed an adhesive that
   resisted corrosion, allowing food and supplies to reach the stranded
   Marines. Other tasks included work with camouflage, canteen
   disinfectants, and insulation for small electronics.

   In 1940, the Camacho administration took office in Mexico. The
   administration's primary goal for Mexican agriculture was augmenting
   the nation's industrialization and economic growth. US Vice President
   Henry Wallace, who was instrumental in convincing the Rockefeller
   Foundation to work with the Mexican government in agricultural
   development, saw Camacho’s ambitions as beneficial to US economic and
   military interests. . The Rockefeller Foundation contacted E.C. Stakman
   and two other leading agronomists. They developed a proposal for a new
   organization, the Office of Special Studies, as part of the Mexican
   Government, but directed by the Rockefeller Foundation. It was to be
   staffed with both US and Mexican scientists, focusing on soil
   development, maize and wheat production, and plant pathology.

   Stakman chose Dr. J. George "Dutch" Harrar as project leader. Harrar
   immediately set out to hire Borlaug as head of the newly-established
   Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico; Borlaug
   declined, choosing to finish his war service at DuPont. In July 1944,
   after rejecting DuPont's offer to double his salary, and temporarily
   leaving behind his pregnant wife and 14-month old daughter, he flew to
   Mexico City to head the new program as a geneticist and plant
   pathologist.

   In 1964, he was made the director of the International Wheat
   Improvement Program at El Batán, Texcoco, on the eastern fringes of
   Mexico City, as part of the newly-established Consultative Group on
   International Agricultural Research's International Maize and Wheat
   Improvement Centre (Centro Internacional de Mejoramiento de Maíz y
   Trigo, or CIMMYT), an autonomous international research training
   institute developed from the Cooperative Wheat Research Production
   Program, with funding jointly undertaken by the Ford and Rockefeller
   Foundations and the Mexican government.

   Borlaug officially retired from the position in 1979. But he remains a
   senior consultant at the CIMMYT and has continued to be involved in
   plant research at CIMMYT with wheat, triticale, barley, maize, and
   high-altitude sorghum, in addition to taking up charitable and
   educational roles.

Wheat research in Mexico

   Norman Borlaug and George Harrar, 1943
   Enlarge
   Norman Borlaug and George Harrar, 1943

   The Cooperative Wheat Research Production Program, a joint venture by
   the Rockefeller Foundation and the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture,
   involved research in genetics, plant breeding, plant pathology,
   entomology, agronomy, soil science, and cereal technology. The goal of
   the project was to boost wheat production in Mexico, which at the time
   was importing a large portion of its grain. George Harrar, a plant
   pathologist, recruited and assembled the wheat research team in late
   1944. The three other members were Edward Wellhausen, maize breeder,
   John Niederhauser, potato breeder, and Norman Borlaug, all from the
   United States. Borlaug would remain with the project for 16 years.
   During this time, he bred a remarkably successful high-yield,
   disease-resistant, semi-dwarf wheat.
   Wheat is the most produced cereal crop
   Enlarge
   Wheat is the most produced cereal crop

   Borlaug said that his first couple of years in Mexico were difficult.
   He lacked trained scientists and equipment. Native farmers were hostile
   toward the wheat program because of serious crop losses from 1939 to
   1941 due to stem rust. "It often appeared to me that I had made a
   dreadful mistake in accepting the position in Mexico," he wrote in the
   epilogue to his book, Norman Borlaug on World Hunger. He spent the
   first 10 years breeding wheat cultivars resistant to disease, including
   rust. In that time, his group made 6,000 individual crossings of wheat.

Double wheat season

   Initially, his work had been concentrated in the central highlands, in
   the village of Chapingo near Texcoco, where the problems with rust and
   poor soil were most prevalent. But he realized that he could speed up
   breeding by taking advantage of the country's two growing seasons. In
   the summer he would breed wheat in the central highlands as usual, then
   immediately take the seeds north to the Yaqui Valley research station
   near Ciudad Obregón, Sonora. The difference in altitudes and
   temperatures would allow more crops to be grown each year.

   His boss, George Harrar, was against this expansion. Besides the extra
   costs of doubling the work, Borlaug's plan went against a then-held
   principle of agronomy that has since been disproved. It was believed
   that seeds needed a rest period after harvesting, in order to store
   energy for germination before being planted. Harrar vetoed his plan,
   causing Borlaug to resign. Elvin Stakman, who was visiting the project,
   calmed the situation, talking Borlaug into withdrawing his resignation
   and Harrar into allowing the double wheat season. As of 1945, wheat
   would then be bred at locations 700 miles (1000 km) apart, 10 degrees
   apart in latitude, and 8500 feet (2600 m) apart in altitude. This was
   called "shuttle breeding".
   Locations of Borlaug's research stations, at Yaqui Valley and Chapingo.
   Enlarge
   Locations of Borlaug's research stations, at Yaqui Valley and Chapingo.

   As an unexpected benefit of the double wheat season, the new breeds did
   not have problems with photoperiodism. Normally, wheat varieties cannot
   adapt to new environments, due to the changing periods of sunlight.
   Borlaug later recalled, "As it worked out, in the north, we were
   planting when the days were getting shorter, at low elevation and high
   temperature. Then we'd take the seed from the best plants south and
   plant it at high elevation, when days were getting longer and there was
   lots of rain. Soon we had varieties that fit the whole range of
   conditions. That wasn't supposed to happen by the books". This meant
   that the project wouldn't need to start separate breeding programs for
   each geographic region of the planet.

Increasing disease resistance through multiline varieties

   Because pureline ( genotypically identical) plant varieties often only
   have one or a few major genes for disease resistance, and plant
   diseases such as rust are continuously producing new races that can
   overcome a pureline's resistance, multiline varieties were developed.
   Multiline varieties are mixtures of several phenotypically-similar
   purelines which each have different genes for disease resistance. By
   having similar heights, flowering and maturity dates, seed colors, and
   agronomic characteristics, they remain compatible with each other, and
   do not reduce yields when grown together on the field.

   In 1953, Borlaug extended this technique by suggesting that several
   purelines with different resistance genes should be developed through
   backcross methods using one recurrent parent. Backcrossing involves
   crossing a hybrid and subsequent generations with a recurrent parent.
   As a result, the genotype of the backcrossed progeny becomes
   increasingly similar to that of the recurrent parent. Borlaug's method
   would allow the various different disease-resistant genes from several
   donor parents to be transferred into a single recurrent parent. To make
   sure each line has different resistant genes, each donor parent is used
   in a separate backcross program. Between five and ten of these lines
   may then be mixed depending upon the races of pathogen present in the
   region. As this process is repeated, some lines will become susceptible
   to the pathogen. These lines can easily be replaced with new resistant
   lines. As new sources of resistance become available, new lines are
   developed. In this way, the loss of crops is kept to a minimum, because
   only one or a few lines become susceptible to a pathogen within a given
   season, and all other crops are unaffected by the disease. Because the
   disease would spread more slowly than if the entire population were
   susceptible, this also reduces the damage to susceptible lines. There
   is still the possibility that a new race of pathogen will develop to
   which all lines are susceptible, however.

Dwarfing

   Dwarfing is an important agronomic quality for wheat; dwarf plants
   produce thick stems and do not lodge. The cultivars Borlaug worked with
   had tall, thin stalks. Taller wheat grasses better compete for
   sunlight, but tend to collapse under the weight of the extra grain—a
   trait called lodging—and from the rapid growth spurts induced by
   nitrogen fertilizer Borlaug used in the poor soil. To prevent this, he
   bred wheat to favour shorter, stronger stalks that could better support
   larger seed heads. In 1953, he acquired a Japanese dwarf variety of
   wheat called Norin 10 developed by Orville Vogel, that had been crossed
   with a high-yielding American cultivar called Brevor 14. Norin
   10/Brevor is semi-dwarf (one-half to two-thirds the height of standard
   varieties) and produces more stalks and thus more heads of grain per
   plant. Also, larger amounts of assimilate were partitioned into the
   actual grains, further increasing the yield. Borlaug crossbred the
   semi-dwarf Norin 10/Brevor cultivar with his disease-resistant
   cultivars to produce wheat varieties that were adapted to tropical and
   sub-tropical climates.

   Borlaug's new semi-dwarf, disease-resistant varieties, called Pitic 62
   and Penjamo 62, changed the potential yield of wheat dramatically. By
   1963, 95% of Mexico's wheat crops used the semi-dwarf varieties
   developed by Borlaug. That year, the harvest was six times larger than
   in 1944, the year Borlaug arrived in Mexico. Mexico had become fully
   self-sufficient in wheat production, and a net exporter of wheat. Four
   other high yield varieties were also released, in 1964: Lerma Rojo 64,
   Siete Cerros, Sonora 64, and Super X.

Expansion to South Asia: The Green Revolution

   Wheat yields in Mexico, India, and Pakistan, 1950 to 2004
   Enlarge
   Wheat yields in Mexico, India, and Pakistan, 1950 to 2004

   In 1961 to 1962, Borlaug's dwarf spring wheat strains were sent for
   multilocation testing in the International Wheat Rust Nursery,
   organized by the US Department of Agriculture. In March 1962, a few of
   these strains were grown in the fields of the Indian Agricultural
   Research Institute in Pune, New Delhi, India. In May 1962, M. S.
   Swaminathan, a member of IARI's wheat program, requested of Dr. B.P.
   Pal, Director of IARI, to arrange for the visit of Borlaug to India and
   to obtain a wide range of dwarf wheat seed possessing the Norin 10
   dwarfing genes. The letter was forwarded to the Indian Ministry of
   Agriculture, which arranged with the Rockefeller Foundation for
   Borlaug's visit. In March 1963, the Rockefeller Foundation and the
   Mexican government sent Borlaug to India to continue his work. He
   supplied 100 kg (220 lb) of seed from each of the four most promising
   strains and 630 promising selections in advanced generations to the
   IARI in October 1963, and test plots were subsequently planted at
   Delhi, Ludhiana, Pant Nagar, Kanpur, Pune and Indore.

   During the mid-1960s, the Indian subcontinent was at war, and
   experiencing widespread famine and starvation, even though the US was
   making emergency shipments of millions of tons of grain, including over
   one fifth of its total wheat, to the region. The Indian and Pakistani
   bureaucracies and the region's cultural opposition to new agricultural
   techniques initially prevented Borlaug from fulfilling his desire to
   immediately plant the new wheat strains there. By the summer of 1965,
   the famine became so acute that the governments stepped in and allowed
   his projects to go forward.

   In the late 1960s, most experts said that global famines in which
   billions would die would soon occur. Biologist Paul R. Ehrlich wrote in
   his 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, "The battle to feed all of
   humanity is over... In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions of
   people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked
   upon now." Ehrlich also said, "I have yet to meet anyone familiar with
   the situation who thinks India will be self-sufficient in food by
   1971," and "India couldn't possibly feed two hundred million more
   people by 1980."

   In 1965, after extensive testing, Borlaug's team began its effort by
   importing about 450 tons of Lerma Rojo and Sonora 64 semi-dwarf seed
   varieties: 250 tons went to Pakistan and 200 to India. They encountered
   many obstacles. Their first shipment of wheat was held up in Mexican
   customs and so could not be shipped from the port at Guaymas in time
   for proper planting. Instead, it was sent via a 30-truck convoy from
   Mexico to the US port in Los Angeles (LA), encountering delays at the
   US-Mexico border. Once the convoy entered the US, it had to take a
   detour, as the US National Guard had closed the freeway due to Watts
   riots in LA. When the seeds reached LA, a Mexican bank refused to
   honour Pakistan treasury's payment of US$100,000 because the check
   contained three misspelled words. Still, the seed was loaded onto a
   freighter destined for Bombay, India and Karachi, Pakistan. Twelve
   hours into the freighter's voyage, war broke out between India and
   Pakistan over the Kashmir region. Borlaug received a telegraph from the
   Pakistani minister of agriculture, Malik Khuda Bakhsh Bucha: "I'm sorry
   to hear you are having trouble with my check, but I've got troubles,
   too. Bombs are falling on my front lawn. Be patient, the money is in
   the bank..."

   These delays prevented Borlaug's group from conducting the germination
   tests needed to determine seed quality and proper seeding levels. They
   started planting immediately, and often worked in sight of artillery
   flashes. A week later, Borlaug discovered that his seeds were
   germinating at less than half the normal rate. It later turned out that
   the seeds had been damaged in a Mexican warehouse by over-fumigation
   with a pesticide. He immediately ordered all locations to double their
   seeding rates.

   The initial yields of Borlaug's crops were higher than any ever
   harvested in South Asia. The countries subsequently committed to
   importing large quantities of both the Lerma Rojo 64 and Sonora 64
   varieties. In 1966, India imported 18,000 tons —the largest purchase
   and import of any seed in the world at that time. In 1967, Pakistan
   imported 42,000 tons, and Turkey 21,000 tons. Pakistan's import,
   planted on 1.5 million acres (6,100 km²), produced enough wheat to seed
   the entire nation's wheatland the following year. By 1968, when
   Ehrlich's book was released, William Gaud of the United States Agency
   for International Development was calling Borlaug's work a "Green
   Revolution". High yields led to a shortage of various utilities: labor
   to harvest the crops, bullock carts to haul it to the threshing floor,
   jute bags, trucks, rail cars, and grain storage facilities. Some local
   governments were forced to close school buildings temporarily to use
   them for grain storage.
   Wheat yields in developing countries, 1950 to 2004
   Enlarge
   Wheat yields in developing countries, 1950 to 2004

   In Pakistan, wheat yields nearly doubled, from 4.6 million tons in 1965
   to 7.3 million tons in 1970; Pakistan was self-sufficient in wheat
   production by 1968. Yields were over 21 million tons by 2000. In India,
   yields increased from 12.3 million tons in 1965 to 20.1 million tons in
   1970. By 1974, India was self-sufficient in the production of all
   cereals. By 2000, India was harvesting a record 76.4 million tons of
   wheat. Since the 1960s, food production in both nations has increased
   faster than the rate of population growth. Paul Waggoner, of the
   Connecticut Agricultural Experiment Station, calculates that India's
   use of high-yield farming has prevented 100 million acres (400,000 km²)
   of virgin land from being converted into farmland—an area about the
   size of California, or 13.6% of the total area of India. The use of
   these wheat varieties has also had a substantial effect on production
   in six Latin American countries, six countries in the Near and Middle
   East, and several others in Africa.

   Borlaug's work with wheat led to the development of high-yield
   semi-dwarf indica and japonica rice cultivars at the International Rice
   Research Institute, started by the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations,
   and at China's Hunan Rice Research Institute. Borlaug's colleagues at
   the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research also
   developed and introduced a high-yield variety of rice throughout most
   of Asia. Land devoted to the semi-dwarf wheat and rice varieties in
   Asia expanded from 200 acres (0.8 km²) in 1965 to over 40 million acres
   (160,000 km²) in 1970. In 1970, this land accounted for over 10% of the
   more productive cereal land in Asia.

Nobel Peace Prize

   For his contributions to the world food supply, Borlaug was awarded the
   Nobel Peace Prize in 1970. Norwegian officials notified his wife in
   Mexico City at 4:00AM, but Borlaug had already left for the test fields
   in the Toluca valley, about 40 miles (65 km) west of Mexico City. A
   chauffeur took her to the fields to inform her husband. According to
   his daughter, Jeanie Laube, "My mom said, 'You won the Nobel Peace
   Prize,' and he said, 'No, I haven't',... It took some convincing... He
   thought the whole thing was a hoax". He was awarded the prize on
   December 10. In his Nobel Lecture the following day, he speculated on
   his award: "When the Nobel Peace Prize Committee designated me the
   recipient of the 1970 award for my contribution to the 'green
   revolution', they were in effect, I believe, selecting an individual to
   symbolize the vital role of agriculture and food production in a world
   that is hungry, both for bread and for peace". It was the only Nobel
   Peace Prize awarded for agriculture or food production.

Borlaug hypothesis

   Borlaug has continually advocated increasing crop yields as a means to
   curb deforestation. The large role he has played in both increasing
   crop yields and promoting this view has led to it being called by
   agricultural economists the "Borlaug hypothesis", namely that
   increasing the productivity of agriculture on the best farmland can
   help control deforestation by reducing the demand for new farmland.
   According to this view, assuming that global food demand is on the
   rise, restricting crop usage to traditional low-yield methods such as
   organic farming would also require at least one of the following: the
   world population to decrease, either voluntarily or as a result of mass
   starvations; or the conversion of forest land into crop land. It is
   thus argued that high-yield techniques are ultimately saving ecosystems
   from destruction. On a global scale, this view holds strictly true
   ceteris paribus, if all land either consists of forests or is used for
   agriculture. But other land uses exist, such as urban areas, pasture,
   or fallow, so further research is necessary to ascertain what land has
   been converted for what purposes, in order to determine how true this
   view remains. Increased profits from high-yield production may also
   induce cropland expansion in any case, although as world food needs
   decrease, this expansion may decrease as well.

Criticisms and his view of critics

   Throughout his years of research, Borlaug's programs often faced
   opposition by people who consider genetic crossbreeding to be unnatural
   or to have negative effects. Borlaug's work has been criticized for
   bringing large-scale monoculture, input-intensive farming techniques to
   countries that had previously relied on subsistence farming, and for
   widening social inequality owing to uneven food distribution. There are
   also concerns about the long-term sustainability of farming practices
   encouraged by the Green Revolution in both the developed and developing
   world.

   Other concerns of his critics and critics of biotechnology in general
   include: that the construction of roads in populated third-world areas
   could lead to the destruction of wilderness; the crossing of genetic
   barriers; the inability of crops to fulfill all nutritional
   requirements; the decreased biodiversity from planting a small number
   of varieties; the environmental and economic effects of inorganic
   fertilizer and pesticides; the amount of herbicide sprayed on fields of
   herbicide-resistant crops.

   Borlaug has dismissed most claims of critics, but does take certain
   concerns seriously. He states that his work has been "a change in the
   right direction, but it has not transformed the world into a Utopia".
   Of environmental lobbyists he has stated, "some of the environmental
   lobbyists of the Western nations are the salt of the earth, but many of
   them are elitists. They've never experienced the physical sensation of
   hunger. They do their lobbying from comfortable office suites in
   Washington or Brussels. If they lived just one month amid the misery of
   the developing world, as I have for fifty years, they'd be crying out
   for tractors and fertilizer and irrigation canals and be outraged that
   fashionable elitists back home were trying to deny them these things".

Current roles

   Following his retirement, Borlaug has continued to participate actively
   in teaching, research and activism. He spends much of the year based at
   CIMMYT in Mexico, conducting research, and four months of the year
   serving at Texas A&M University, where he has been a distinguished
   professor of international agriculture since 1984. In 1999, the
   university's Board of Regents named its US$16 million Center for
   Southern Crop Improvement in honor of Borlaug. He works in the
   building's Heep Centre, and teaches one semester each year.

Production in Africa

   In the early 1980s, environmental groups that were opposed to Borlaug's
   methods campaigned against his planned expansion of efforts into
   Africa. They prompted the Rockefeller and Ford Foundations and the
   World Bank to stop funding most of his African agriculture projects.
   Western European governments were persuaded to stop supplying
   fertilizer to Africa. According to David Seckler, former Director
   General of the International Water Management Institute, "the
   environmental community in the 1980s went crazy pressuring the donor
   countries and the big foundations not to support ideas like inorganic
   fertilizers for Africa."

   In 1984, during the Ethiopian famine, Ryoichi Sasakawa, the chairman of
   the Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation (now the Nippon Foundation),
   contacted the semi-retired Borlaug, wondering why the methods used in
   Asia were not extended to Africa, and hoping Borlaug could help. He
   managed to convince Borlaug to help with this new, huge effort, and
   subsequently founded the Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) to
   coordinate the project.
   Nigerian exchange students meet Norman Borlaug (third from right) at
   the World Food seminar, 2003
   Enlarge
   Nigerian exchange students meet Norman Borlaug (third from right) at
   the World Food seminar, 2003

   The SAA is a research and extension organization that aims to increase
   food production in African countries that are struggling with food
   shortages. "I assumed we'd do a few years of research first," Borlaug
   later recalled, "but after I saw the terrible circumstances there, I
   said, 'Let's just start growing'." Soon, Borlaug and the SAA had
   projects in seven countries. Yields of maize and sorghum in developed
   African countries doubled between 1983 and 1985. Yields of wheat,
   cassava, and cowpeas also increased in these countries. At present,
   program activities are under way in Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia,
   Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.

   Since 1986, Borlaug has been the President of the SAA. That year, Jimmy
   Carter initiated Sasakawa-Global 2000 (SG 2000), a joint venture
   between the SAA and the Carter Centre's Global 2000 program. The
   program focuses on food, population and agricultural policy. Since
   then, over 1 million African farm families have been trained in the
   SAA's new farming techniques. Those elements that allowed Borlaug's
   projects to succeed in India and Pakistan, such as well-organized
   economies and transportation and irrigation systems, are severely
   lacking throughout Africa, posing additional obstacles to increasing
   yields. Because of this, Borlaug's initial projects were restricted to
   developed regions of the continent.

   Despite these setbacks, Borlaug has found encouragement. Visiting
   Ethiopia in 1994, Jimmy Carter won Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's
   support for a campaign seeking to aid farmers, using the fertilizer
   diammonium phosphate and Borlaug's methods. The following season,
   Ethiopia recorded the largest harvests of major crops in history, with
   a 32% increase in production, and a 15% increase in average yield over
   the previous season. For Borlaug, the rapid increase in yields suggests
   that there is still hope for higher food production throughout
   sub-Saharan Africa.

World Food Prize

   The World Food Prize is an international award recognizing the
   achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by
   improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
   The prize was created in 1986 by Norman Borlaug, as a way to recognize
   personal accomplishments, and as a means of education by using the
   Prize to establish role models for others. The first prize was given to
   Borlaug's former colleague, M. S. Swaminathan, in 1987, for his work in
   India. The next year, Swaminathan used the US$250,000 prize to start a
   research centre.
   Borlaug in Mexico in 2000.
   Enlarge
   Borlaug in Mexico in 2000.

Online education

   At the DuPont Agriculture & Nutrition Media Day held in Des Moines,
   Iowa, on September 25, 2000, Borlaug announced the launch of Norman
   Borlaug University, an Internet-based learning company for the
   agriculture and food industry personnel. The University was unable to
   expand the necessary content or customer base, and since late 2001 has
   been defunct.

The future of global farming and food supply

   The limited potential for land expansion for cultivation—only 17% of
   cultivable land produces 90% of the world's food crops —worries
   Borlaug, who, in March 2005, stated that, "we will have to double the
   world food supply by 2050." With 85% of future growth in food
   production having to come from lands already in use, he recommends a
   multidisciplinary research focus to further increase yields, mainly
   through increased crop immunity to large-scale diseases, such as the
   rust fungus, which affects all cereals but rice. His dream is to
   "transfer rice immunity to cereals such as wheat, maize, sorghum and
   barley, and transfer bread-wheat proteins ( gliadin and glutenin) to
   other cereals, especially rice and maize".

   According to Borlaug, "Africa, the former Soviet republics, and the
   cerrado are the last frontiers. After they are in use, the world will
   have no additional sizable blocks of arable land left to put into
   production, unless you are willing to level whole forests, which you
   should not do. So, future food-production increases will have to come
   from higher yields. And though I have no doubt yields will keep going
   up, whether they can go up enough to feed the population monster is
   another matter. Unless progress with agricultural yields remains very
   strong, the next century will experience sheer human misery that, on a
   numerical scale, will exceed the worst of everything that has come
   before".

   Besides increasing the worldwide food supply, Borlaug has repeatedly
   stated that taking steps to decrease the rate of population growth will
   also be necessary to prevent food shortages. In his Nobel Lecture of
   1970, Borlaug stated, "Most people still fail to comprehend the
   magnitude and menace of the 'Population Monster'...If it continues to
   increase at the estimated present rate of two percent a year, the world
   population will reach 6.5 billion by the year 2000. Currently, with
   each second, or tick of the clock, about 2.2 additional people are
   added to the world population. The rhythm of increase will accelerate
   to 2.7, 3.3, and 4.0 for each tick of the clock by 1980, 1990, and
   2000, respectively, unless man becomes more realistic and preoccupied
   about this impending doom. The tick-tock of the clock will continually
   grow louder and more menacing each decade. Where will it all end?"

Honours and recognition

   Norman Borlaug with his bust in the University of Minnesota's Borlaug
   Hall, October 2003.
   Enlarge
   Norman Borlaug with his bust in the University of Minnesota's Borlaug
   Hall, October 2003.

   In 1968, Borlaug received what he considered an especially satisfying
   tribute when the people of Ciudad Obregón, where some of his earliest
   experiments were undertaken, named a street after him. Also in that
   year, he became a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences.

   In 1984, his name was placed in the National Agricultural Hall of Fame
   at the national centre in Bonner Springs, Kansas. Also that year, he
   was recognized for sustained service to humanity through outstanding
   contributions in plant breeding from the Governors Conference on
   Agriculture Innovations in Little Rock, Arkansas. Also in 1984, he
   received the Henry G. Bennet Distinguished Service Award at
   commencement ceremonies at Oklahoma State University.

   In addition to the Nobel Prize, Borlaug has also received the 1977 U.S.
   Presidential Medal of Freedom, the 2002 Public Welfare Medal from the
   U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the 2002 Rotary International Award
   for World Understanding and Peace, and the 2004 National Medal of
   Science. As of January 2004, Borlaug had received 49 honorary degrees
   from as many universities, in 18 countries, the most recent from
   Dartmouth College on June 12, 2005 , and was a foreign or honorary
   member of 22 international Academies of Sciences. In Iowa and
   Minnesota, " World Food Day", October 16, is referred to as "Norman
   Borlaug World Food Prize Day". Throughout the United States, it is
   referred to as "World Food Prize Day".

   The Government of India conferred the Padma Vibhushan, its second
   highest civilian award on him in 2006. Dr. Borlaug also received the
   National Medal of Science the nation's highest scientific honour, from
   U.S. President George W. Bush on February 13, 2006. He was awarded the
   Danforth Award for Plant Science by the Donald Danforth Plant Science
   Centre, St Louis, Missouri in recognition of his life-long commitment
   to increasing global agricultural production through plant science.

   Several research institutions and buildings have been named in his
   honor, including: the Norman E. Borlaug Centre for Farmer Training and
   Education, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia, in 1983; Borlaug Hall, on
   the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota in 1985; Borlaug
   Building at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre
   (CIMMYT) headquarters in 1986; the Norman Borlaug Institute for Plant
   Science Research at De Montfort University, Leicester, United Kingdom
   in 1997; and the Norman E. Borlaug Centre for Southern Crop
   Improvement, at Texas A&M University in 1999.

   The stained-glass "World Peace Window" at St. Mark's Cathedral in
   Minneapolis, Minnesota, depicts "peace makers" of the 20th century,
   including Norman Borlaug. Borlaug was also prominently mentioned on an
   episode of the The West Wing television show. The president of a
   fictional African country describes the kind of " miracle" needed to
   save his country from the ravages of AIDS by referencing an American
   scientist who was able to save the world from hunger through the
   development of a new type of wheat. The American president replies by
   providing Borlaug's name.

   Borlaug was also featured in an episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!,
   where he was referred to as the "Greatest Human Being That Ever Lived".
   In that episode, Penn & Teller play a card game where each card depicts
   a great person in history. Each player picks a card at random, and bets
   on whether they think their card shows a greater person than the other
   players' cards. Penn gets Norman Borlaug, and proceeds to bet all his
   chips, his house, his rings, his watch, and essentially everything he's
   ever owned. He wins because, as he says, "Norman is the greatest human
   being, and you've probably never heard of him." In the episode - the
   topic of which was genetically altered food - he is credited with
   saving the lives of over a billion people.

   In August 2006, Dr. Leon Hesser published The Man Who Fed the World:
   Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World
   Hunger, an account of Borlaug's life and work. On August 4, the book
   received the 2006 Print of Peace award, as part of International Read
   For Peace Week.

Books and lectures

   Dr. Borlaug with USDA Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman near the
   birthday cake prepared for his 90th birthday
   Enlarge
   Dr. Borlaug with USDA Agriculture Secretary Ann M. Veneman near the
   birthday cake prepared for his 90th birthday

          This list is incomplete.

     * Wheat in the Third World. 1982. Authors: Haldore Hanson, Norman E.
       Borlaug, and R. Glenn Anderson. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press.
       ISBN 0-86531-357-1
     * Land use, food, energy and recreation. 1983. Aspen Institute for
       Humanistic Studies. ISBN 0-940222-07-8
     * Feeding a human population that increasingly crowds a fragile
       planet. 1994. Mexico City. ISBN 964-6201-34-3
     * Norman Borlaug on World Hunger. 1997. Edited by Anwar Dil. San
       Diego/Islamabad/Lahore: Bookservice International. 499 pages. ISBN
       0-9640492-3-6
     * The Green Revolution Revisited and the Road Ahead. 2000.
       Anniversary Nobel Lecture, Norwegian Nobel Institute in Oslo,
       Norway. 8 Sept 2000.
     * " Ending World Hunger. The Promise of Biotechnology and the Threat
       of Antiscience Zealotry". 2000. Plant Physiology, October 2000,
       Vol. 124, pp. 487-490. ( duplicate)
     * Feeding a World of 10 Billion People: The Tva/Ifdc Legacy. 2003.
       ISBN 0-88090-144-6
     * Prospects for world agriculture in the twenty-first century. 2004.
       Norman E. Borlaug, Christopher R. Dowswell. Published in:
       Sustainable agriculture and the international rice-wheat system.
       ISBN 0-8247-5491-3
     * Foreword to The Frankenfood Myth: How Protest and Politics Threaten
       the Biotech Revolution. 2004. Henry I. Miller, Gregory Conko. ISBN
       0-275-97879-6

   Retrieved from " http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug"
   This reference article is mainly selected from the English Wikipedia
   with only minor checks and changes (see www.wikipedia.org for details
   of authors and sources) and is available under the GNU Free
   Documentation License. See also our Disclaimer.
