Norman Borlaug

Norman Ernest Borlaug (born 25 March 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.

Expansion to South Asia: The Green Revolution

Main article: Green Revolution

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In 1961 to 1962, Borlaug's dwarf spring wheat strains were sent for multilocation testing in the International Wheat Rust Nursery, organized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In March 1962, a few of these strains were grown in the fields of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Pusa, New Delhi, India. In May 1962, M. S. Swaminathan, a member of IARI's wheat program, wrote to Dr. B.P. Pal, who was then Director of IARI, requesting 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, Pusa and Indore.

Related Topics:
1961 - 196 - U.S. Department of Agriculture - Indian Agricultural Research Institute - New Delhi - M. S. Swaminathan - 1963 - Mexican government - Delhi - Ludhiana - Pant Nagar - Kanpur - Pusa - Indore

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During the mid-1960s, the Indian subcontinent was at war, and experiencing widespread famine and starvation, even though the United States was making emergency shipments of millions of tons of grain, including over one fifth of its total wheat, to the region.{{mn|science1970|20}} 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.{{mn|greengiant|6}}

Related Topics:
1960s - Indian subcontinent - Pakistani - 1965

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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."

Related Topics:
Famine - Paul R. Ehrlich - The Population Bomb

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In 1965, after extensive testing, Borlaug's team began their 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. From the beginning, they encountered many obstacles. Their first shipment of seeds was held up in Mexican customs. As a result, they couldn't be shipped out of Mexican port at Guaymas in time for proper planting. Instead, the shipment was sent via a 30 truck convoy from Mexico to the U.S. port in Los Angeles, encountering delays at the U.S.-Mexico border. Once the convoy entered the United States, they had to take a detour: the National Guard had closed the freeway because of Watts riots in Los Angeles. When the seeds reached Los Angeles, they encountered another impediment. The Pakistani treasury's check for US$100,000 contained three misspelled words, causing a Mexican bank to refuse to honor payment. Yet, the seed was still 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..."{{mn|greengiant|6}}

Related Topics:
Guaymas - Los Angeles - National Guard - Watts riots - US$ - Bombay, India - Karachi, Pakistan - Kashmir - Telegraph - Malik Khuda Bakhsh Bucha

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These delays prevented Borlaug's group from being able to conduct 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. As it later turned out, the seeds had been severely damaged in a Mexican warehouse by over-fumigation with a pesticide. He immediately ordered all locations to double their seeding rates.

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The initial yields of Borlaug's crops were higher than any ever harvested in South Asia. The countries subsequently committed themselves to importing large quantities of both the Lerma Rojo 64 and Sonora 64 varieties. In 1966, India imported 18,000 tons of this seed—the largest purchase and import of any seed in the world at that time. In 1967, Pakistan imported 42,000 tons, while Turkey imported 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.{{mn|science1970|20}} 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.{{mn|greengiant|6}}

Related Topics:
South Asia - 1967 - 1968 - United States Agency for International Development

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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 South Asian nations has increased faster than the rate of population growth. 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. 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.{{mn|CfGFI|15}}

Related Topics:
Ton - 2000 - 1970 - 1974 - Latin America - Near - Middle East - Africa - California

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Borlaug's work with wheat varieties 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.{{mn|science1970|8}}

Related Topics:
Rice - International Rice Research Institute - China - Hunan Rice Research Institute - Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research - Asia

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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".{{mn|greengiant|6}} 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".{{mn|Nobel|16}} It was the only Nobel Peace Prize awarded for agriculture or food production.

Related Topics:
Nobel Peace Prize - Toluca - December 10

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The 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 referred to by agricultural economists as 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, provided that all land consists either of forests or is used for agriculture. Because other land uses exist, such as urban areas, pasture, or fallow, 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.{{mn|cabi|17}}

Related Topics:
Organic farming - Ecosystem - Ceteris paribus

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Criticisms and his view of critics

Throughout his years of research, Borlaug's programs often faced opposition by people who consider genetic cross-breeding 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, but inadequately, relied on subsistence farming, and as 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: the construction of roads in populated third world areas, which 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.{{mn|reason|18}}

Related Topics:
Monoculture - Input-intensive farming - Subsistence farming - Biotechnology

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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".{{mn|Hoover|19}} 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".{{mn|billionsaved|20}}

Related Topics:
Western - Elitist - Washington - Brussels

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