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Father
of the Green Revolution
Dr Norman Borlaug Visits ICARDA
Dr Norman Borlaug Visits ICARDA
| ICARDA hosted Dr Norman E. Borlaug on 8-12 May 2005. His last visit to Tel Hadya, ICARDA's main research station, was in 1975 during negotiations with the Government of Syria on where to locate the Center. "This is a dream come true. We have been trying for years to have Dr Borlaug visit ICARDA," said Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, ICARDA DG, as he received Dr Borlaug at the Center. |
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| Farmer Mr Saleh Al-Jaseem hugged Dr Norman Borlaug to thank him for his contribution to the development of new wheat varieties when Dr Borlaug visited his field near Aleppo Agricultural Resarch Center, Syria. |
During his visit to ICARDA, Dr Borlaug exchanged views with scientists involved in the CWANA Wheat Networks, visited ICARDA's wheat trials, met some farmers in and around Tel Hadya and presented a lecture entitled "From the Green to the Gene Revolution: A 21st Century Challenge." He recounted how his early work with the Cooperative Agricultural Program (1943-1960), supported by the Government of Mexico and Rockefeller Foundation on maize and wheat improvement used the combination of research, extension and training to increase production of those crops. "This was the first attempt to help a food-deficit nation," Dr Borlaug said, adding that "we measured our progress by what happened on farmers' fields, not on the number of scientific learned reports."
He attributed the success of the Green Revolution in Asia (especially China, India and Pakistan) to dynamic political leadership in those countries that provided a supportive policy environment, and to improved crop varieties, control of weeds and pests, soil and water management. Demonstrations conducted on many farmers' fields showed multiple yield increases which enabled political leaders to support the Green Revolution activities. "The political leaders had to be convinced by seeing demonstrations on many thousands of farms, knowing the acceptability and productive capacity of the cereals," Dr Borlaug said. As a result of all the actions taken, cereal production in Asia increased from 309 million tons in 1961 to 962 million tons in 2000.
Turning to the contemporary challenges, Dr Borlaug said that the problem of hunger and malnutrition has not yet been solved, with an estimated 800 million people still going hungry. Noting the role of conflicts in enhancing hunger in the world, Dr Borlaug said "where there are no military conflicts we have not had massive or serious starvation." He challenged the current generation of researchers to work hard on improving crop varieties and agronomic technologies which will lead to increased food production. There will be a need to double the current food production to feed the global population in 2050.
On the Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs), Dr Borlaug noted that biotechnology offers much promise to increase the dependability of yields, reduce production costs, and increase yields. He deplored the attacks against GMOs. "Farmers and scientists have been genetically modifying our crops. Mother Nature also has made 'GMOs' for millennia, adding whole sets of chromosomes consisting of thousands of genes. Take bread wheat, for example, which is a triple cross between three distinct grasses. Mother Nature made these crosses, adding whole sets of chromosomes (with thousands of genes) each time, to eventually create bread wheat, which can be used to produce a leavened loaf. And these were wide crosses. Most of them were sterile, but somehow, one or two were fertile, and from those came the modern wheat types. We need to bear this in mind in the biotechnology debate," he said.
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| Dr Norman Borlaug; Dr Robert Havener, former Chair, Board of Trustees of ICARDA; and Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, ICARDA DG, at an ancient olive oil press displayed outside ICARDA’s Administration Building. |
He gave the example of the Bt cotton where biotechnologists have extracted a gene from a soil bacteria called Bt that confers excellent resistances to several classes of damaging insects. They have inserted Bt genes into cotton, as well as in maize and soybeans. "Some five million small-scale farmers in China, South Africa, and India are growing Bt cotton, greatly improving their yields and profitability, and significantly reducing their use of insecticides. The results in China are fantastic, with nearly 3 million hectares already planted." Dr Borlaug considers biotechnology as a new tool that is of great value, "and it can move genes across species and genera without sterility barriers."
After Dr Borlaug's lecture, Prof. Dr El-Beltagy presented him with a work of art created by an ICARDA staff member as a souvenir of his visit to the Center—a portrait of Dr Borlaug made with seeds of cereal and legume crops.
| Norman E. Borlaug (1914) was born in the small Norwegian-American community of Saude, near Cresco in Iowa. After graduating from Cresco High School he studied at the University of Minnesota where he earned BS in forestry (1937), MS in forest pathology (1941) and PhD in plant pathology and genetics (1942). After three years of research work at E.I. du Pont de Nemours in Delaware, Dr Borlaug joined the Rockefeller Foundation cooperative project with the Mexican Ministry of Agriculture as head of the wheat research and improvement program. In 1966, his "Quiet Revolution in Wheat Improvement" created worldwide interest and the Rockefeller and Ford foundations, in cooperation with the Government of Mexico, established CIMMYT at El Batan near Mexico City. In 1970 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his "Green Revolution" which helped Pakistan, India and a number of other countries improve their food production. Dr Borlaug created the World Food prize in 1986 to honor those who have made significant and measurable contributions to improving the world's food supply. He continues to pursue fighting hunger through scientific research as the leader of the Sasakawa Africa Association, working from his laboratories at CIMMYT in Mexico. |
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