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News Alerts | Father of green revolution no more with us

Father of green revolution no more with us

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published Published on Sep 16, 2009   modified Modified on Sep 16, 2009

World leaders have mourned the sudden demise of Norman E Borlaug on 12 September, 2009 in Texas, United States. He was 95. He is remembered for his role in bringing green revolution technology that increased food production in ‘hunger’ belts of the world during the 1960s and 1970s. His contribution to India’s self-sufficiency in foodgrain production is well-known. It is his work that earned him the popular title of the ‘father’ of the Green Revolution.

Borlaug’s earlier work in the 1940s with the Mexican Government in a Rockefeller Foundation programme involved breeding wheat crops that were immune to wheat rust that had devastated crops there. He was a guide and a personal friend to many of the agricultural scientists from India, Pakistan and Indonesia whom he trained at International Maize and Wheat Development Centre (CIMMYT, http://www.cimmyt.org/) based in Mexico. He worked closely with the World Food Programme (WFP) of Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), United Nations and International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. Borlaug received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his contribution to increasing food production to mitigate hunger. He was also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India's second-highest civilian honour.

Prior to the green revolution, India pursued a policy of heavy industrialization during the 2nd and 3rd Five Year Plans. The droughts in the mid-1960s made Indian officials and bureaucracy to reconsider the technology for boosting domestic production, which Borlaug introduced in certain field trial sites during 1963. His experimentation with the Mexican semi-dwarf wheat variety by cross-breeding it with indigenous varieties from India brought forth the requisite results. As a result of this, wheat production nearly doubled from 9.85 million tonnes in 1963-64 to 18.65 million tonnes in 1968-69. The new technology helped in augmenting the yield in wheat from 730 kg per hectare in 1963-64 to 1169 kg per hectare in 1969-69. This was a sigh of relief for India, which saw major droughts and stagnation in food production during 1964-66. Later, it helped India to stop depending on the United States food aid called the PL 480.  

Along with wheat, high yielding varieties of rice was invented. The green revolution, which earlier was confined to the Western part of India namely Punjab, Haryana and Western Uttar Pradesh, later spread to the Eastern parts of India during the 1980s.  

Critiques of green revolution often argue that excessive reliance of green revolution technology on high-valued inputs like chemical fertilizers and pesticides as well as assured irrigation has made it inaccessible to the poorer farmers from rainfed areas. The technology has led to industrial mono-cropping of a few crops causing damage to both soil health and biodiversity. Rise in food production could not help in ending pervasive hunger and malnutrition from the face of the earth, unlike what Borlaug wished for.        


The following links and resources will lead you to more information on Norman Borlaug and green revolution technology:

Farm boy who fed India by GS Mudur, The Telegraph, 14 September, 2009,
http://telegraphindia.com/1090914/jsp/frontpage/story_1149
1641.jsp

Father of ‘Green Revolution’ Borlaug dies at 95, Indian Express, 13 September, 2009,
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/father-of-green-revoluti
on-borlaug-dies-at-95/516540/
 

WFP Pays Tribute To Father Of Green Revolution, World Food Proframme, 13 September, 2009,
http://www.wfp.org/stories/statement-josette-sheeran-regar
ding-death-norman-borlaug

The Nobel Peace Prize 1970 Presentation Speech by Mrs. Aase Lionaes, Chairman of the Nobel Committee, http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/peace/laureates/1970/pr
ess.html

Foreign Relations of the United States Theme: The Indian Food Crisis, Office of the Historian, US Department of State, http://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/themes/indian
-food-crisis

Norman Borlaug's Legacy by Steve Baragona, Voice of America, 16 September 2009,
http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-09-16-voa63.cfm

The Life and Work of Norman Borlaug, Nobel Laureate by Robert W. Herdt, Director for Agricultural Sciences, The Rockefeller Foundation, College Station, Texas, January 14, 1998, http://www.rockfound.org/library/98borlaug.pdf

U.S. Food Aid and Sustainable Development: Forty Years of Experience, USAID Evaluation Highlights No. 63, November 1998, http://www.cfiks.org/page2/assets/foodaid.pdf

Handbook of Statistics on Indian Economy, Reserve Bank of India, 15 September, 2009,
http://rbi.org.in/scripts/AnnualPublications.aspx?head=Han
dbook%20of%20Statistics%20on%20Indian%20Economy
 

Lessons from the Green Revolution: Effects on Human Nutrition by Rachel Bezner Kerr, IDRC,

http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/11212685201Green_Revolut
ion_&_Nutrition_paper_-_for_Ecohealth_training.doc

 

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