Borlaug, Norman Ernest

Norman Ernest Borlaug, (born March 25, 1914, near Saude, Iowa, U.S.—died September 12, 2009, Dallas, Texas), American agricultural scientist, plant pathologist, and winner of the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1970. Known as the “Father of the Green Revolution,” Borlaug helped lay the groundwork for agricultural technological advances that alleviated world hunger.

Borlaug studied plant biology and forestry at the University of Minnesota and earned a Ph.D. in plant pathology there in 1942. He began working with the DuPont Company in 1942 but was soon recruited as a research scientist in charge of wheat improvement for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Cooperative Mexican Agricultural Program in Mexico, where he worked from 1944 to 1960. Seeking to assist impoverished farmers who struggled with diseased and low-producing crops, Borlaug experimented with novel varieties of wheat, creating disease-resistant strains that could withstand the harsh climate. That work was founded on earlier discoveries of ways to induce genetic mutations in plants, and his methods led to modern plant breeding.

The Green Revolution resulted in increased production of food grains (especially wheat and rice) and was in large part due to the introduction into developing countries of new, high-yielding varieties, beginning in the mid-20th century with Borlaug’s work. At a research station at Campo Atizapan, he developed a short-stemmed (“dwarf”) strain of wheat that dramatically increased crop yields. Previously, taller wheat varieties would break under the weight of the heads if production was increased by chemical fertilizers. Borlaug’s short-stemmed wheat could withstand the increased weight of fertilized heads and was a key element in the Green Revolution in developing countries. Wheat production in Mexico multiplied threefold owing to this and other varieties.

Following Borlaug’s success in Mexico, the Indian and Pakistani goverments requested his assistance, and with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Borlaug began his agricultural revolution in Asia. With India and Pakistan facing food shortages due to rapid population growth, the importation of Borlaug’s dwarf wheat in the mid-1960s was responsible for a 60 percent increase in harvests there, helping both countries to become agriculturally self-sufficient. His work in developing countries, especially on the Indian subcontinent, is estimated to have saved as many as one billion people from starvation and death.

Borlaug also created a wheat-rye hybrid known as triticale, and his methods were used by others to develop new varieties of highly productive rice. The increased yields resulting from Borlaug’s new strains empowered many developing countries, though their use required large amounts of chemical fertilizers and pesticides. These high-yielding crops raised concerns about cost and potentially harmful environmental effects, though Borlaug argued that uncontrolled population growth had necessitated such production methods. Although newer varieties of food grains have been developed to be high-yielding and also resistant to local pests and diseases, modern agriculture has yet to achieve environmental sustainability in the face of an ever-growing human population.

Borlaug served as director of the Inter-American Food Crop Program (1960–63) and as director of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico City, from 1964 to 1979. In 1986 Borlaug created the World Food Prize to honour individuals who have contributed to improving the availability and quality of food worldwide. In constant demand as a consultant, Borlaug served on numerous committees and advisory panels on agriculture, population control, and renewable resources. He also taught at Texas A&M University (1984–2009), where the Norman Borlaug Institute for International Agriculture was established in 2006. His numerous other honours include the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1977), the National Medal of Science (2004), the Congressional Gold Medal (2006), and the United Nations FAO Agricola Medal (2010).