60 Years Fighting Hunger Personal Recollections Norman E' Borlaug

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60 Years Fighting HungerPersonal Recollections
Norman E. Borlaug
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Borlaug Farm andBoyhood School house

• Raised in a Norwegian community in northeast
  Iowa, on 100-acre mixed crop and livestock farm
• Attended this one-room school house for the first
  eight years.

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University of Minnesota

• 1937B.Sc. Forestry
• 1939M.Sc. Forest Pathology
• 1942PhD Plant Pathology

Borlaug Hall
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U.S. Forest Service Work

• Hopkins Experimental Forest, Williamstown
• Massachusetts, 1936
• Idaho National Forest, Cold Mtn. Fire Control
  Station, 1937
• West Central Massachusetts, 1939

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Mexican Government-Rockefeller Foundation
Cooperative Agricultural Program 1943-1960

• Multidisciplinary research focus to increase
  yields and production
• Train a multidisciplinary corps of young Mexican
  scientists
• Get research results to farmers as soon as
  possible
• RF staff to work themselves out of a job

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Shuttle Breeding and Multi-location International
Testing Produced the Mexican Wheats that
Triggered the Green Revolution
CIANO39 m
Days getting shorter
29º
2,000 Km
19º
Days getting longer
Toluca2640 m
Initial period after sowing
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Development of Semidwarf Wheat
Varieties
Norin dwarf varietiesdeveloped by Gonjiro
Inazuka at Iwate Prefectural Agricultural
Experiment Station near Marioka during
1930-35 Crossed by Orville Vogel at Washington
State University to local winter wheat,
1948-52 Crossed in Mexico to spring wheat,
1954-55 First release of HYV semidwarf Norin 10
spring wheat derivatives in 1962 (Pitic 62 and
Penjamo 62)
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Impact of Mexican- Rockefeller Program
Mexico achieved self-sufficiency in wheat and
maize production by 1956 RF helped to train
hundreds of scientists to MSc and PhD levels, in
all disciplines RF helped to establish
Postgraduate Agricultural College RF helped to
establish National Institute for Agricultural
Sciences (INIA) in 1961
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FAO/Rockefeller/Mexican Government Training
Program

• Started in late 1960
• Young scientists from North Africa, Near- and
  Middle-East
• In-service training in all the disciplines
• Trainees took HYV semidwarf seed technology back
  home
• International multi-location yield nurseries

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Wheat Seed Shipments to Asia

• 1965 250 tons to Pakistan
• 200 tons to India
• 1966 18,000 tons to India
• 1967 42,000 tons to Pakistan
• 21,000 tons to Turkey

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The Green Revolution
Testing of HYV wheat and rice in Asia during
1962-65 Production campaigns launched in
Pakistan and India in 1965-66 Take off in wheat
and rice HYV adoption, national yields, and
production Wheat self-sufficiency in Pakistan in
1968 and in India in 1972
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Profiles in Courage
Malik Khuda Baskh Bucha Minister of Agriculture,
Pakistan
C. Subramaniam Minister of Agriculture, India
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Green RevolutionChanges in Factors of
Production in Developing Countries of Asia
Fertilizer Nutrient Cereal
Wheat Rice Irrigation Use Tractors Production
million ha million t millions million t
Adoption ofModern varieties
M ha / area
1961 0 / 0 0 / 0 87 2 0.2 3091970 14 / 20 15
/ 20 106 10 0.5 4631980 39 / 49 55 /
43 129 29 2.0 6181990 60 / 70 85 /
65 158 54 3.4 8582000 70 / 84 100 /
74 175 70 4.8 962 Source FAOSTAT, July 2002
and authors estimated on modern variety
adoption, based on CIMMYT and IRRI data.
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Poverty Still Haunts Asia

• Mountains of food in storage
• Millions of hungry and
• malnourished
• PovertyLack of purchasing power

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World Cereal ProductionAreas Saved Through
Improved Technology, 1950-2000
CEREAL PRODUCTION 1950 650 million tonnes
2000 1,900 million tonnes
1,800
LAND SPARED1.1 billion ha
1,400
1,000
Million hectares
600
LAND USED 660 million ha
200
1950
1960
1970
1980
1990
2000
Uses milled rice equivalentsSource FAO
Production Yearbooks and AGROSTAT
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Africa is the Greatest Worry
High population growth, even with AIDS 200
million hungry and malnourished people
Declining soil fertility and little
application improved technology Rural
isolationlack of roads and transport Poor
education and health services
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SG 2000 Program

• Started in 1986
• At present covers 10
• countries in eastern, central and western
• Africa.

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SG 2000 Demonstration Plots

• Moderate amounts of
• fertilizer
• Improved varieties
• Good stands
• Timely planting
• weeding

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SG2000 Maize Demonstration Yields
t/ha
0
Ghana
Nigeria
Mozambique
Uganda
Ethiopia
Malawi
Mali/ Burkina Faso
Primarily using hybrids
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NetherlandsVietnamJapanUKChinaFranceBrazilU
SAIndiaSouth AfricaCubaBeninMalawiEthiopiaM
aliBurkina FasoNigeriaTanzania Mozambique
GuineaGhanaUganda
Fertilizer nutrient consumption per hectare of
arable land in selected countries, 2000
Kg/ha
600
100
200
300
400
500
0
Source FAOSTAT, July 2002
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BIOTECHNOLOGYAND FOOD
Controversy over Genetically Modified Organisms
(GMOs)Were all relatedwhat does Foreign DNA
really mean?Mother nature is also a
biotechnologist !
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GMOs for 21st Century
Insect and Disease Resistance
Herbicide Resistance
Nutritional Quality
Abiotic Stresses
Genetic Yield Potential
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The Precautionary Principle
!
The Search for Unobtainable Perfection
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Agriculture and Peace
Only 8 of countries with the lowest levels of
hunger are mired in conflict56 of countries
with highest levels of hunger have civil
conflictWorld military budgets exceed US 900
billion annually (USA accounts for 50 of
total)In 2000, World Bank support to
agriculture lowest in history same situation for
most bilateral donors
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Feeding Future Populations
World has the technologyeither available or
well-advanced in the research pipelineto feed 10
billion people Extending the Green Revolution
will provide a better diet at lower prices to
many more food-insecure people But will the
worlds farmers and ranchers be permitted to use
new technology to benefit humankind?
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Ease and Security, were these the drugs
that abated the eternal challenges in the
minds of men? And did nations, like men, grow
sluggish and apathetic when well fed and bodily
comfortable? Thomas Jefferson
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Mans capacity for fretting is endless and
no matter how many difficulties we
surmount, how many ideals we realize there is a
stealthy pleasure in rejecting mankind or the
universe as unworthy of our approval. Will
Durant
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You Cannot Build Peace on Empty
Stomachs. John Boyd Orr Nobel Peace
Laureate First FAO Director General