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| 2006 Norman Borlaug Congressional Gold Medal |
Norman Borlaug was born on a farm near Cresco, Iowa in March 25 1914. He spent his childhood and teenage years working with the crops and animals. In 1933, at the urging of his grandfather, he left the farm and enrolled at the University of Minnesota.
His encounters with the unemployed and the starving during the Great Depression shaped his outlook on life. It was also around this time that he met Prof. Elvin Stakman. He became involved in Stakman's research on plant breeding methods and the professor suggested that he take up Plant Pathology.
In 1944, he became part of The Cooperative Wheat Research Production Program, which focused on increasing wheat production in Mexico. It was not easy. They didn't have enough training and equipment, and the local farmers refused to cooperate. The epilogue of his book, "Norman Borlaug on World Hunger", reveals his initial regret. He wrote: "It often appeared to me that I had made a dreadful mistake in accepting the position in Mexico,".
But after several years of research, harvest time finally arrived. He developed Pitic 62 and Penjamo 62, two disease-resistant varieties of wheat that produced more grain than usual. By 1963, Mexico achieved production six times larger than in 1944. 95 percent of the crops were Borlaug's varieties.
After Mexico, his wheat strains were sent to India and Pakistan. In five years, Pakistan's wheat yields increased dramatically from 4.6 million tons to 7.3 million tons. By 1968, Pakistan became self-sufficient in wheat production.
India produced 20.1 million tons of wheat in 1970. There wasn't enough labor to harvest the crops; not enough carts to bring it to the threshing floor; not enough jute bags, trucks, rail cars, and grain storage facilities. They even closed down schools to use the buildings for grain storage. They were also able to save 100 million acres of virgin land from being converted into farmland.
He began work in Africa in 1984 with Ryoichi Sasakawa, chairman of Japan Shipbuilding Industry Foundation. Production of maize, sorghum, wheat, cassava and cowpeas increased. The project will also be extended to Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania, and Uganda.
Norman Borlaug passed away last Saturday, Sept 12, 2009 at the age of 95. He died of lymphoma. A lot of us, though, didn't know who he was until now. Scientists predicted that a global famine will happen because of the population explosion, but Norman's discoveries saved us all. He led a very fruitful life that has yielded much to humanity.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norman_Borlaug
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090913/ap_on_re_us/us_obit_borlaug
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