Father of green revolution dead

 Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug, father of the “Green Revolution,” who developed high-yielding and disease-resistant wheat that nearly doubled India’s wheat output and prevented famine in the developing world has died.

Ninety-five-year-old Borlaug died on Saturday from cancer complications in Dallas, Texas, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University said.

A 1970 recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his contributions to world peace through increasing food supply, Borlaug was a distinguished professor of international agriculture at the university.

During the mid-20th century, the Iowa-born scientist led the introduction of these high-yielding varieties combined with modern agricultural production techniques to India, Pakistan and Mexico. As a result, Mexico became a net exporter of wheat by 1963.
Between 1965 and 1970, wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India, greatly improving the food security.

He was also a recipient of the Padma Vibhushan, India’s second-highest civilian honour. His farming techniques helped achieve self-sufficiency in cereal grains in India. Until recently, he travelled worldwide working for improvements in agricultural science and food policy, said Kathleen Phillips, a university spokeswoman.

Borlaug was known as a champion of high-yield crop varieties, and other science and agricultural innovations to help fight hunger in developing nations.

“We all eat at least three times a day in privileged nations, and yet we take food for granted,” Borlaug said recently in an interview posted on the university’s Web site.
“There has been great progress, and food is more equitably distributed. But hunger is a commonplace, and famine appears all too often.”

He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2006, the highest civilian honor of the United States. The agriculture institute at the university was named after him in 2006.
Borlaug also created the World Food Prize, which recognised the work of scientists and humanitarians who have helped fight world hunger through advanced agriculture, the university said.