Feed the hungry

15 September 2009 By Edward Hadas Follow @edwardhadas

The father of the green revolution exemplified many virtues of the modern economy. Imagination, technology and globalisation enabled the agronomist s ideas to feed half the world. And this huge social return on investment was earned without worrying about profits.

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Norman Borlaug, known as the father of the Green Revolution and a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for services to food production, died on September 12 at the age of 95.

The celebrated agronomist developed "semidwarf" highyield, diseaseresistant wheat. These new seed varieties greatly improved the food security of nations such as Pakistan, India and Mexico by nearly doubling their crop yields.

Mexican wheat production, at 1,400 kg per hectare in 1960, was 2,700 kg per hectare in 1963.

Borlaug received his PhD in plant pathology and genetics from the University of Minnesota in 1942. He became a Nobel laureate in 1970.

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