A tribute to the father of Green Revolution
NORMAN Ernest Borlaug, the father of Green Revolution and a humanitarian scientist for the hungry people is no longer with us. At the age of ninety five he passed away on the 12th September last at his own residence in Dallas. His indefatigable and integrated research developed a new agricultural system that met up the food demand of the increased population and saved many people from hunger. For his outstanding contribution in the development of new high yielding wheat varieties and supporting agricultural management system he was honoured in 1970 with Nobel Peace Prize. He turned the then existing conventional agriculture into a mechanized modern system with the use of high yielding crop varieties and high inputs i.e. fertilizers, irrigation, fungicides, pesticides etc. This change was termed as Green Revolution by William Gaud, the Director of USAID and Dr Borlaug was regarded as the father of this Green Revolution. As the beneficiary of Green Revolution let us pay tribute to this great scientist who throughout his life felt for the poor hungry people and devoted his life for research towards increased food production. He was born on 25th March 1914 in a farm house near Cresco of Iowa state in USA. He completed his secondary and higher secondary education there and took admission in the University of Minnesota for undergraduate study. He completed his honors courses there in 1937 and jointed the Forestry Service for a very short period and came back again to the same University for MS and Ph.D study. He completed MS with credit in 1939 and then completed Ph.D research in 1942 in the field of Genetical Plant Pathology. From 1942 to 1944 he served the famous Du Pont de Nemours Foundation as Microbiologist and developed a wide knowledge in fungicides and insecticides. Here he could realize the importance of improving crop management system. From the time of Second World War food shortage was becoming a burning question in many countries. High rate of population growth, occurrence of plant diseases in epidemic form, reduced crop production were some of the reasons of this trend. At that time Dr Borlaug started his research for developing a new agricultural system that could help the world to be free from food shortage. At that time Mexican Government sought help from Rockefeller Foundation for planning and execution of higher crop production programme particularly for boosting the production of wheat. With the collaboration of Rockefeller Foundation Mexican Government started "Wheat Research and Production Cooperative" programme and Dr Borlaug was made the head of genetical and pathological research of this programme. Taking this charge he realized that isolated research would bring no benefit. One must take an integrated agricultural research programme that should take into consideration the different aspects of agricultural research such as genetics, breeding, pathology, entomology, agronomy, soil science, physiology and crop management. Thus he initiated a long tern coordinated research programme involving young scientists of different branches with the objective of development of high yielding disease and pest resistant crop varieties and their adaptation to high agricultural technology based environment. Within a very short time his indefatigable research and leadership brought a successful achievement. He conducted hybridization experiments among the different varieties of wheat collected from various areas of the world. From a cross involving dwarf Norin - 10 variety collected from Japan he developed a semi-dwarf high yielding wheat variety that gave 2-3 fold yield than the existing ones under high irrigation and fertilized condition. Borlaug distributed the seeds of this high yielding disease resistant wheat variety among the farmers of Mexico and developed a new agronomic condition with irrigation and chemical fertilizers. Following that wheat production in Mexico increased and it became self-sufficient in wheat production and soon became a wheat exporting country. Borlaug for the first time proved that integrated research in agriculture could help increase the food grain production of a country several folds. Apart from his scientific devotion he was very kind to poor hungry people. He believed in the concept that food is the primary need of human being and it is every body's right to get sufficient food. Just after his success in Mexico he paid his attention to the food problem of third world countries. He became busy in spreading his experimental results and revolutionary agricultural concept in such countries. In the beginning of 1960 when India was facing food problem, on Dr. M. Swaminathan's advice Indian government invited Dr. Borlaug. During his visit Dr. Borlaug gave some seeds of his semi-dwarf wheat variety and recommended to grow it under improved management system. He also suggested to improve the agricultural infrastructure of the country. Following Borlaug's suggestions Indian agriculture improved and within 1974 India became self sufficient in food grain production and soon after became an exporting country. Borlaug's collaboration with Pakistan helped to increase her wheat production 2-3 times and in this way many countries took part in Green Revolution. Rockefeller Foundation realized the significance of Borlaug's research and in 1959 Borlaug's working institute turned into an international institute, which in 1963 became International Maize and Wheat Improvement Centre (CIMMYT). Realizing the success of Dr. Borlaug and his team Rockefeller Foundation in collaboration with Philippines Government built up another international institute (IRRI)= International Rice Research Institute) for improvement of another important food crop, rice. Dr. Borlaug helped in outlining the different improvement programmes of this research institute. Following the similar procedure a high yielding dwarf rice variety, IR 8 was developed from a cross between Indonesian, Dee-geo-woo-gen and Chinese, Peta varieties. This newly developed variety out-yielded the traditional varieties by 2-3 folds under high irrigation and fertilizer condition. This rice variety was introduced to different countries including Bangladesh and rice production in these countries increased 2-3 folds on an average. Green Revolution saved millions of hungry people worldwide providing food grains. It was estimated that Borlaug's discoveries saved over 245 million lives worldwide. In addition to the Nobel Peace Prize, he was honoured with President Medal of Freedom and Congressional Gold Medal. Until his death he was associated with agricultural research particularly with extensive experimentation with triticale, a man-made species of grain derived from a cross between wheat and rye that shows promise of being superior to either wheat or rye in production and quality. Dr Borlaug received extensive recognition from universities and organisations in six countries: Canada, India, Mexico, Norway, Pakistan, the United States. In 1968 he received an especially satisfying tribute when the people of Ciudad Obregon, Sonora of Mexico, where he did some of his first experiments, named a street in his honour. Remembering his contribution to Indian agriculture the Indian government honored Dr Borlaug with Padma Bhusan. However, critics put some questions in front of him particularly those related to the erosion of biodiversity, bad effects of chemical fertilizers and insecticides. But Borlaug said at that time there was no other alternative to save millions of hungry people from shortage of food grain. He shattered Malthusian theory that relates to imbalance between population growth and food production. He of course always gave importance to population control plans. Bangladesh is an agricultural country. Dr Borlaug's contribution to our agricultural development not too meagre. We are also the beneficiary of Green Revolution. Today we are using high yielding wheat and rice varieties. Our cereal grain production now is 2-3 times higher than that of 1971. So let us also pay tribute to this great humanitarian agricultural scientist. Prof S K Bhadra is Convener, Research Cell, University of Chittagong.
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