A great scientist
The world lost one of the 20th century's true heroes last Saturday with the death, at 93, of agricultural visionary Norman Borlaug - a seed scientist who forcefully closed the gap between theory and practice, Borlaug is widely and justly known as "the father of the Green Revolution." His work increased crop yields in Asia and elsewhere at a time when population growth was outstripping world food production. Nobody denies that Borlaug's work saved hundreds of millions of lives.
Borlaug was more than a white-coated ivory-tower theorist. A farm boy from Iowa, he realized early that the improved grain varieties he had developed would make subsistence farmers wary. So he and others hand-delivered his seeds to small farmers, in India and elsewhere. Aided by the Indian government - the farm minister dug up his personal cricket pitch to be a demonstration site - Borlaug got the word out across India by the mid-1960s. Yields began to rise, farmers became enthusiastic, and India's wheat crop grew by 41 per cent in two years. In 1970, Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
But even such a blessing as more abundant food has its nay-sayers. Critics complain that the green revolution uses too much water and fertilizer, has encouraged monocultures, and has helped some farmers more than others. To which common sense can reply only "What part of 'saved hundreds of millions of lives' do you not understand?" The same question can be put to those who object to new agricultural advances, notably the genetic modification of foodstuffs, an innovation Borlaug supported.
In South Asia, and elsewhere, conditions were right for Norman Borlaug to solve a problem for humanity, and he did so with spectacular success. We need more like him.
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