THE GREEN REVOLUTION
The "Green Revolution" was the huge increase in production of grain due to "dwarfed" crops and agricultural advances, like fertilizer. "Norman Borlaug (center) in India, with the sacks of wheat he grew in the 1960s, when the country was faced with a devastating grain shortage." - Academy of Achievement
(Academy of Achievement, 1960) "THERE WAS THIS HUGE HARVEST, MOUNTAINS OF GRAIN BY THE RAILROAD SIDINGS WAITING TO BE SHIPPED.... AND YOU COULD FEEL THIS ENTHUSIASM - YOU WOULD STOP AT FARMER'S FIELD DAYS AND EXPERIMENT STATIONS, AT AGRICULTURE UNIVERSITIES, YOU COULD FEEL IT EVERYWHERE."
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TIMELINE"1944- Dr. Borlaug joins the Foundation as the plant pathologist in the Rockefeller Foundation-Mexican Ministry of Agriculture Cooperative Program.
1945- Dr. Borlaug becomes Director of the Cooperative Wheat Research and Production Program in Mexico. 1956- Mexico becomes self-sufficient in wheat production by growing more than 40 new, high yielding and rust-resistant varieties developed by Dr. Borlaug. 1960- Under a joint UN Food and Agriculture Organization-Rockefeller Foundation training program, Dr. Borlaug begins training Asian wheat scientists in Mexico. 1961- Dr. Borlaug provides Mexico with the first semi-dwarf spring wheat, a new type of short plant with very high yield potential when grown with fertilizer. 1961- The Rockefeller Foundation and the Ford Foundation establish the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines to do for rice what Dr. Borlaug has done for wheat. 1963- Building on the Rockefeller Foundation's agriculture program in India, Dr. Borlaug begins testing Mexican semi-dwarf wheat varieties in India and Pakistan with the help of Asian scientists he trained in Mexico. The Mexican wheat varieties perform exceptionally well. 1965- Dr. Borlaug arranges for 450 tons of semi-dwarf wheat seed from Mexico to be imported into India and Pakistan. 1966- The Rockefeller Foundation and Ford Foundation establish the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) in Mexico, building on the Rockefeller Foundation cooperative program. Dr. Borlaug is seconded by the Rockefeller Foundation to CIMMYT as Director of the International Wheat Improvement Program. 1968- William Guad, Director of United States Agency for International Development (USAID) declares a "Green Revolution" is occurring in South Asia, based on Dr. Borlaug's wheat varieties and IRRI's rice varieties. 1970- Dr. Borlaug is awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for the Green Revolution. 1983- Dr. Borlaug retires from the Rockefeller Foundation and CIMMYT at age 65 and is made a Lifetime Fellow by the Rockefeller Foundation Board of Trustees. 1986- Dr. Borlaug begins a second career that lasts more than 20 years, working to improve agriculture in Africa under the Sasakawa Global 2000 Program. 2009- Nobel Peace laureate Norman Borlaug dies after a lifetime of contributions to the continuing struggle of global agriculture to feed the world’s skyrocketing population." -John Buskin |