Sowing a Green Revolution

Shortly after he took charge of the Rockefeller Foundation's wheat-improvement program in Mexico 26 years ago, a young American plant pathologist named Norman E. Borlaug began a momentous series of cross-breeding experiments. With the germ plasm of plants from four different countries, he succeeded in developing a remarkable new kind of wheat that was able to flourish in all of Mexico's widely varied growing conditions. His work quickly put Mexico on the road to self-sufficiency in wheat production. But it had an even more important result: it sowed the seeds of the Green Revolution--a quantum jump in agricultural progress.

Last week, as the man most responsible for that jump, the onetime Iowa farm boy was awarded the 1970 Nobel Peace Prize. Characteristically, Borlaug was in the wheatfields near Atizapan, Mexico, when he heard the news about the $78,000 prize. "Somebody has made a mistake," he insisted. When he was finally convinced, he delayed meeting reporters until he had completed his day's work: carefully checking his latest plantings, including a new type of "triple dwarf" wheat.

Visit to India. The experimental plants were, in fact, descendants of the original strains that Borlaug had bred for his crusade against famine. Undisturbed by any scientific breeding techniques, wheat in tropical countries had evolved over the centuries into tall, thin-stemmed strains able to survive flooding and compete successfully with weeds for sunlight. But they are highly vulnerable to modern fertilizers, which cause them to become top-heavy with grain and topple over. To overcome that problem, Borlaug collected samples of a Japanese dwarf strain that had already been improved by a U.S. Agriculture Department scientist named Orville Vogel and crossed it with native Mexican wheat and other strains with desirable qualities. By growing them in both the hot, parched fields of northern Mexico and the higher, cooler regions near Mexico City, Borlaug eventually succeeded in producing a totally new strain. It was one that was hardy, resistant to toppling, and also well suited to Mexico's diverse climates and soils.

In 1963, while on a trip to India, he decided that the new "miracle" wheat could be planted there as well. As a result, India is now on the verge of producing enough wheat to meet its own needs. Neighboring West Pakistan, also a recipient of the miracle wheat, has already achieved that goal. Indeed, the Rockefeller and Ford foundations were so elated by Borlaug's work that they joined forces in establishing a similar international program for rice improvement headquartered in the Philippines.

Tanned and rugged-looking, the 56-year-old grandfather still travels the globe, constantly preaching the cause of the Green Revolution (and also of birth control). Despite his evangelical zeal, however, he seems happiest at home in Mexico. After one recent trip, during which he visited a dozen countries in almost as many days, he arrived back at his farm late at night and looked at the cloudless sky. "It's a wonderful moonlit night," he told his haggard companions. Then, after seeing them off to bed, he stayed up until dawn, inspecting his fields.

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