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Tag: Norman Borlaug

Borlaug: green revolution to gold standard

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On Tuesday at a ceremony in the United States Congress, Norman Borlaug was awarded the Congressional Gold Medal of Honor, the highest civilian award the American government can give.

Global Wheat Program Director Hans Braun represented CIMMYT at the ceremony. “It was a fantastic setting for a fantastic honor,” he said. “It was his will, his bold vision, and the solutions of science, by which Dr. Borlaug used the timeless resources of one farmer and one field to feed more people than ever before,” said speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, who with President Bush presented the gold medal to Borlaug.

In his remarks Bush said “Wealthy and prosperous nations have a moral obligation to help poor and struggling people find their own paths to progress and plenty.”

In accepting the medal, Borlaug agreed with Bush and challenged the United States to stop its own funding reductions and put funds back into agricultural research for development.

“My plea today to the members of Congress and to the Administration is to re-commit the United States to more dynamic and generous programs of official development assistance in agriculture for Third World nations, as was done in the 1960s and 1970s,” he said. “Ever-shrinking foreign aid budgets in support of smallholder agriculture, and especially to multilateral research and development organizations such as the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) where I have worked for 40 years, as well as its sister research institutes under the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), are not in our nation’s best interest, nor do they represent our finest traditions.”

Borlaug joins civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. of the United States, Mother Teresa of India, Nelson Mandela of South Africa and World War II Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel as a recipient of three prestigious awards — the Congressional Gold Medal, the U.S. Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Nobel Peace Prize.

Borlaug to receive highest US honor

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Norman Borlaug will receive the highest civilian honor the United States of America can bestow at a ceremony in Washington DC this coming Tuesday, 17 July. The Congressional Gold Medal will be presented by President Bush and Speaker of the House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi. An original gold medal has been created by the United States Mint commemorating Borlaug’s achievements.

The United States Senate first passed the legislation on September 27, 2006. The United States House of Representatives voted to honor Borlaug with the Medal, on December 6 last year in the final days of the 2006 legislative session.

The first Congressional Gold Medal was awarded in 1776 to General George Washington. Borlaug will join an illustrious list of recipients that includes Thomas Edison, Pope John Paul II, and Martin Luther King Jr.

Borlaug accorded fond welcome in northwestern Mexico

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The CIMMYT research station and the city of Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, in northwestern Mexico, had reason to celebrate over the last week. Norman Borlaug paid a five-day visit to the city in the Yaqui Valley where he did his original wheat research work. The Nobel Peace Prize winner, who celebrated his 93rd birthday just a few weeks ago, came to spend time with some of the farmers with whom he had worked in the early days when the Yaqui Valley was very poor.

He flew to Obregón directly from Texas, where he has been receiving medical treatment, and was both surprised and touched to see staff at the airport form a line to greet him as he stepped off the airplane. “It wasn’t quite a red carpet but it was the red carpet treatment,” said Chris Dowswell, Borlaug’s assistant.

In addition to attending social functions, Borlaug came to see and learn more about GreenSeeker, a technology that helps farmers fine-tune manage nitrogen fertilizer use. CIMMYT and Oklahoma State University (OSU) have actively participated in the development and promotion of the practice. More than 75 farmers, extension agents, and staff members of CIANO, the INIFAP research station in Obregón, attended a half-day symposium and field visit on the subject. In a 15- minute address in Spanish, Borlaug told participants about the difficulties of smallholder farmers in developing countries and how technologies like the GreenSeeker might help them to economize on fertilizer use, the most costly of production inputs. OSU engineer John Solie described the practice and its origins. The final speaker was Bill Raun, a prime developer of GreenSeeker, former CIMMYT agronomist, and currently OSU Regents Professor, who concluded his remarks with a poem he composed in Spanish for Borlaug. Both Raun and Borlaug received a standing ovation.

At a luncheon at the CIMMYT station, students from the Colegio Teresiano de la Vera Cruz in Ciudad Obregón presented Borlaug with a birthday cake. They had just completed a project for the school’s cultural week that focused on Borlaug and his work in the Yaqui Valley. Borlaug also met with the participants in the CIMMYT wheat improvement course.

Photo: Jorge Castro, a past president of El Patronato de Sonora, a key farmer association in the region that has benefited from and supported CIMMYT’s work, talks with Borlaug. Castro’s father and Borlaug contemporary, Óscar Castro Encino, looks on.

Thank you Norman: Rap song praises Dr. Borlaug

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A rap song heralding the handiwork of Dr. Norman Borlaug is now on air. Father of the Green Revolution, Borlaug has kept starvation at bay for millions of people in developing countries through his semidwarf wheat varieties. The impetus for this project was Borlaug’s 90th birthday party, held in March of 2004. Written by MC Tractor and sung by Rohan Prakash, age 11, the song features vocal accompaniment from Luckie Egnin and Destiny Caldwell, both 10, who hail from Côte d’Ivoire and Jamaica, respectively. The music was produced, recorded, and edited by Mr. D.J. Redd and D.J. Cadett. Considering it was produced in less than an hour, the song has created quite a splash; it was recognized worldwide on Voice of America, the Guardian, and Science magazine. Rohan has continued to write and make new songs.

You can listen to the song and see the lyrics on AgBioWorld.