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Adieu! You gave Punjab its Green
Revolution
WSN Network
 TEXAS:
Agricultural scientist Norman E Borlaug, the father of Green
Revolution who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in combating
world hunger and saving hundreds of millions of lives, died in Texas
last Saturday. He was 95. The distinguished professor at the
university in College Station, Texas, is very well known to the Sikh
community which engaged closely with his work and brought green
revolution in Punjab.
The Nobel
committee honoured Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to
high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural
innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit Green
Revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the
20th century and saving perhaps 1 billion lives.
Thanks to Green
Revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and
1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the nations that benefited most
from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over
the period.
In 1944, Borlaug
was appointed as geneticist and plant pathologist assigned the job
of organising and directing the Cooperative Wheat Research and
Production Program in Mexico.
This joint
undertaking of the Mexican government and the Rockefeller Foundation
philanthropic organisation focused on scientific research in
genetics, plant breeding and related fields. Within two decades, he
succeeded in finding a highyielding disease-resistant wheat. The
Iowa-born scientist then worked to put newly developed cereal
strains into extensive production, helping India among other
countries escape the vicious string of famines in the second half of
the 20th century.
"We would like
his life to be a model for making a difference in the lives of
others and to bring about efforts to end human misery for all
mankind," his children said in a statement.
It was his
miracle seeds that transformed
India
from a "begging bowl" to a "bread basket" though it is a different
matter that the Punjab farmers, largely hailing from the Sikh
community, continued to face discriminatory policies of the
government of India.
Punjab was the
most celebrated success story as the High-Yield Variety (HYV) seeds
transformed Punjab into the food bowl of India.
He first visited
the country in 1963, bringing along the seeds from Mexico, of which
"Leema Rojo" proved the most successful, increasing the yield in
Punjab many times. But its reddish-brown colour did not find favour
with Indian consumers.
The seed was
thus transformed by Punjab Agricultural University (PAU) Professor
Dr Kalyan Singh -- under Dr Borlaug's guidance -- into what came to
be known as the Kalyan variety. It had the colour of Indian wheat,
and the yield of Dr Borlaug's "miracle seeds".
While the Green
Revolution has received much appreciation, Dr Borlaug also faced
criticism from some environmentalists for genetic modification in
food grains and the use of inorganic fertilisers and pesticides.
But as he said
in his PAU address: "It is better to die after eating GM food grains
than dying hungry."
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A Tribute to Dr.
Norman E. Borlaug
Harbans Singh
Sraon
We lost a great
scientist on September 12, 2009 who revolutionized wheat production
in the world, particularly in India. He won a Nobel prize for
evolving high yielding wheat varieties thus averting global famine
in the second half of the 20th century.
Dr. Borlaug was
born on March 25, 1914 on a grain farm near Cresco, Iowa.
After completing
his Ph. D. at University of Minnesota, he worked as geneticist and
plant pathologist CYMMIT in Mexico. He developed some wheat
varieties which were short stature, stiff stem and responsive to
fertilizers without lodging. In mid 1960s he sent some seeds to
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. Yields were good but
needed some improvement in agronomic traits. Our team led by Dr.
Dilbagh Singh Athwal crossbred Cymmit varieties with Punjab C 273.
It was hard work in breeding and selection process. I remember
working 10 to 12 hour days of scorching heat of April.
We came up with
a variety which was outstanding in all respects. We called it
“Kalyan Sona.” In a few years, seed was mass produced and wheat
yield tripled or quadrupled in some areas of Punjab.
From production
point of view in 1960 wheat production was 1.74 million tonnes and
in 1990 it rose to whopping 15.55 million tones. It was due to high
yielding varieties, improved agronomic practices and high crop
intensity. In retrospect every drop of sweat, blood and tears were
worth the effort.
I remember Dr.
Borlaug saying, “Your real assets are, knowledge, experience and
hard work” It all paid off. It was called Green Revolution which
brought prosperity to India and Pakistan and saved billions of lives
by creating food sufficiency.
Dr. Norman
Borlaug accepted Nobel peace prize with humility with these remarks,
“Civilization known to day could have not have evolved nor can it
survive without adequate food supply.” Nobel Peace prize chairman
remarked, “More than any other single person of his age, Dr. Borlaug
helped to provide bread for a hungry world…..leading to world
peace.”
As human
population is on the increase, we need more food, means more
research in discovering new germ plasm with higher yield and disease
resistance.
I would like to
alert Indian Government to pay attention to wheat and rice research.
Lot more work need to be done. We just discovered that black rust
has been detected in Iran and Afghanistan and moving towards
Pakistan and India. Most of the current varieties are susceptible to
this vicious rust, which can wipe out wheat crop. Work must start
now to breed rust resistant wheat varieties. Ignorant politicians
are ignoring past contributions of PAU and not funding future
research projects. I urge them to be proactive and to use some
common sense to secure food security.
We the alumni of
PAU are willing to help to continue the legacy of Dr. Borlaug in
food security but charity begins at home.
The author
is a professor of genetics and can be contacted at sraonhs@aol.com
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16
September 2009
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