The late agronomist Norman Borlaug, regarded as the father of the “Green Revolution”, is credited with saving millions from starvation. Despite the criticisms of environmentalists, Borlaug had a strong appreciation for the centrality of farmers’ livelihoods in maintaining food security, writes Devinder Sharma.
Published by Share the World’s Resources
It was the discovery of a stocky Japanese wheat variety Norin-10 that the US military advisor, Dr D. C. Salmon, sent back home in the early 1960’s that changed the face of global agriculture. This was the variety, the only known semi-dwarf traditional wheat strain, that the late Dr Norman Borlaug was keenly looking for. Crossed with the rust-resistant varieties that Borlaug had developed at the International Centre for Wheat and Maize Research (CIMMYT) in Mexico, the world got the miracle improved varieties that made history.
These semi-dwarf plants developed by Dr Borlaug responded to the application of chemical fertilisers and produced a bountiful grain harvest. The yields multiplied under favourable conditions, and Borlaug knew that the best place to apply the new technology was obviously India, with the largest population of hungry in the world. “I tried my best to convince the Indian politicians about the utility of these semi-dwarf varieties in fighting hunger, but they were not interested,” he once told me. Although the agricultural scientists, by and large, were convinced about the yield potential of these varieties, the politicians were not.
“When I didn’t see much headway being made, I played the political card knowing the political rivalry between India and Pakistan,” he went on to explain. “I told India that if you don’t want these varieties, I will give them instead to Pakistan.” I am not sure whether it was because of the political astuteness of Dr Borlaug or the domestic necessity, but India imported 18,000 tonnes of wheat seed of the semi-dwarf varieties in 1966. Within a few weeks of the import, the seed was made available in 5 kg packs and distributed widely in the areas where irrigation was abundant.
The rest is history. India emerged out of its ‘ship-to-mouth’ existence. Although hunger still prevails, famine certainly has become history.
For several years after the Green Revolution was launched, I had the pleasure of accompanying Dr Borlaug on his annual visits to the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana. As a young journalist I was always in awe of Dr Borlaug, and found him to be a simple and dedicated scientist. He would spend hours under the scorching sun in wheat research fields and was always keen to visit farmers. On one such evening at a farmer’s house, I remember the host saying; “The three major inputs for raising wheat yields are: farmers, improved seed and Borlaug.”
Walking along the sprawling wheat fields in Ludhiana, I once asked him once: “What is your biggest achievement. I mean what you would like to be remembered for.” I thought he would say that he wanted to be recalled for his contribution to plant sciences and fighting global hunger. But in all humility, Dr Borlaug replied: “I want to be remembered as someone who introduced baseball in Mexico.” And when I burst out laughing, Dr Borlaug gave me a detailed account of how he actually spent hours playing and promoting baseball.
The Green Revolution subsequently spread to parts of Asia and Latin America. It did enable a number of developing countries to emerge out of the hunger trap. Agricultural scientists promoted the technology worldwide – cultivating the water guzzling high-yielding varieties of wheat (the same technology was subsequently applied to rice), applying chemical fertilisers and pesticides – and they were never able to understand why the environmentalists were opposed to the technology.
Such was the blind faith in the new technology that Borlaug developed and promoted that agricultural scientists refused to see the flip side which was clearly evident through the deterioration of the plant ecology and the destruction to the environment. Several years after Rachel Carson published her historic work The Silent Spring, I asked Borlaug whether he had read the book: “She is an evil force,” he reacted angrily, adding: “These are the people who do not want to eradicate hunger.” I didn’t agree with him, and asked him why agricultural scientists can’t accept that chemical pesticides simply kill. “You too, Sharma,” he quipped, and then replied: “Remember, pesticides are like medicines. They have to be applied carefully and safely.”
Dr Borlaug remained committed to his belief in the indispensable role of chemical fertiliser and pesticides. He was so adamant that when the Third World Academy in Italy presented a paper on how Brazil had achieved remarkable crop yields in soybean and sugarcane without applying chemical nitrogen, he didn’t agree. It was only after he travelled to Brazil and saw for himself these crop yield results that he at least acknowledged the reality. But even then, he wouldn’t accept a vision of agriculture without chemical fertilisers and pesticides. Such was his blind faith in plant breeding that initially he even rejected biotechnology, saying it was a “waste of time.”