Global Impact
Borlaug continued to strive to enhance the quality of life for millions of undernourished individuals. Spreading his advances throughout Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and Africa, Borlaug's breakthroughs became the vehicle to elevate food production on a global scale, and ensure entire populations their basic right to food.
"Dr. Borlaug developed high-yielding varieties of wheat that took Mexico from near-starvation to self-sufficiency within a few years,
introduced his new seed and production technologies in India and Pakistan, and successfully campaigned at the highest levels of government to get policy changes that averted famine in the mid 1960s. He has helped South America, Asia, the Middle East, Latin America, and Africa fight starvation."
- Former U.S President Jimmy Carter
“Almost single handed, Borlaug has been responsible for quadrupling the production of wheat in Mexico since 1950, for more than doubling wheat output in both India and Pakistan between 1968 and 1972, and for working out techniques of breeding, fertilization and irrigation that have since been applied to rice and other crops...in a movement known as the Green Revolution.”
- Alan Anderson, The Green Revolution (Article) 1975 The New York Times
"Although considerable progress has been made in expanding food production in a number of hungry nations during the past three years, this is no time for complacency. We must continue to push production aggressively. We must continue to pressure governments of the developing countries to increase their support for agriculture...We must try to build a better image for agriculture so that increased numbers of talented young men and women will choose careers in agriculture...This is an enormous responsibility and undertaking, yet we must all collectively accept the continuing challenge and struggle on to produce more." |