POP
NUTRITION - Crop Science
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Some argue that Borlaug's crop science out of a mexican
field lab in partnership with American sponsors like Rockefeller Foundation
moved up to a billion villagers beyond risk of famine.
CELEBRATING
100 YEARS OF DR. NORMAN BORLAUG - By Caroline Schneider, 2014
Circa 1942: a new venture had started in
Out of Japan, Nippon Institute provided similar
leadership especially for rice. By the 1980s, attracting world leading crop
science knowhow became one of BRAC's main ways of developing womens livelihoods
and redesigning agricultural value chains to include the poorest
By some reports,
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Borlaug Wheat
When Borlaug began his work
in
Stem Rust and Shuttle
Breeding
One of the first problems
Borlaug addressed in
Three epidemics of
stem rust from 1939-1941 wiped out wheat in the Yaqui
Breeding rust-resistant
varieties of wheat was a slow process taking up to 10 or 12 years. To speed
up the process and take advantage of both of
Borlaug faced criticism for
his idea of shuttle breeding, even from others at OEE. A widely held belief
at the time was that seeds needed to rest after harvesting in order to store
energy before being planted again. Also, shuttle breeding would mean double
the work each year—and double the costs.
Despite the resistance,
Borlaug forged ahead with his breeding plans. Not only did the wheat grow in
both locations allowing the breeding to progress more quickly, but there was
an unexpected side effect. Wheat that was grown during shorter days in the
north was then taken south when the days were longer. Not only were the
selected plants adapted to different climates, but they were adapted to a
wide range of day lengths. This achievement meant that wheat grown in
The success of shuttle
breeding, a technique still practiced today, allowed Borlaug and his
colleagues to make great progress in his first 10 years in
Lodging and Semi-Dwarf Wheat
Varieties
In addition to stem rust, Borlaug and his
colleagues found themselves facing another problem at the time. During World
War II, nitrate was produced in large volumes for use in explosives. With the
war over, the factories switched to making nitrogen fertilizer for
agricultural use. Increases in fertilizer use led to better crop growth and
higher grain yields. But along with increased yields came heavier heads of
grain and a problem for wheat—lodging.
Lodging occurs when stalks
collapse under the weight of the grain and fall over. This can ruin the crop
and lead to large reductions in yield. To prevent lodging, Borlaug wanted to
breed the tall, thin stalks common in
The new Mexican semi-dwarf
varieties had multiple benefits. The shorter wheat produced stronger stalks
and two to three times more grain than standard varieties. Also, Borlaug bred
the shorter varieties with the stem rust-resistant wheat he had produced
earlier, creating semi-dwarf wheat that was resistant to the disease and
could be grown in a range of climates.
These new varieties greatly
changed the picture of wheat production in
Also in 1963, CIMMYT (The
International Maize and
A few years later, the CGIAR
Consortium of International Agricultural Research Centers was founded to
further support and disseminate agricultural research around the world.
CIMMYT was one of the first research centers to be supported through CGIAR
and is one of 15 such centers today.
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It seems to me that Borlaug's first quarter century of
discoveries, prior to his nobel prize,
corresponded to an era when best for world knowhow on ending hunger
was disseminated freely. Whats desperately needed in 2015 is a mooc with one
week on each food crop which starts by cataloguing which crop science is
globally edited by POP professionals. Put another way look at the missed
opportunity of not organising feedthefuture.gov around a khan academy style
dashboard of POP crop science
In parallel, where POP alumni of Borlaug have curated
databases of crop science matched to combinatorial local profiles that poor
farmers face locally, turn all the information into mobile apps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qJXqG40WH68
With Bono's ONE's pop stars massively campaigning that
investing 10% of developing nations budget o agriculture is best way to end
poverty, time is now to ensure we open source POP knowhow not big vested
interests who control global food chains
Additional Commentary Success
and Criticism
The spread of practices and
seeds developed by Borlaug was driven by his hard work, but also by his
ability to engage and interest all of the stakeholders from farmers and
students to policy-makers and administrators.
“He was good at something
most scientists aren’t good at—public relations,” explains ASA and SSSA
Fellow Ed Runge, professor at
Education was very important
to Borlaug. Both in
He also continually pushed
for better support for farmers, both through government funding and training.
Later in his life when he was involved with SAA, he worked to bring simple
technologies that many take for granted, such as irrigation and fertilizers,
to poorer farmers in
“Dr. Borlaug was very
practical. He understood what small-holder farmers needed and fought for them
to be provided every tool available,” says Robert Fraley, Executive Vice
President and Chief Technology Officer at Monsanto. “He believed in training
the next generation and engaging young people.”
In the midst of great
success, the Green Revolution also had its critics. By using more fertilizers
and water and cultivating a single crop, some believed that Borlaug’s
techniques were damaging the environment, depleting water and soil resources,
and hindering biodiversity.
While he acknowledged the
critiques, Borlaug maintained that they were smaller concerns than the
starvation and political unrest facing many hungry nations. He would also
note that thousands of acres of land had been saved from agricultural
development through the increased yields of the new varieties. He continually
pushed for improved practices that would maximize water use and conserve soil
while maintaining the high yields necessary to feed the population.
Beyond stem rust,
agricultural researchers still face many issues today. They strive to find
ways to feed the world while protecting the earth and its resources. For many
in the field, Borlaug’s work and words were a challenge to continue the fight
against hunger and to do so in a way that would incorporate and address as
many aspects of food production as possible.
“The greatest thing he did
for the field of agronomy was to begin to show people that they had to think
about multiple parts of the system,” says ASA, CSSA, and SSSA Fellow Jerry
Hatfield, lab director at the USDA-ARS. “If you think about what he did in
the Green Revolution, it wasn’t about genetics, and it wasn’t about
fertility, and it wasn’t about water. It was about all of those different
things together.”
So 100 years after he was born, and with the world population
continuing to grow, Borlaug’s legacy still resonates. He continues to call us
all to action with words he spoke in 1970 at his Nobel Lecture: “I cannot
emphasize too strongly the fact that further progress depends on intelligent,
integrated, and persistent effort by government leaders, statesmen,
tradesmen, scientists, educators, and communication agencies…we can and must
make continuous progress.”
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Dissemination of Borlaug Crop Science to
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Late 1990s challenges in
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Friday, February 27, 2015
PLEASE TREAT FOLLOWING LIKE A WIKI -MAIL CHRIS.MACRAE@YAHOO.CO.UK AND WE WILL TRY TO EDIT IN IMPROVED LINKS
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