Sublime

Few people today would recognize the name Norman Borlaug, but it was his research that helped kick off what has come to be known as the “Green Revolution.” An American agricultural scientist in the 1940s, Borlaug began researching high-yielding varieties of wheat in Mexico. He was tasked with using modern plant-breeding techniques, including

The dwarf wheat varieties cultivated by Borlaug were a game changer, as they had several key advantages. First, the shorter stalks were less top-heavy and could support more grain kernels on their end without breaking. Second, because they didn’t grow a long stalk, they required fewer nutrients and less sunlight (albeit more water). This is

After its development by publicly funded researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the University of Freiburg, biotech firm Syngenta subsequently developed a variety that produced 23 times more beta-carotene than the original Golden Rice. It is to be offered to poor farmers royalty-free and farmers may keep the seeds for

Within two years of its introduction in Mexico in 1954, total wheat output in the country doubled. With his success in Mexico, the governments of both India and Pakistan requested his assistance as well. He brought his new wheat varieties to these rapidly growing nations, which helped raise total wheat output by some 60 percent within a similarly

synthetic fertilizer piled as high as snowdrifts. The

In Zimbabwe, for example, farmers in drought-stricken areas who used drought-tolerant maize were able to harvest up to 600 more kilograms of maize per hectare than farmers who used conventional varieties. (That’s 500 more pounds per acre, producing enough to feed a family of six for nine months.) For farming families who chose to sell their

So experts at CGIAR developed dozens of new maize varieties that could withstand drought conditions, each adapted to grow in specific regions of Africa. At first, many smallholder farmers were afraid to try new crop varieties. Understandably so. If you’re eking out a living,