United States Department of State (Washington, DC)
Kathryn McConnell
20 May 2004
Washington, DC — Africa especially needs increased food output, Nobel winner says
With new plant diseases emerging and the amount of the world's farmable land holding steady, the international research and aid communities must increase efforts to develop and share with developing countries information about new agricultural technologies and methods, says Norman Borlaug, 1970 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
In a May 20 speech at the National Press Club, Borlaug said Africa, in particular, needs access to improved agricultural technologies.
"Africa is the biggest worry" to those involved in agricultural research and international development he said. Borlaug was in Washington to present the inaugural of what will be a series of annual lectures named for George C. Marshall, whose "Marshall Plan" of foreign aid begun in 1947 helped Europe recover from World War Two.
The lecture series was established by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to honor internationally recognized leaders in the field of development. USAID supports agricultural research aimed at improving food production and nutrition, protecting crops against new strains of crop diseases, and increasing environmental protections as a result of improved farming practices.
Borlaug, known as the "father of the green revolution" for his historic work in agricultural research, is credited with "saving more lives than any other person in the world," said Syed Hasan Ahmad, ambassador to the United States from Bangladesh, in introducing Borlaug at the lecture.
Borlaug's work in the 1960s and 1970s developed higher-producing cereals, saving millions of lives in Bangladesh and in other developing countries, Ahmad said. Moreover, he said, Borlaug's work helped Bangladesh move from needing large amounts of U.S. food aid to now being able to produce a "modest surplus" of food.
In developing Asia, Borlaug noted in his lecture, improvements in agricultural technologies lead to an increase of cereal production from 309 million tons in 1961 to 962 million tons in 2000.
Yet, Borlaug said, "Africa has been left behind" in benefiting from the green revolution because of burdensome government bureaucracies and poor infrastructures. For instance, he said, many African countries have few paved roads, and those they do have lead to mines instead of into farming areas, inhibiting the transfer of agricultural inputs and knowledge to farmers, he said.
Countries in the region are also experiencing a high rate of population growth and a declining level of soil fertility, increasing their need for improved food production, he said.
Borlaug said one of his "dreams" for developments in agricultural biotechnology in this century is finding ways to transfer the immunities to the plant disease rust that were developed for rice to other cereals such as wheat, maize, sorghum and barley. Rust is a fungus that stresses plant development.
Another of Borlaug's wishes is to develop methods to transfer more wheat proteins to dough for leavened breads, a nutritional improvement, he said.
Biotechnology holds great potential for developing more food varieties with resistances to insects, disease and weeds, improved nutritional quality and increased yields, Borlaug said.
But, he said, people who are demanding proof that species developed through biotechnology are 100 percent safe are unrealistic.
"There is no zero risk in the biological world" and adherents to the "precautionary principle" who want proof of 100 percent surety that a new plant is safe are holding back progress in scientifically sound agricultural research, he said.
In addition to the need for developing better producing and more environmentally safe agricultural plant species through biotechnology and other technologies, Borlaug said more research is also needed on ways to improve irrigation efficiencies. Farmers in developing countries also need more training in the use of the right types and efficient amounts of fertilizers for their soil, he said.
In developing countries, especially, progress in agriculture is linked to achieving peace, Borlaug said. "You cannot build peace on empty stomachs, he said, quoting John Boyd Orr, the first head of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization.
Boyd said that 56 percent of countries with the highest levels of hunger are experiencing civil conflict, he said. Countries with low agricultural production also have the highest levels of illiteracy, a wasting of the country's future talent, he added.
USAID's Collaborative Agricultural Biotechnology Initiative (CABIO) is designed to help developing countries access and manage the tools of modern biotechnology through research, strengthened public institutions and public outreach.
(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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