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Benefits of Borlaug’s Wheat
The most
obvious benefits of Norman Borlaug’s wheat strain are its rust resistance and
high yield; the combination of these two traits greatly increases wheat
production. By 1963, Borlaug’s wheat,
growing on 95% of
• Borlaug’s wheat varieties were introduced
to
• Pakistan’s wheat yields doubled after the
introduction of Borlaug’s wheat varieties, going from 4.6 million metric tons
of wheat in 1965 to 8.4 million tons in 1971 (Bailey, 2000). The greatly increased yields in
• Borlaug notes that “equally impressive
wheat production increases have been achieved in
• Between 1940 and 1980, the combined
production of 17 major crops in the
• Not only did Borlaug’s Mexican program have tremendous impacts on wheat production worldwide, but his success partially inspired a rice breeding program, which duplicated Borlaug’s methods and crossed high yield, disease resistant rice with dwarf varieties. The resulting hybrid rice has had an effect on world grain production as great as Borlaug’s wheat. USDA figures show that world grain yields rose by an average of 2.1% a year between 1950 and 1990, largely due to the introduction of the high yield strains of rice and wheat (Mann 1997). These increases allowed a population explosion: it took “until about 1850 for the world population to reach 1 billion, only 80 years to reach 2 billion, and only 45 years to reach 4 billion” (Borlaug 1983).
• Of the environmental benefits of his what varieties, Borlaug says, “If we grow our food and fiber on the land best suited to farming with the technology that we have…including proper use of genetic engineering and biotechnology, we will leave untouched vast tracts of land, with all of their plant and animal diversity.” (Bailey, 2000)
Questions or comments? Email saparker@davidson.edu
Page Maintained by Sarah Parker,
Last modified 11 February 2004