Norman Borlaug died the other day. He is being remembered as “The Man Who Saved More Human Lives Than Any Other.”

In the 1960′s Borlaug bred a new type of wheat that was resistant to disease and produced much higher yields.

“Experts” at the time were predicting worldwide famine, but it never happened – thanks to the new wheat.

Borlaug’s wheat was in fact very successful:

In Pakistan, wheat yields rose from 4.6 million tons in 1965 to 8.4 million in 1970. In India, they rose from 12.3 million tons to 20 million. And the yields continue to increase. Last year, India harvested a record 73.5 million tons of wheat, up 11.5 percent from 1998. Since Ehrlich’s dire predictions in 1968, India’s population has more than doubled, its wheat production has more than tripled, and its economy has grown nine-fold. Soon after Borlaug’s success with wheat, his colleagues at the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research developed high-yield rice varieties that quickly spread the Green Revolution through most of Asia.

Reason has a very interesting article by a guy who spent quite a bit of time with Mr. Borlaug. It’s worth a read.

And The Times Online has a article spotlighting the tributes in India, where he is remembered as a man who saved 245 million lives.

Not a bad life’s work for an Iowa farm boy.