Meeting American Ambassador
Kenneth M. Quinn: Finding Hope in a Hungry World II
Dr. Borlaug career as agricultural
scientist was spectacularly successful. As mentioned in my first part of this
article, he was able to fabulously achieve a historic milestone of his career within
twenty years of service when he bred a high-yielding short-straw,
disease-resistant variety of wheat. Added to this scientific goal, was his
practical humanitarian posture. Thus, he worked hard to put the new wheat strains
into extensive production for the purpose of feeding the hungry people of the
world. This success thrilled him and the scientific world, he astoundingly
described his breakthrough as "a temporary success in man's war against
hunger and deprivation, a breathing space in which to deal with the “Population
Monster" and the subsequent environmental and social ills that too often
lead to conflict between men and between nations”. The scientific and
humanitarian mien of Borlaug made him crisscrossed the globe and visited many
countries; India, Pakistan, Latin America, Middle East and several African
countries.
To us in Nigeria, Dr. Borlaug was a famous
hero for the wheat and maize farmers of Kano, Saminaka, Bauchi and the host of
other farming communities in the country. He raised the yield of maize from
mere average of 1.5 to 8 tons per hectare with his improved varieties and
practices. This was done under the auspices of SASAKAWA Global 2000, popularly
known as SG 2000 (reader can refer to my article in October, 2015 for more
information on SG 2000).
Borlaug’s adventure into Africa was
initiated and facilitated by Mr.
Ryoichi Sasakawa, the Chairman of the Japanese Shipbuilding Industry Foundation
(JSIF). Mr. Ryoichi was a first class philanthropist. He was the first to fly
aid into Africa when the continent was devastated by the worst famine of the 1980s. About 20 countries were hit with a
consequential colossal loss of human dignity that greatly shocked the whole World.
The worst affected countries were those located in Sub Sahara region. Mr.
Ryoichi was fully aware that flying in food items was only an immediate
solution to the food crisis and the permanent solution is attacking the
underlying causes of African's food crisis not just the symptoms. Thus, he was
fully aware that the permanent and sustainable solution to the menancing food
crisis could only come from the use of improved agricultural production. This
must involve the use of high-yielding crop varieties and improved agronomic
practices. Looking for this solution led Mr. Ryoichi to engage the services of
a renowned scientist, Mr. Norman E. Borlaug, a Nobel Peace Prize winner who
eventually became the President, Sasakawa Africa Association, and Senior
Consultant, Global 2000. At the same time, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter,
also deeply concerned about Africa's food production crisis and looking for
ways to help solve it, offered his collaboration and assistance, especially in
the policy making arena and mobilization of African Leaders, which was critical
to overcoming the many problems plaguing agricultural development in Africa.
In January 1986, Mr. Sasakawa, President
Carter, Dr. Leslie Swindale (Director General of ICRISAT) and Dr. Borlaug visited several Africa nations for discussions with
government leaders about the prospects of establishing action – oriented, food
crop technology transfer projects. They found strong interest for their
proposals. Consequently, two agricultural development projects were launched in
Sudan and Ghana, which was successfully managed by SG 2000 with gorgeous
results.
Dr. Borlaug visited Nigeria in 1992 when SG
2000 came to Nigeria. He saw the successful take up of the SG 2000 in Kano,
Kaduna and Bauchi states. He came back in 1993 when he witnessed the field day
of wheat in Kadawa, Kano State. To the incredulity of the audience, the trial
field of wheat at Kadawa demonstrated the efficacy of Borlaug’s wheat variety.
The new variety, code named “Seri-82” developed by Borlaug, brought into
Nigeria yielded about 4 tons per hectare against the 1.5 tons per hectare using
local variety under the same farmer’s management. Dr. Borlaug returned into the
country a year after when he visited Saminaka town in Kaduna state for the
maize field day. Another improved variety of maize being promoted by the same
scientist that yielded about 8 tons per hectare against 2.5 tons per hectare
when local variety was used. He made another visit in 2001 when he presented a
paper during the National Maize Workshop at Assembly Hall of Ahmadu Bello
University, Zaria. It was at that workshop, he told us, the audience (I was one
of them) that he was aware of the much talk about “Nigerian potential” but
“people cannot eat potential and potential is only useful to us when it is
converted into tangible result”. Dr. Borlaug was very optimistic that Africa
will make a green revolution with appropriate support and commitment of the African
leaders. His famous message at all times even at the time of his demise “take
it to the farmer”. He was certainly a darling to small-scale farmers, a good
ally to large farmers and a mentor/inspirer/guardian to the agricultural
scientists. No wonder, when one of his students developed a most promising
variety of wheat, he code named it “Norman”, after the first name of Borlaug.
This new variety of wheat gives as much as 8 tons per hectare. One of the
testimonies showing Borlaug’s deep love for Africa was the event of 15th
October, 2014 during the launching of innovative social enterprise projects to
address hunger and poverty in Liberia, Malawi, Rwanda and Sierra Leone. During the occasion, Amb. Kenneth M. Quinn,
President of The World Food Prize stated that “World Food Prize founder Dr.
Norman Borlaug’s two most ardent wishes were to promote development in Africa
and to inspire the next generation”. Thus, the Howard G. Buffett Foundation,
the Tony Blair Africa Governance Initiative (AGI), and the World Food Prize
Foundation named four young entrepreneurs under age 40 as the recipients of
$150,000.
Mr. Howard G. Buffett is another dignitary
among the four men of fame whose significant contribution brought the World
Food Prize Foundation to its current global rating. Howard Graham Buffett was born
on 16th December 1954 to the billionaire investor Warren Buffett.
Mr. Howard is an American businessman, former politician, philanthropist,
photographer, farmer, and conservationist. He was named after Howard Buffett,
his grandfather, and Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett's favorite professor. He
is the chairman of Howard Buffett Foundation, which was established in 1999.
The foundation mission is to “catalyze transformational change, particularly
for the world’s most impoverished and marginalized populations” The online 2015
annual report of the foundation states that fund is invested in three main
areas: Food Security, Conflict Mitigation and Public Safety. The support for
global food security “is directed toward agricultural resource development and
management for smallholder farmers in the developing world”. The report added “We
support a range of investments in agriculture including research,
conservation-based production practices, water resource management and advocacy
to promote the best ideas that will have the broadest impact on the most
vulnerable and under-resourced producers”. The Foundation started with total
assets of less than 50 million USD in 2000 but rose to over 250 million USD in
2015.
By all measures, Mr. Howard G. Buffett is a
humanitarian per excellence, this is better understood when you read his famous
book “40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World”. Part of the title for this
article is burrowed from the title of Howard Buffett book. This is because the
overall goal of World Food Prize Foundation is to provide food to the weak and
hungry through various strategies. The lesson from this book is clearly stated,
“Each of us has about 40 chances to accomplish our goals in life. This is a
lesson Howard learned through his passion for farming. All farmers can expect
to have about 40 growing seasons, giving them just 40 chances to improve on
every harvest. This applies to all of us, however, because we all have about 40
productive years to do the best job we can, whatever our passions or goals may be”.
This was certainly an inspiring statement that moves one into action (To be
continued next week)
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