Pioneer 11 of 21 · 1914-2009

Norman Borlaug

Contribution. Developed high-yield, disease-resistant wheat that helped prevent famine in Mexico, India, and Pakistan. Nobel Peace Prize, 1970.

Factor coverage

Favorable entries (helped or barrier absent) and adverse entries (barrier or not overcome) by factor. Factor tags are this site's classification.

Biological00 Psychological00 Economic11 Societal10 Cultural00 Social20 Environmental00 Educational11 Technological10

Barriers faced

Factors	Statement
Economic Educational	He grew up on an Iowa farm during hard economic times, began school in a one-room rural school, and had no school bus to the high school 12 miles away. He left for college with $50 of his own and $11 from his grandfather, and worked his way through.

What helped

Factors	Statement
Societal Economic	Institutional backing. In 1944 he joined a Mexican government and Rockefeller Foundation wheat program, turning down DuPont.
Social Educational	Interdisciplinary teamwork across genetics, breeding, agronomy, soil science, plant pathology, and entomology.
Technological Social	Others' work. He crossed Norin 10, a Japanese dwarf wheat from Orville Vogel, with his rust-resistant varieties.

Notes

Factors	Statement
none	Results. By 1963, 95% of Mexico's wheat used his varieties and the harvest was six times 1944's. Wheat yields nearly doubled in Pakistan and India from 1965 to 1970.
Societal	Critics. The broader Green Revolution has critics over fertilizer and water use. This is a policy debate, not a dispute about his contribution.

Pattern summary

Element	In this case
Door-opener	Vogel, Rockefeller program
Knowledge source	University training
Institutional support	Rockefeller Foundation
Built on recent work	Norin 10, Vogel
Setback overcome	None major
Barrier not overcome	None major

Sources

Also relevant: Bell, A., Chetty, R., Jaravel, X., Petkova, N., & Van Reenen, J. (2019). Who becomes an inventor in America? Quarterly Journal of Economics, 134(2), 647-713. All references