国际英语新闻：Father of "green revolution" Norman Borlaug dies at 95

HOUSTON, Sept. 13 (Xinhua) -- Norman Borlaug, the father of the "green revolution" who won the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in fighting world hunger and saving millions of lives, died Saturday night at the age of 95, local media reported on Sunday.

    The famous agricultural scientist died at his Dallas home from complications of cancer, said Kathleen Phillips, a spokeswoman from the Texas A&M University, where Borlaug was a distinguished professor for many years.

    "He has probably done more and is known by fewer people than anybody that has done that much," said Ed Runge, retired head of Texas A&M University's Department of Soil and Crop Sciences and a close friend who persuaded Borlaug to teach at the university.

    "He made the world a much better place. He had people helping him, but he was the driving force," Runge added.

    The Nobel committee honored Borlaug in 1970 for his contributions to high-yield crop varieties and bringing other agricultural innovations to the developing world. Many experts credit the green revolution with averting global famine during the second half of the 20th century and saving perhaps one billion lives.

    Thanks to the green revolution, world food production more than doubled between 1960 and 1990. In Pakistan and India, two of the countries that benefited most from the new crop varieties, grain yields more than quadrupled over the period.

    "More than any other single person of his age, he has helped to provide bread for a hungry world," Nobel Peace Prize Committee Chairman Aase Lionaes said in presenting the award to Borlaug.

    "We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace," he added.

    But Borlaug himself said wheat was only a vehicle for his real interest, which was to improve people's lives.

    "We must recognize the fact that adequate food is only the first requisite for life," he said in his Nobel acceptance speech." For a decent and humane life we must also provide an opportunity for good education, remunerative employment, comfortable housing, good clothing and effective and compassionate medical care."

    Borlaug remained active well into his 90s, campaigning for the use of biotechnology to fight hunger and working on a project to fight poverty and starvation in Africa by teaching new drought-resistant farming methods.

    "We still have a large number of miserable, hungry people and this contributes to world instability," Borlaug said in May 2006 at an Asian Development Bank forum in the Philippines.