Plant diseases, drought, desolation, despair were recurrent catastrophes during the ages - and the ancient remedies: supplications to supernatural spirits or gods.

Later in his life he helped apply these methods of increasing food production to Asia and Africa. Norman Ernest Borlaug (March 25 1914 – September 12 2009) was an American agronomist humanitarian and Nobel laureate who has been called "the father of the Green Revolution" and "The Man Who Saved A Billion Lives". He took up an agricultural research position in Mexico where he developed semi-dwarf high-yield disease-resistant wheat varieties.