Congratulations’ was a word Norman Borlaug used liberally in his conversations with Punjab’s farmers, remembers Jagjit Singh Hara, leafing through his visitor diary where Borlaug’s entry is peppered with words of encouragement. Singh, who runs a 60-acre farm near Ludhiana, met Borlaug in the early ’70s. “He encouraged the farmer and always congratulated him. For us, this was a huge morale booster,” says Hara.

Hara was one of Punjab’s many farmers who tasted success with the variety of seed introduced by Borlaug. Such is the quality of his wheat that an Italian firm now wants to procure it for its pasta.

Acknowledging Borlaug’s influence, Hara says, “In the late ‘60s, television was banned in several villages in Punjab though we could catch Pakistan TV signals. One night we came to know that an interview of Norman Borlaug was to be telecast on Pakistan TV. We quickly arranged for a TV, fixed an antenna and even got a video recorder. His interview proved to be priceless wisdom for us,” says Hara.

Former vice-chancellor of Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) Dr Khem Singh Gill, too, remembers that summer of 1969 with affection. “In the early ’60s, the average yield of wheat crop per hectare in Punjab was 1.1 tonnes. By 1969, it was more than four tonnes. That year we produced such a bounteous harvest that the authorities had to make temporary storage arrangements in classrooms in government schools.”

In the early ’60s, scientists at the Indian Agriculture Research Institute (IARI) were struggling to find a solution to an inherent problem in the tall variety of wheat, which when administered with doses of fertilisers and pesticides, would become so bulky that it would fall. So, when the IARI heard of the stupendous rise in Mexico’s agricultural productivity due to the introduction of a dwarf variety of wheat crop, they invited Borlaug to India.

... contd.