Norman E Borlaug, the plant scientist, who in the 20th century, taught the world to feed itself and whose work was credited with saving millions of lives, died on Saturday night. He was 95 and lived in Dallas.

The cause was complications from cancer, said Kathleen Phillips, a spokeswoman for Texas A&M University, where Borlaug had served on the faculty since 1984.

Borlaug’s advances in plant breeding led to spectacular success in increasing food production. In 1970, he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

He was described as the father of the broad agricultural movement called the Green Revolution, though decidedly reluctant to accept the title. “A miserable term,” he said. His breeding of high-yielding crop varieties helped to avert mass famines that were widely predicted in the 1960s.

“More than any other single person of this age, he has helped provide bread for a hungry world,” the Nobel committee said in presenting him with the Peace Prize. “We have made this choice in the hope that providing bread will also give the world peace.”

Norman Ernest Borlaug was born on March 25, 1914. His unlikely career path began near the end of World War II when he took a position in Mexico trying to help farmers. His initial goal was to create varieties of wheat adapted to Mexico’s climate that could resist the greatest disease of wheat, a fungus called rust. He accomplished that by crossing Mexican wheat with rust-resistant varieties.

By the 1940s, researchers knew they could induce yield gains in wheat by feeding the plants chemical fertilizer. But beyond a level of fertilizer, the seed heads containing wheat grains would grow so large and heavy, the plant would fall over. Borlaug worked with a wheat strain containing an unusual gene which shrunk the wheat plant, creating a stubby, compact variety. When high fertilizer levels were applied to these “semidwarf” plants, they would produce enormous heads of grain, yet their stiff, short bodies could support the weight without falling over. Later, this idea was applied to rice. The principle of increasing yields by shrinking plants was the central insight of the Green Revolution.

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