Borlaug Dialogue 2015

11-14 October 2015. Iowa. Each year the World
Food Prize Laureate delivers the Borlaug Lecture at Iowa State University, principally on the subject agricultural science and its potential to advance human progress.

BRAC founder and chairperson Sir Fazle Hasan
Abed received the prestigious World Food Prize in Iowa, US on October 16, 2015. On this occasion, Sir Fazle gave a speech to the Borlaug Dialogue.

Today, I am pleased to say that Bangladesh has achieved self-sufficiency in food production. Though our population has gone up 2.2 times since independence, our food production has gone up 3.1 times. This has happened through widespread irrigation during the dry seasons, the introduction of improved varieties, more effective usage of fertiliser, and other changes to farming practices.

Sir Fazle Hasan Abed holding the World Food Prize
with Chairman of The World Food Prize John Ruan III
and former president of the republic of Malawi Joyce Banda.
Photo: World Food Prize

Extracts of the programme /

• Sustainable Livestock Intensification for 2050 Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, Lead Scientist, Outreach, Inc. ; Mr. Rick McNary, VP of Public and Private Partnerships, Outreach, Inc. ; Mr. Richard Hatfield, Founder, Natural Capital East Africa
  Richard Hatfield, MS Ag Economics Cornell and Managing Partner of Natural Capital East Africa in Nanyuki, Kenya, presented and discuss the Alan Savory TED video. The Savory TED video has received over 3 million viewings, highest in TED history. Hatfield provided an overview of the Savory intensified rotational grazing concept and system currently used on over 40 million acres around the globe. It is also used in Iowa and is currently being implemented at the 8,000 acre Outreach

  

  Dr. Ellen Dierenfeld, Lead Scientist for Outreach
  International Tanzania and Dr. Gene Stevens of the University
  of Missouri recently began scientific research
  on Outreach’s 8,000 acre Shallom Farm in Tanzania.

  Shallom Farm in Tanzania, East Africa.
• Empowering Women to Drive Innovations in Agriculture: AWARD, AWARE (Cornell), The Chicago Council on Global Affairs, and Dow AgroSciences
• Dr. Louise O. Fresco Book Launch: Hamburgers in Paradise : Louise O. Fresco – President and Chairman Executive Board, Wageningen UR
• Harnessing New Science and Technology Innovation for Africa’s Sustainable Food Security and Economic MSU, NEPAD/ABNE, Partnership and AAAPD
  Peter McPherson, President Association of Public and Land‑ grant Universities (APLU)

  

  GHI Executive Director Margaret Zeigler 

  moderates the 2015 GAP Report panel session

  Dennis Kyetere, Executive Director The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF)
  Diran Makinde, Director NEPAD Planning and Coordinating Agency/ African Biosafety Network of Expertise (NPCA/ABNE)
  Chimwemwe Chamdimba, Senior Program Officer NEPAD Planning and Coordinating
  Agency/ NEPAD Science, Technology and Innovation Hub (NPCA/NSTIH)
  Andrew Manu, President Association of African Agricultural Professionals in the Diaspora
  (AAAPD)
• SDG 2 on Ending Hunger, Improving Nutrition and Promoting Sustainable Agriculture FAO
• From Poverty to Prosperity: How Agricultural Technologies Improve Farmer Livelihoods CropLife
• Breaking the Bottlenecks to Scale up Bean Seed Systems in Africa Syngenta Foundation and CIAT
• A Successful Extension Model with African Smallholder Farmers Sasakawa Africa Association
• The Case for Conservation Agriculture: Howard G. Buffett - Chairman and CEO, The Howard G. Buffett Foundation ; Kofi Boa - Director, Center for No-Till Agriculture, Ghana ; Sir Gordon Conway - Professor of International Development, Imperial College London ; Alejandro López Moriena - Chief Sustainability Officer, Adecoagro
• Global Harvest Initiative released its 2015 Global Agricultural Productivity Report: Building
  
  Sustainable Breadbaskets at the World Food Prize in Des Moines, Iowa. GHI's 2015 GAP Report explores the opportunities and challenges for agriculture in the U.S.A. and Zambia.

Zambia’s Agricultural Value Chain	58
Land and Water: The Roots of Productive Agriculture	60
Lots of Water…But Not Everywhere	62
Investing in Productivity	63
Knowledge is Key	65
Social Protection and Productivity	66
Shifting Investment Priorities	67
Expanding Markets for Maize, and More	68
Improving Livelihoods and Nutrition Through Agricultural Value Chains

Conversation: Voices from the Farm

• Gebisa Ejeta – 2009 World Food Prize Laureate, @PurdueAg, @PurdueAgronomy
• H.E. Mrs. Joyce Banda, Former President of the Republic of Malawi and Founder of the Joyce Banda Foundation,@DrJoyceBanda
• Eric B. Pohlman, Rwanda Country Director, One Acre Fund & 2015 Borlaug Field Award Winner, @OneAcreFund
• Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, Director, African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD),@AWARDFellowship, @wanjirukr
• Jimmy Smith, Director General, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), @ILRI

“Desertification is a fancy word for land that is turning to desert,” begins Allan Savory in this quietly powerful talk. And it's happening to about two-thirds of the world’s grasslands, accelerating climate change and causing traditional grazing societies to descend into social chaos. Savory has devoted his life to stopping it. He now believes — and his work so far shows — that a surprising factor can protect grasslands and even reclaim degraded land that was once desert."