Sanjaya Rajaram, who worked with Nobel laureate Norman Borlaug and developed 480 wheat varieties, is the winner of the $250,000 World Food Prize for 2014. A native of India and citizen of Mexico, Rajaram is credited with increasing global wheat production by 200 million tonnes, equal to roughly 30 percent of the annual harvest nowadays. Rajaram succeeded Borlaug as director of an international wheat-breeding center in Mexico in the early 1970s.
Rajaram’s wheat varieties boost yields by 20 to 25 percent and resist the damaging rust fungus. Wheat is the most widely grown food crop in the world and a staple for billions of people. Ragaram cross-bred winter and spring wheat to utilitze advantageous genes from each type.
In remarks for the announcement at the State Department, Secretary of State John Kerry said, “When you do the math, when our planet needs to support two billion more people in the next three decades, it’s not hard to figure out: This is the time for a second green revolution.”