Norman Borlaug, who went on to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal attended this one-room school through the eighth grade.

On Friday, September 14 school buses lined the yard outside a one-room schoolhouse in rural Howard County, Iowa.  More than 300 fifth grade students from area school districts had come to learn about Nobel Prize winner Norman Borlaug at the farm on which he was born and raised. Read more »

Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack moderated a roundtable discussion on “Sharing Agricultural Knowledge to Drive Sustainable Growth” at the World Food Prize Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, on October 13. Seated from left to right are Secretary Tom Vilsack, Ghanaian Agriculture Minister Kwesi Ahwoi, Tanzanian Agriculture Minister Jumanne Maghembe, Mozambican Agriculture Minister José Pacheco, and Director General-elect of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations José Graziano da Silva. Credit: World Food Prize/Jim Heemstra

Last week, 40 Borlaug Fellows from 21 countries as far away as Azerbaijan and Zambia were in Des Moines, Iowa, to attend the Borlaug International Symposium and World Food Prize ceremony. Accompanying them were 16 mentors—professors, scientists, and researchers—from U.S. land-grant universities and international research centers, as well as public, private, and non-profit organizations. These Fellows and their mentors are part of the Norman E. Borlaug Agricultural Science and Technology Fellows Program established by USDA in 2004 to honor Nobel Laureate Norman E. Borlaug. Read more »

Dennis Timlin (far right) of USDA’s Agricultural Research Service (ARS) spoke with the 12 Borlaug Fellows from Afghanistan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) about the Global Climate Change Lab at the ARS facility in Beltsville, Md. on Wednesday. USDA Photo by Lance Cheung.

Some of Afghanistan’s best and brightest agricultural officials are in the United States this month receiving training that will benefit their country for years to come.

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Employees at Hillside Green work in the pack house certifying fresh vegetables for export. Photo credit: Ayub Otieno

In 2009, Eunice Mwongera decided to expand Hillside Green Growers and Exporters Company, her family-owned fruit and vegetable business. A graduate of Nairobi University and former finance officer at the Kenyan Ministry of Agriculture, Mwongera, applied for the USDA Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology (Borlaug) Fellowship Program. Not long after, she was paired with a mentor at Southern University Agricultural Research and Extension Center for six weeks to learn U.S. best practices in agribusiness development and management. The fellowship was part of a program that provided U.S.-based agribusiness and collaborative research training to African women. Read more »

Following his two weeks of Cochran Program training in North Carolina with the USDA’s Animal and Plant Inspection Service (APHIS), Chiluba Mwape was able to develop a pest list for Zambia.  This has enabled the nation to conduct pest risk assessments for several Zambian fruits and vegetables—the only country in southern Africa to be able to do so. Dr. Precious Hamukwale, a professor at the University of Zambia, says her agribusiness training under the Borlaug Program has helped her to assist Zambian businesswomen to better explore their potential.  Mwape and Hamukwale are among 20 Zambian alumni of the USDA’s Cochran and Borlaug Fellowship Programs who spoke about how their training in the United States inspired them to make a difference in fellow citizens’ lives.  Read more »