Award the world food prize

The World Food Awards ceremony will be officially held this fall.

The 2013 World Food Prize was awarded to Dr. Robert T. Fraley - Vice President and General Manager of Monsanto Group's global technology development for his pioneering research in the field. Area of ​​application of modern biotechnology to select and breed and improve plant varieties, improve global agricultural production.

Accompanying this award is Dr. Robert T. Fraley, Dr. Marc van Montagu - Founder, President of the Institute for Access to Plant Biotechnology (IPBO), Ghent, Belgium; and Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton - Founder of Special Scientific Research Foundation, Syngenta Biotechnology Inc., all three scientists are honored for their great contributions in the field of Agricultural Biotechnology. .

Dr. Norman Borlaug, the builder of the world food prize

This is an award built by Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel laureate and father of the Green Revolution in agriculture.

The award honors individuals who have made outstanding contributions to improving the quality, output and availability of food for the world.

Based on scientific studies on the double helical structure of DNA of Watson and Crick in the 1950s, Dr. Marc van Montagu, Dr. Mary-Dell Chilton and Dr. Robert T. Fraley conducted research on the use of bacteria. As a tool to bring genes from one cell to another into plant cells, create new genetic lines with many good properties. The result of this research is the key to the technique of converting plant cells using recombinant DNA.

The pioneering works of Marc van Montagu, Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T. Fraley have brought a new term 'crop biotechnology' and in the future will produce crops that improve tolerance. drought, inconvenient weather, pests, diseases, and high productivity.

Plant biotechnology has contributed significantly to increasing food reserves and ensuring worldwide food security, sustainable development and climate change in the context we are facing. face with global challenges in food security.

The World Food Awards ceremony will be officially held this fall, in parallel with the Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa, October 16-18, 2013.