HENRY M. BEACHELL BIOGRAPHY | DR. GURDEV SINGH KHUSH BIOGRAPHY
RETURN TO LAUREATE MAINPAGEThe "Green Revolution" in rice farming began in late 1963, at the third plant in row 288 on an experimental field operated by the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. It was there that Dr. Henry Beachell saw exactly what he was looking for: a short, thick-stemmed, sturdy rice plant that would respond more effectively to the application of fertilizer, mature early, and yield much more than the traditional varieties. Three decades later, that and future advances in rice breeding made by Dr. Beachell and his protégé, Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush, won both men the 1996 World Food Prize for their contributions to ensuring that growing populations in Asia and around the world would be supported by sufficient food supplies.
That plant, the hybrid product of a cross between a short, stiff-strawed variety from Taiwan and a taller, pest-resistant variety from Indonesia, was tagged IR8. The variety – responsive to fertilizers, markedly more resistant to pests, and structurally suited for bearing heavier grain mass – later became better known worldwide as “miracle rice.” In test plots across Asia, it more than doubled the 1 or 2 ton per hectare yields of traditional rice varieties, in some places setting records ranging from 6 to 10 tons per hectare. With good management on irrigated land, the average Asian rice farmer using IR8 would produce four or five tons per hectare.
IR8 and other higher-yielding rice varieties were soon feeding people across Asia, where high population growth rates had been causing malnourishment and starvation and forcing Asian countries to purchase imported food. Dr. Beachell’s skill and accomplishments more than doubled production rates, allowing Asia’s farmers to feed their families as well as their fellow citizens; additionally, incomes in rural and poor areas increased and nutrition improved dramatically.
Dr. Beachell noted certain flaws in IR8: a low resistance to certain pests and diseases and cooking qualities that some rice-eater populations considered inferior. From IR8’s genetic base, Dr. Beachell continued to look for improvements to the variety and trained a number of younger colleagues in the same task. In 1976, one of his students, Dr. Khush, succeeded in spectacular fashion.Cross-breeding IR8 with 13 parent varieties from six nations, Dr. Khush developed IR36, a semi-dwarf variety that proved highly resistant to a number of the major insect pests and diseases that drove down farmers’ rice yields and raised prices of the staple food for Asian families. IR36 matures rapidly – 105 days compared to 130 days for IR8 and 150-170 days for traditional types – and produces the slender grain preferred in many countries. The combination of these characteristics soon made IR36 one of the most widely planted food crop varieties the world has ever known. About 11 million hectares were planted with IR36 worldwide in the 1980s, a success which Dr. Khush topped with IR64 and again with IR72 in 1990.
BACK TO TOPHenry M. Beachell
Henry “Hank” Beachell was born September 21, 1906, in a family of Nebraska wheat farmers. While studying for his 1932 bachelor’s degree at the University of Nebraska, and later for his 1934 master’s in plant breeding and genetics at Kansas State University, he envisioned himself breeding improved strains of wheat. Then he was hired as a United States Department of Agriculture rice researcher – which changed not only his career path, but the lives of several billion people who have benefited from the high-yielding “miracle rice” he developed in the 1960s.
Before this breakthrough, for which he shared the 1996 World Food Prize with Dr. Gurdev S. Khush, he was instrumental in advancing and supporting rice production and research in America. While working at USDA from 1931 to 1963, he developed nine higher-yielding rice varieties that made up 85 percent of the rice grown in the United States for over 15 years. He also helped form the Texas Rice Improvement Association, a private source of funding intended to sustain rice research at Texas A&M University.
After retiring from USDA, Dr. Beachell went to work for fellow World Food Prize Laureate Dr. Robert Chandler at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines. It was there in 1963 that Beachell produced the groundbreaking IR8 variety, which he continued to research and improve throughout his career.
Dr. Beachell was also a committed and effective mentor to a generation of leading scientists who continued to work with IR8 and other varieties after Dr. Beachell left the Philippines in 1972 for an IRRI station in Indonesia. After his decade of work there, Indonesian rice productivity jumped by 100 percent. Dr. Beachell also consulted with RiceTec, Inc., and in 1997, over sixty years after his career began, he worked with Cornell University and USDA researchers to establish a genetic seed bank for rice cultivars. His legacy continues to be felt through the numerous scholarships he established at the University of Nebraska, Kansas State University, and Texas A&M University with the money of the World Food Prize.
Dr. Beachell was honored by the government of Korea in 1978 and that of Japan in 1987. He received the John Scott Medal and the Premium of the City of Philadelphia in 1969, the IRRI Award in 1972, and the Kansas State Medallion Award in 1998. He was awarded honorary doctorates from the University of Nebraska and Seoul National University.
Dr. Hank Beachell is "the individual most responsible for the Green Revolution in rice," according to the American Society of Agronomy. The economic magnitude of his achievement is in the multi-billion dollar category; beyond this, billions of people are now better fed, enjoy better health, and have increased life expectancy, thanks to Dr. Beachell and his unexpected and exemplary efforts in rice breeding.
Dr. Beachell passed away on December 13, 2006 at his home in Alvin, Texas. He was 100 years old.
BACK TO TOPDr. Gurdev Singh Khush
Dr. Gurdev Singh Khush was, with his mentor, Dr. Henry Beachell, a co-recipient of the 1996 World Food Prize for their unparalleled achievements in enlarging and improving the supply of rice, one of the world’s largest food crops, during a time of exponential population increases.
By the time he was 25, Dr. Khush had already received a university degree in agriculture in India, where he was born in 1935, as well as a Ph.D. in genetics from the University of California at Davis. After several years at UC-Davis researching genetics of tomatoes, Dr. Khush moved on to the IRRI plant breeding department in 1967, where he worked with Dr. Beachell. In less than five years, he became head of IRRI's plant breeding department and was well on his way to developing his own new varieties of "miracle rice" based on Dr. Beachell’s IR8.
In pursuit of ever-improved rice varieties to nourish the growing developing world and support its agricultural economies, Dr. Khush continued to direct and participate in genetic research and breeding at IRRI and played a key role in the development of more than 300 rice strains until his retirement in 2002, when he returned to UC-Davis.
Since then, he has maintained ties with the Institute as a consultant in the development of the New Plant Type (NPT), which could yield up to 12 tons of rice per hectare in irrigated tropical conditions. He also has served as consultant to rice improvement programs in 15 countries and continues to consult for various research programs to increase productivity of food crops.
His expertise has been sought by the governments of India, sitting on the Department of Biotechnology’s Scientific Advisory Committee, and China, where he is a member of the Science Council of the National Key Facility for Crop Gene Resources and Genetics Improvement. He is also a member of the Science and Development Network’s Advisory Panel and the Golden Rice Humanitarian Board.
Dr. Khush has received honorary doctorates from ten universities, including a 2000 doctorate from Cambridge and a 2007 doctorate from Guru Nanak Dev University in India; he has been inducted into national academies in countries including China, India, Russia, and the United States and has been honored by fifteen other nations across the globe. In 2007 Dr. Khush was awarded the Golden Sickle Award, honoring researchers who have made a considerable contribution or accomplishment in rice research. In addition, Dr. Khush has also been awarded the 2001 International Scientific and Technological Cooperation Award from the Government of China, the Padma Shri award from president of India in 2001, and the 2000 Wolf Prize in Agriculture.Dr. Cantrell, Director of the International Rice Research Institute, has said that “While Dr. Khush’s name may has passed the lips of many, his life’s work has passed lips of almost half the humanity.” 1987 World Food Prize Laureate, M.S. Swaminathan has paid tribute to Dr. Khush noting that “Dr. Khush combines remarkable capacities in both theoretical and practical work, and is a role model for all young scientists.”
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