| World Food Prize | |
|---|---|
| Awarded for | Outstanding achievement in the advancement of human development through improved food quality, quantity, or availability |
| Location | Des Moines, Iowa, United States |
| Presented by | World Food Prize Foundation, with various sponsor companies |
| First awarded | 1987 |
| Website | worldfoodprize.org |
| Year | Winners | Country | Achievements |
| 1987 | Prof. M. S. Swaminathan | India | Introducing high-yielding wheat and rice varieties to India starting India’s Green Revolution. |
| 1988 | Dr Robert F. Chandler | United States | Founding leadership of the International Rice Research Institute and his dedication to developing tropical rice varieties that doubled and tripled the yields of traditional varieties. |
| 1989 | Dr Verghese Kurien | India | Founder of Operation Flood the largest agricultural development program in the world made the farmer the owner of his cooperative, cutting out middlemen. India emerged as the largest producer of milk in 1998 from milk scarcity when he started. |
| 1990 | Dr John Niederhauser | United States | Discovering a durable resistance to potato late blight. |
| 1991 | Dr Nevin S. Scrimshaw | United States | Human nutrition studies that led to the use of protein-rich food products to combat malnutrition in developing countries. |
| 1992 | Dr Edward F. Knipling, Raymond C. Bushland | United States | Developing the sterile insect technique (SIT) to control insect parasites that harm the world’s food supply. |
| 1993 | He Kang | China | Initiation of reforms while head of the Ministry of Agriculture which made China self-sufficient for food production. |
| 1994 | Dr Muhammad Yunus | Bangladesh | Founder of the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, developed innovative small loan programs for the poor, providing millions of people access to more food and better nutrition. |
| 1995 | Dr Hans Rudolf Herren | Switzerland | Developing a pest control program for the cassava mealybug, which could destroy African cassava crop. |
| 1996 | Dr Henry Beachell, Dr Gurdev Khush |
United States India |
Developing “miracle rice” varieties that doubled rice production in Asia since their development. |
| 1997 | Dr Ray F. Smith, Dr Perry Adkisson |
United States | Developing the concept of Integrated Pest Management (IPM) which employs various techniques to protect crops from insect damage in an environmentally sustainable manner. |
| 1998 | Dr B. R. Barwale | India | Founder of independent seed company Mahyco, strengthening seed supply and distribution throughout India. |
| 1999 | Dr Walter Plowright | United Kingdom | Developing a vaccine against the cattle plague rinderpest. |
| 2000 | Dr Evangelina Villegas, Dr Surinder K. Vasal |
Mexico India | Developing high quality protein maize (QPM). |
| 2001 | Dr Per Pinstrup-Andersen | Denmark | Establishment of “Food For Education” programs in which families receive food subsidies when children stay in school. |
| 2002 | Dr Pedro A. Sanchez | United States / Cuba |
Development of methods to restore fertility to degraded soils in Africa and South America. |
| 2003 | Catherine Bertini | United States / United Nations | Transforming the World Food Programme from a development assistance program to the largest and most effective humanitarian food relief organization |
| 2004 | Prof. Yuan Longping | China | Development of hybrid rice varieties |
| Dr Monty Jones | Sierra Leone | Development of New Rice for Africa (NERICA), with the potential to increase rice yields in Africa. | |
| 2005 | Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta | India | Development and dissemination of low-cost techniques for freshwater fish farming (using tilapia species) by the rural poor. |
| 2006 | Edson Lobato, His Excellency Alysson Paolinelli, Dr A. Colin McClung |
Brazil Brazil United States |
Pioneering work in soil science and policy implementation that opened the vast Cerrado region of Brazil to agricultural and food production. |
| 2007 | Dr Philip E. Nelson | United States | Revolutionizing food processing, packaging, transportation, and distribution by perfecting bulk aseptic packaging technology and spreading the technology worldwide. |
| 2008 | Bob Dole George McGovern |
United States | Leading and encouraging a global commitment to school feeding, which has enhanced school attendance and nutrition for millions of the world’s poorest children, especially young women and girls. |
| 2009 | Dr. Gebisa Ejeta | Ethiopia | Developing Africa’s first sorghum hybrids resistant to drought and the parasitic witchweed. |
| 2010 | David Beckmann Jo Luck |
United States | Building Bread for the World and Heifer International into two of the world’s foremost grassroots organizations leading the charge to end hunger and poverty around the globe. |
| 2011 | John Agyekum Kufuor Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva |
Ghana Brazil |
Creating and implementing government policies to alleviate hunger and poverty in their countries |
| 2012 | Dr Daniel Hillel | Israel | Conceiving and implementing micro-irrigation in arid and dry land regions |
| 2013 | Dr Mary-Dell Chilton, Dr Robert Fraley, Dr Marc Van Montagu |
United States United States Belgium |
Developed science of modern plant biotechnology supporting improved sustainability and global food security |
| 2014 | Dr Sanjaya Rajaram | India Mexico |
Developed 480 varieties of disease resistant wheat |
| 2015 | Sir Fazle Hasan Abed | Bangladesh | Founder of BRAC, the world’s largest NGO, which is recognized for substantial work on reducing poverty in Bangladesh and 10 other countries |
| 2016 | Dr. Maria Andrade Dr. Robert Mwanga Dr. Jan Low |
Cape Verde Uganda United States |
Developed the biofortified orange-fleshed sweet potato at the CGIAR International Potato Center |
| Dr. Howarth Bouis | United States | Founded HarvestPlus, a major NGO in the development of biofortified crops primarily use conventional breeding techniques. | |
| 2017 | Dr. Akinwumi Adesina | Nigeria | Innovator in funding and financing of African agriculture |
| 2018 | Dr. Lawrence Haddad Dr. David Nabarro | United Kingdom/South Africa United Kingdom/United Nations | Elevating maternal and child malnutrition to a central issue at national and international levels |
| 2019 | Dr. Simon N. Groot | Netherlands | Founder and honorary chairman of East-West Seed, his initiative over the past four decades has developed a dynamic, smallholder-centric tropical vegetable seed industry, starting in Southeast Asia and spreading through Asia, Africa and Latin America |
| 2020 | Dr. Rattan Lal | United States India |
For developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change[4] His research diverged from the conventional 1970s soil fertility strategy of heavy reliance on commercial fertilizers. His research led a better understanding of how no-till farming, cover crops, crop residues, mulching, and agroforestry can restore degraded soils, increasing organic matter by sequestering atmospheric carbon in the soil, and help combat rising carbon dioxide levels in the air. |
| 2021 | Dr. Shakuntala Haraksingh Thilsted | Denmark Trinidad and Tobago[ |
for her achievements in pioneering fish-based food systems to improve nutrition, health and livelihoods for millions around the world. Egypt |