Dr. Norman Borlaug, Nobel Peace Prize laureate and world-renowned father of the Green Revolution, was posthumously awarded the prestigious Agricola Medal from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization during the recent World Food Security Conference in Rome.

The organization's director-general, Dr. Jacques Diouf, announced the award and paid homage to Borlaug's life-long efforts toward ending world hunger.

Borlaug, who passed away last year at age 95, has been credited with saving as many as a billion lives through his work in developing a high-yield, disease-resistant semi-dwarf wheat and the "shuttle breeding" technique which significantly improved agricultural production in nations faced with serious food shortages.