Borlaug's Semi-Dwarf Wheat Varieties Released in Mexico

Norman Borlaug and colleagues at the Rockefeller Foundation released Pitic 62 and Penjamo 62, semi-dwarf spring wheat varieties derived from Japanese Norin 10 crosses. These short, stiff-strawed plants resisted lodging and produced substantially more grain per head than traditional tall varieties. By 1963, semi-dwarf wheat covered 95 percent of Mexico's wheat acreage, and the national harvest was six times what it had been when Borlaug arrived in 1944. Mexico shifted from wheat importer to net exporter.