Norman Borlaug was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, the Presidential Medal of Freedom and the Congressional Gold Medal for his success in increasing the food supply in hard-hit areas of the world such as Mexico, India and Pakistan. Not wanting to be the only one recognized for making substantial improvements to the quality and availability of food around the world, he established the World Food Prize in 1986 to recognize other individuals who were carrying on the legacy of helping provide food to those who need it the most.

The 2009 recipient of the prize was recently announced, and this year's honor goes to Dr. Gebisa Ejeta, an Ethiopian American plant breeder and geneticist who has made huge contributions to the advancement of sorghum, the world's fifth most important cereal grain. Ejeta is a professor at Purdue University who developed Africa's first commercial hybrid variety of sorghum that is drought-tolerant. Eventually his discovery of methods to produce sorghum that was also resistant to striga (a deadly parasitic weed) led to the development of seeds that yielded four times more sorghum that traditional varieties, notably in drought-stricken areas of Eastern Africa.

"Ejeta's accomplishments in improving sorghum illustrate what can be achieved when cutting-edge technology and international cooperation in agriculture are used to uplift and empower the world's most vulnerable people," said Norman Borlaug, founder of the World Food Prize and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.

While sorghum is used mainly for livestock feed in the U.S., it is a staple food crop in Africa due to its high protein content and ability to digest easily.

Watch the video below (which features an appearance by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton) to see Ejeta receive the 2009 World Food Prize.

» allAfrica.com