The 2020 World Food Prize was awarded to Dr. Rattan Lal in a virtual award ceremony Oct. 15.

“The 2020 World Food Prize award to me is recognition of the importance of protecting and restoring health of the finite and fragile soil resources through sequestration of soil organic carbon by adoption of conservation-effective measures,” said Lal.

Over his career spanning more than five decades and four continents, Lal has promoted innovative soil-saving techniques benefiting the livelihoods of more than 500 million smallholder farmers, improving the food and nutritional security of more than two billion people and saving hundreds of millions of hectares of natural tropical ecosystems.

Lal was announced as the recipient of the Prize on June 11, 2020. He was awarded the Prize for developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increasing food production that conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.

The annual Laureate Award Ceremony is traditionally held in the Iowa State Capitol building. It rivals that of the Nobel Prize, often drawing more than 800 people from more than 50 countries. This year, due to the global pandemic, this event and the rest of the annual World Food Prize Week is being conducted virtually.  The theme of this year's Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium is "Breaking New Ground: Building Resilience Today for Improved Global Food Systems Tomorrow.”

You can watch the ceremony on the Foundation’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/WorldFoodPrize.

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