Everything you need to know about the World Food Prize

The World Food Prize is the foremost international honor recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.

It was created by Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, an agricultural scientist from the United States and the winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1970 for his work in global agriculture. 

Informally, the World Food Prize is often referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize of Agriculture’ to demonstrate its significance to agriculture and nutrition and because of the caliber of the recipients. However, the World Food Prize and the Nobel Prize are not officially connected.

Who is the winner of the World Food Prize 2019?

The World Food Prize winner for 2019 is Simon N. Groot, the founder and honorary chairman of East-West Seed.

The award recognizes his transformative role in empowering millions of smallholder farmers in more than 60 countries to earn greater incomes through enhanced vegetable production, benefitting hundreds of millions of consumers with greater access to nutritious vegetables for healthy diets.

Read his full story here

Who were the winners of the World Food Prize 2018?

In 2018, the Prize was jointly awarded to Dr. Lawrence Haddad and Dr. David Nabarro. They were recognized for their individual and complementary global leadership in elevating maternal and child undernutrition to a central issue within the food security and development dialogue at national and international levels.

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Registration details & media enquiries

The 2019 Borlaug Dialogue International Symposium will be held at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown in Iowa, United States.

Online registration can be completed here.

For media queries relating to East-West Seed and Simon N. Groot, please fill out this short form on our contact page under "other".

For all World Food Prize media enquiries, please contact nbarreca[at]worldfoodprize[dot]org

How can I get involved?

If you are part of an organization that can support large-scale projects that aim to increase the knowledge of smallholder farmers and boost the availability of nutritious vegetables, learn more here.

Or contact us about a range of partnership possibilities here.