World Food Prize Foundation Remembers Pedro Sanchez, 2002 Laureate and Global Agriculture Pioneer

On behalf of the World Food Prize Laureates and our Council of Advisors, the World Food Prize Foundation extends its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Pedro Sanchez, 2002 Laureate, who passed away on XXX.

"Pedro Sanchez was a scientist of rare vision and deep humanity," said Mashal Husain, President, World Food Prize Foundation. "He understood that research matters most when it reaches farmers' fields, restores dignity and creates lasting opportunities for communities that have been overlooked for far too long."

A native of Cuba, Sanchez pioneered scientific approaches to increase productivity of tropical soils, long thought to be unsuitable for agriculture. His research helped open millions of hectares of land in Latin America to farming production, and his innovations in agroforestry dramatically improved productivity and ecological sustainability in Africa.

Raised on a family farm outside Havana, Sanchez earned a doctorate from Cornell University and went on to lead groundbreaking work in Peru, Brazil and across sub-Saharan Africa. He transformed tropical agriculture in Latin America, helping Peru achieve self-sufficiency in rice and converting Brazil's vast Cerrado region into productive farmland. He also developed aluminum-tolerant pasture species in Colombia, increasing beef production and proving that tropical soils could produce food.

In sub-Saharan Africa, as Director General of the International Center for Research in Agroforestry in Kenya, Sanchez's low-cost soil restoration methods helped more than 400,000 farmers across 20+ countries dramatically increase yields, strengthen food security and build resilience to drought. These innovative methods integrated crops with nitrogen-fixing trees and native rock phosphate, providing food, fodder and other resources while promoting long-term ecological sustainability and carbon sequestration.

"The extraordinary breadth of the impact of Dr. Pedro Sanchez' innovations in soil science and agroforestry could be seen as he received the World Food Prize in 2002 with representatives from Peru and Brazil to Kenya present to acknowledge how his breakthrough achievements had elevated hundreds of thousands out of acute hunger," said Amb. Kenneth Quinn, President Emeritus, World Food Prize Foundation. "Reflecting on his global leadership, he enthralled the 2,500 people gathered to honor him by committing his entire World Food Prize award money to the poverty stricken Millennium Villages in Africa that he and his wife Dr. Cheryl Palm would be establishing. More than any other aspect of that ceremony, that statement revealed Pedro Sanchez' deeply felt humanitarian concern that was inculcated in him as a young boy growing up in the villages of Cuba, and which provided the passion to alleviate human suffering from hunger and malnutrition, that characterized his life."

By pioneering ways to restore fertility to some of the world's poorest and most degraded soils, Sanchez made a major contribution to preserving the delicate global ecosystem, while at the same time offering great hope to all those struggling to survive on marginal lands around the world.

"Dr. Sanchez followed Norman Borlaug's call to take science to the farmer," said Tom Vilsack, CEO, World Food Prize Foundation. "It was clear as I presided over the 2002 Laureate Award Ceremony that his work proved when innovation is paired with compassion and practical action, it can transform landscapes, livelihoods and lives. In 2016 I was honored to spend time in Cuba promoting agriculture with Dr. Sanchez."

Upon receiving The World Food Prize in 2002, Sanchez and his wife, agricultural scientist Cheryl Palm, established the Sanchez Tropical Agriculture Foundation to directly fund and support the scientists and farmers working to end hunger in the world's poorest regions.

Throughout his career, Sanchez received international recognition for his contributions, including the MacArthur "Genius Award" and honorary doctorates from universities around the world. He was selected by U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to serve, alongside fellow Laureate Dr. M. S. Swaminathan, as co-chair of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals Hunger Task Force and has received numerous honors from governments across Latin America and Africa. His legacy endures in the millions of lives improved through a lifelong commitment to science in service of ending hunger.