The doyen of Indian agriculture, MS Swaminathan has left behind an etching mark on various facets of agriculture and farmers' welfare. He passed away at his residence in Chennai on 28 September 2023.
MS Swaminathan declined a lucrative job as an IPS officer and instead decided to pursue his career in research studies. This decision not only did transform Swaminathan's own life but also transformed Indian agriculture in multiple ways.
He got the first opportunity to showcase his abilities in the mid-1960s when India faced acute food shortages which led to a frantic search for an agricultural breakthrough to boost agricultural production and thereby self-sufficiency.
This was a time when high-yielding varieties of wheat were developed at some American Universities. A similar breakthrough in wheat was achieved at CIMMYT Mexico by a team led by Norman Bourlaug, who would later win the Nobel Prize.
In India, a trio of Tamilians, then food agricultural minister C Subramanian, Secretary of Food and Agriculture C Sivanappan, and scientist and R&D leader M S Swaminathan woke up to the call and worked to attend to food shortages in the country. They laid the foundations of the Green Revolution in the country.
The use of HYV seeds doubled the production of wheat between 1966-67 and 1970-71. Similarly, rice cultivation was also improved. Collectively, these accomplishments were known as the 'Green Revolution'.
Swaminathan and the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), where he served as a director, played a pivotal role in disseminating Green Revolution technologies.
Not only did rich and wheat sustain food security for India's rapidly growing population but they became strong pillars of agrarian economy.
Swaminathan guided this development - first as director of IARI and later as Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Later, he also served as a member of the Planning Commission which helped steer the policies for science and agriculture across the country.
He also drew emphasis on the implications of the Green Revolution. In the 1980s, he began to draw attention to its impact on water resources, ecology, and the environment. He emphasized the need to measure the country's progress through 'gross natural product' rather than gross national product.
He established the MS Swaminathan Foundation to primarily focus on sustainability, gender issues in agriculture, health, and nutrition, particularly for small and marginal farmers for agricultural labour households.
He was appointed as Chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture in 2004 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Swaminathan believed that technology alone cannot improve the livelihood structure of the economy. Hence, he advocated for a Minimum Support Price (MSP) for farmers for specific crops.
Swaminathan's contribution in the field of agricultural R&D places him in the League of Legends like Homi Bhabha in atomic research and Vikram Sarabhai in space research.
As the agricultural sector once again faces challenges related to sustainability and food security, the vision of MS Swaminathan can help in maintaining the success of the Green Revolution into an Evergreen Revolution.
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