 "M S Swaminathan")
The doyen of Indian agriculture, M S Swaminathan, has left behind an indelible mark on various facets of agriculture and farmers' welfare.
As he declined a lucrative civil service job offer as an Indian Police Service (IPS) officer in his 20s, and instead chose a research career, the decision was not only to alter Swaminathan’s own life but also transform Indian agriculture in multiple ways. He got the first opportunity to showcase his capabilities in the mid-1960s, when India faced severe food shortages and widespread hunger, a crisis that would lead to a frantic search for agricultural breakthroughs to boost production and achieve food 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 Borlaug, who would later win the Nobel Prize.
In India, a trio of Tamilians — then food and agriculture minister C Subramanian, secretary of food and agriculture C Sivanappan, and scientist and R&D leader M S Swaminathan — rose to the occasion to guide the country out of the severe food crisis. They laid the foundations for the Green Revolution, despite substantial criticism from various quarters.
The high-yielding variety of wheat brought from CIMMYT doubled wheat production in the country between 1966-67 and 1970-71. Similar success was subsequently achieved in rice cultivation. Collectively, these accomplishments are known as the 'Green Revolution.'
Swaminathan and the Delhi-based Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), where he served as director, played a pivotal role in disseminating Green Revolution technologies throughout the nation. This initiative transformed food shortage and dependence on food imports a story of the past within a decade and a half.
Not only did rice and wheat sustain food security for India's rapidly growing population since the late 1960s, but they also became strong pillars of growth in Indian agriculture.
Swaminathan guided this development first as director of IARI and later as director-general of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). Subsequently, he served as a member of the Planning Commission, steering policies for science and agriculture across the country.
After his remarkable contributions in the development of high-yielding wheat varieties and the spread of Green Revolution technologies, Swaminathan shifted his focus to agricultural policy and the long-term implications of the Green Revolution. In the 1980s, he began drawing attention to its impact on water resources, ecology, and the environment. He emphasised the need to measure the country’s progress through ‘gross nature’s product’ rather than only through the economic indicator of gross national product.
He established the M S Swaminathan Foundation primarily to focus on sustainability, gender issues in agriculture, health, and nutrition, particularly for small and marginal farmers and agricultural labour households.
In recognition of his contributions, he was appointed chairman of the National Commission on Agriculture in 2004 by the Atal Bihari Vajpayee Government. Swaminathan believed that technology alone could not transform agriculture and improve farmers' livelihoods. Hence, he advocated for a favourable price policy for agriculture and consistently pushed for higher minimum support prices (MSP) for crops. His recommendation to change the cost norm for fixing MSP to 50 per cent above the A2+FL cost was implemented by the Narendra Modi government two years ago.
Swaminathan's contributions in the field of agricultural R&D place him in the league of legends like Homi Bhabha in atomic research and Vikram Sarabhai and Satish Dhawan in space research.
As the agriculture sector once again faces challenges related to sustainability, climate change, resilience, and food safety, Swaminathan's vision can serve as a valuable guide in addressing these issues and transforming the Green Revolution into an Evergreen Revolution.
It is noteworthy that Swaminathan shaped thinking on agriculture for over half a century. His passing away is a great loss to the nation — a loss of an exceptional agricultural scientist, a visionary, a science leader, an institution builder, and a staunch advocate for farmers' welfare.
The author is member, NITI Aayog
