The new generation may not be aware of it but India had a recent past when the then Prime Minister of the country himself had asked the people to skip a meal daily so that the country’s hunger could be satisfied to a certain extent.
The Prime Minister was none other than Lal Bahadur Shastri and the country was undergoing severe drought caused by deficient Monsoon and low productivity of the seeds and soil.
“We were leading a ship to mouth existence. Every day ships laden with wheat given by the USA under its PL-480 programme would arrive in Indian ports to feed the crores. Those were the days when India was dependent on the wheat offered by the USA,” Professor MS Swaminathan, who breathed his last on Thursday morning, used to recall.
Kumbakonam-born Swaminathan was 98 and is survived by three daughters, Soumya, Mathura and Nitya. His wife Mina predeceased him.
It was the time when Swaminathan, a plant geneticist by training, returned to India to work for the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and he had a dream of developing high yield varieties of rice and wheat, the staple food of the sub-continent’s population.
Along with Dr Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Laureate and with the political patronage extended by C Subramaniam, the then food and Agricultural Minister of India, Professor Swaminathan launched the Green Revolution, which was the foundation stone of India’s self-reliance in food production.
Within a decade, India became a food surplus State from a food deficient country. Having resolved the issue of food shortage, Professor Swaminathan turned his attention to other areas about which the then political leadership was ignorant. He drew the attention of the policy makers towards the poor mortality rate of women and children because of the shortage of nutritious food.
Professor Swaminathan also alerted the Government of the day about LBW, the low birth weight, of the newborn.
“Every third child born in India and several South Asian countries is characterised by low birth weight. The LBW children, resulting from maternal and foetal undernutrition, suffer setbacks in brain development and several serious health problems in adult life. Such enforced handicaps at birth represent the cruelest form of inequity in the emerging knowledge age,” he had warned in 1999.
Had the Governments of the day listened to his words, India would have experienced the Amrit Kaal long back. For Professor Swaminathan, agricultural research was not something to be confined to the laboratory. He was at home interacting with farmers, fishermen and agricultural workers to get first hand information about their grievances and problems.
He travelled to Orissa and Wayand in Kerala to study the traditional style of farming operations. The credit for informing the world about the vast collection of conventional rice seeds under the possession of tribals in Orissa should go to him only.
It was his vision to set up pulse and cereal villages across the country to address the malnutrition faced by the rural and urban folks. Professor Swaminathan stands out because of his strong views on sustained development. He was of the view that development and urbanisation were unavoidable, it could be done with minimum damage to the environment and ecology
“The coming decades will prove that whoever controls the genes and seeds would control the world. The days of nuclear warheads and conventional wars are over,” he had said in his speeches.
The MS Swaminathan Research Foundation at Taramani in Chennai is a standing monument to the Father of India’s Green Revolution. When he was awarded the first ever World Food Prize in 1987, he used the prize money of $250,000 for setting up the MSSRF, a world class research institute and think tank on agricultural research.
Though he was for inter-linking of Indian rivers and genetically modified seeds, Professor Swaminathan stayed away from all controversies.
He held the view that “if there are reservations against the GM foods and inter linking of rivers, we should try to address the apprehension in the minds of the people”.
Since 2000, he has been asking the authorities to include millets as a staple food in the food basket. The National Farmers Commission recommendations (which he headed) had asked the Government of India in 2005 itself that procurement price of farm products produced by them should be given twice
the amount they spent on cultivation.
The recommendations are yet to be implemented in full. “Anything can wait but not agriculture,” was his catchword till the end.
Professor Swaminathan had been honoured with Padma Vibhushan, Padma Bhushan and Padma Sri in addition to nearly 90 honorary doctorates.
Condolences poured in with President Droupadi Murmu and Prime Minister Narendra Modi hailing Swaminathan’s yeoman service to the nation.
Murmu said Swaminathan left behind a rich legacy which would serve as a “guiding light to steer the world towards a safer and hunger-free future for humanity”.
Modi said his groundbreaking work transformed the lives of millions, ensured India’s food security.
Modi said on X: “Deeply saddened by the demise of Dr MS Swaminathan Ji. At a very critical period in our nation’s history, his groundbreaking work in agriculture transformed the lives of millions and ensured food security for our nation.
“I will always cherish my conversations with Dr Swaminathan. His passion to see India progress was exemplary. His life and work will inspire generations to come. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti.”
The Congress party described him as the key scientific architect of the Green Revolution and hailed his contribution to the agriculture sector.
