MS Swaminathan, father of Green Revolution, to be awarded Bharat Ratna: All about the agronomist
Swaminathan, who played an instrumental role in ushering in the Green Revolution, was conferred the highest civilian award in the country posthumously, along with former prime ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao.
Eminent agronomist and agricultural scientist Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan will be conferred the prestigious Bharat Ratna award for his unparalleled contributions to Indian agriculture and farmers’ welfare, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on February 9.
Swaminathan, who played an instrumental role in ushering in the Green Revolution, will be conferred the highest civilian award in the country posthumously, along with former prime ministers Chaudhary Charan Singh and PV Narasimha Rao.
The globally recognised agricultural scientist steered India towards self-sufficiency in food production.
Early Life
Born in Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency, on August 7, 1925, Swaminathan was the second son of general surgeon MK Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan.
Swaminathan, after witnessing the impacts of the Bengal famine of 1943 during the Second World War, decided to devote his life to ensuring India had enough food. He chose agriculture, despite his family background belonging to medicine and engineering.
In 1944, he earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Science from the University of Madras and then moved to the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi to study genetics and plant breeding. He obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in cytogenetics in 1949. Then in 1950, he moved to study at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Cambridge School of Agriculture and earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1952.
Professional life
After doing his post-doctoral research associateship at the University of Wisconsin’s Laboratory of Genetics in the US, Swaminathan returned to India in 1954.
With being critical of India importing food grains when 70 per cent of India was dependent on agriculture, Swaminathan along with Nobel Prize winner American agronomist toured India and developed new crop varieties.
Thanks to the efforts of the duo, the government declared India self-sufficient in food production in 1971.
After this, Swaminathan was appointed as the director-general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and a secretary to the Government of India.
He was made the first Asian director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines in 1982, where he stayed till 1988. In 1984, he became the president and vice-president of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and World Wildlife Fund.
Awards, contributions, and achievements
He was awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987 and the prize money was used to set up the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation.
He established the Nuclear Research Laboratory at the IARI and played a role in promoting the setting up of the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India, the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (now known as Bioversity International) in Italy, and the International Council for Research in Agro-Forestry in Kenya.
Swaminathan co-chaired the United Nations Millennium Project on hunger from 2002 to 2005 and was head of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs between 2002 and 2007.
He was the chair of the National Commission on Farmers constituted in 2004. Was nominated to the Rajya Sabha by former (Late) President APJ Abdul Kalam, where he served from 2007 to 2013.
Recognitions
1961: Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award
1965: Mendel Memorial Medal from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
1971: Ramon Magsaysay Award
1986: Albert Einstein World Science Award
1987: The first World Food Prize
1991: Tyler Prize for Environmental Achievement
2000: Four Freedoms Award
2000: Planet and Humanity Medal of the International Geographical Union
Apart from this, he was awarded the Order of the Golden Heart of the Philippines, the Order of Agricultural Merit of France, the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands, and the Royal Order of Sahametrei of Cambodia.
Before being conferred the Bharat Ratna, he was awarded the Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan awards, as well as the H K Firodia Award, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award, and the Indira Gandhi Prize too.
Swaminathan died on September 28, 2023, at the age of 98 years in Chennai.
source-https://www.livemint.com/news/ms-swaminathan
