Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, India’s most well known agricultural scientist who is regarded as the Father of the Green Revolution is no more. Swaminthan passed away at the age of 98 in Chennai at 11:20 AM.
Swaminathan is credited to have led the agricultural innovations which increased India’s agricultural output and strengthened the food security during 1960-1970.
The TIME magazine had acclaimed Swaminathan as one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century and he was one of the three personalities to feature from India, the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.
His words on agriculture are widely quoted in the reportage and the much larger literature on agriculture across the world. “If agriculture goes wrong, nothing else will have a chance to go right” — being his most remembered quote.
In the wake of unprecedented farmers’ suicides in early 2000s, Swaminathan was requested by the Union government to lead the National Commission of Farmers in 2004. The Commission is popularly known as the Swaminathan Commission and its recommendations are always cited by experts and activists whenever there’s a farmers’ stir across the country.
The Union Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers’ Welfare posted on Twitter as a mark of respect to Swaminathan. “The Agriculture Ministry pays homage to the Father of the Green Revolution,” the post mentioned.
In 1988, Swaminathan founded the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation which aims to accelerate the use of science for sustainable agricultural and rural development. The foundation focuses specifically on tribal and rural communities with a pro-poor, pro-women and pro-nature approach.
