M. S. Swaminathan

M. S. Swaminathan, Father of the Green Revolution in India

Sambasivan Swaminathan (7 August 1925 – 28 September 2023) was an Indian geneticist and international administrator, renowned for his leading role in India's "Green Revolution," a program under which high-yield varieties of wheat and rice seedlings were planted in the fields of poor farmers.

Quotes

• Agriculture is the backbone of the livelihood security system of nearly 700 million people in the country and we need to build our food security on the foundation of home grown food.
  • "Farmer Quotes". Captionsstatus Team. Retrieved on 04 October 2023. 

• Let me make it very clear that the days of cheap food are over, just as the days of cheap oil are over
  • "Agri Quotes". Zeenews India. Retrieved on 25 November 2013. 

• When you take up lab-to-land transfer, you should know the socio-economic circumstances of the farmer. You should not do experiments with the farmer, because he is already poor. You must be very sure that whatever you are recommending is both economically and ecologically sound. If farm economics and farm ecology go wrong, nothing else can go right in agriculture.
  • Quoted from Challenges in lab-to-land transfer in agriculture (25 October 2011)"In Conversation: M. S. Swaminathan" (pdf).

• So there is a big transformation. Also if you see the average lifespan, which was 28–29 in 1947, is now 64–65. In Kerala it is 74 or so. I am sure soon it will become 80–90. That is partly also because of food, because without nutrition, it is not possible. So we have had a transformation in our economic wellbeing. But that is not spread evenly in society; there are still very poor people, the highly deprived. In my view, the first task of both science and society is to address this issue
  • On changes in the living conditions in India since Indepencnce in 1947 (25 October 2011)"In Conversation: M. S. Swaminathan" (pdf).

• I followed Swami Vivekananda's teachings when I was young. He said, this life is short, its vanities are transient. He alone lives who lives for others. I think more than any other country, in our country, this is very important today. ‘Others’ also includes family members, because charity begins at home. But if you are an educated person, do something which can help improve the lives and livelihoods of your fellow people. And then towards the latter part of your life, you feel more satisfied that you have one something not only for yourself or for your family, but you have done something which has made a slight difference in the lives of the less privileged.
  • On his ideals in (25 October 2011)"In Conversation: M. S. Swaminathan" (pdf).

• The right to food has to become the right to good food
  • S., Bala Ravi; I., I. Hoeschle-Zeledon, I.; Swaminathan, M.S.. Hunger and poverty: the role of biodiversity. Bioversity International. pp. 69–. ISBN 978-92-9043-703-1. 

• Eternal vigilance is the price of food security.
  • Chaturvedi, Pradeep (1 January 2002). Women and Food Security: Role of Panchayats. Concept Publishing Company. pp. 46–. ISBN 978-81-7022-873-8. 

• Developing countries can leapfrog several stages in the development process through the application of bio-technology in agriculture
  • From Prasad, Jagdish; Prasad, Arbind (1994). Development Planning for Agriculture: Policies, Economic Implications, Inputs, Production and Marketing. Mittal Publications. pp. 93–. ISBN 978-81-7099-569-2. 

• The Green Revolution was criticised by social activists on the ground that the high-yield technology involving the use of mineral fertilizers and chemical pesticides is environmentally harmful. Similarly, some economists felt that the new technologies would bypass small and marginal farmers, for although the technologies are scale-neutral, they are not resource-neutral. This led to my coining the term “ever-green revolution,” to emphasise the need to enhance productivity in perpetuity without ecological harm.
  • Quoted in "Food as people's right". The Hindu. 4 January 2012. Retrieved on 25 November 2013. 

• Norman Borlaug is the living embodiment of the human quest for a hunger free world. His life is his message."
  • Quoted in Professor M. S. Swaminathan, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (India)

• Land and water management should be given ‘Number One' priority for achieving evergreen revolution. No less important is to achieve the utmost efficiency in investment as well as in the use of water.
  • Quoted in "Food as people's right". The Hindu. 4 January 2012. Retrieved on 25 November 2013. 

• The magic happens only when the artist serves with love and the listener receives with the same spirit.
  • Quotations by 60 Greatest Indians. Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology.

About Swaminathan

• Dr. Swaminathan is a living legend. His contributions to Agricultural Science have made an indelible mark on food production in India and elsewhere in the developing world. By any standards, he will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction.
  • Stated by Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations on the occasion of award of the First World Food Prize. Quoted here World Food Prize, Prof. Swaminathan, 1987 World Food Prize Laureate. World Food Prize Organization. Retrieved on 25 November 2013.
• But for [...] his contributions, India today would have been a decimated, depopulated country as prophesied by the American doom-sayers Paddock Brothers!
  • Atmaram Bhairav Joshi in a letter to the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) in 1995 as quoted in a 2013 commentary.