Context:

The Prime Minister of India has announced that the renowned agricultural scientist Dr M S Swaminathan will be awarded India’s highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna.

Bharat Ratna For MS Swaminathan

• The Bharat Ratna is being awarded in recognition of his monumental contributions to India’s agriculture and farmers’ welfare. 
• Dr Swaminathan is considered to have played a pivotal role in helping India achieve self-reliance in agriculture and also made outstanding efforts towards modernizing Indian agriculture.

MS Swaminathan Biography: Early Life, Education, and As a Researcher

• MS Swaminathan was an agronomist, agricultural scientist, plant geneticist, administrator, and humanitarian, who is widely known as the ‘father of the Green Revolution’ in India.
• Early Life: Dr Swaminathan was born on August 7, 1925 in Kumbakonam, Madras Presidency. He was the second son of M. K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan.
• Education: Initially, he wanted to become a doctor. However, after witnessing the Bengal Famine of 1943, he decided to dedicate his life to India’s food security.
  • In this regard, he completed undergraduate course in Zoology and later went on to earn the Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Science.
  • Even though he cleared the civil services examination, his interest in agriculture resulted in him pursuing research in the field.

Research Career Of Dr MS Swaminathan

• Post-Graduation: Dr Swaminathan obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in cytogenetics in 1949 by researching at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi.
• Netherlands: He obtained a UNESCO fellow at the Wageningen Agricultural University‘s Institute of Genetics in the Netherlands for eight months.
  • His research helped in developing adaptive genes in crops to provide resilience against parasites, as well as cold weather.
• The United Kingdom: He earned a Doctor of Philosophy degree in 1952 from Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Cambridge School of Agriculture. 
• The United States of America: He completed a post-doctoral research associateship at the University of Wisconsin’s Laboratory of Genetics before returning to India.
• Research in India: He started his work as an assistant botanist at Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack. Later, he joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in October 1954 as an assistant cytogeneticist.

Dr MS Swaminathan: As a Father of Green Revolution in India

• Collaborative Research: In the 1960s, Dr Swaminathan collaborated with renowned scientist Norman Borlaug to conduct research in rice and wheat in order to boost production in developing countries such as India and Pakistan.
• Crossbreeding for High-Yield Varieties: They inter-bred Mexican dwarf varieties of wheat with Japanese varieties. This led to a high-yield, good quality, and disease-free crop.
  • After repeated requests, the Indian government allowed Dr Swaminathan to demonstrate the new variety in a small demonstration plot. 
• Results: The results were promising and more modifications were made to the grain in the laboratory to better adapt to Indian conditions. 
  • The government gave permission to sow new wheat varieties and in 1968 production of the grain went to 17 million tonnes, which was 5 million tonnes more than the previous harvest.
  • With sustained efforts, the grain production went up exponentially. 
  • In 1971, the government declared India self-sufficient in food production.

Other Contributions Of Dr MS Swaminathan

• Plant Genomics: Initially, Dr Swaminathan focused his research on developing high-yielding varieties of paddy that helped ensure India’s low-income farmers produced more yield.
  • His later research led to an exponential rise in productivity of wheat and rice through adaptation of chemical-biological technology.
  • He also helped in developing rice with C4 carbon fixation capabilities, which allowed better photosynthesis and water usage. He also played a key role in the development of the world’s first high-yielding basmati. 
• Radiation Botany: Dr Swaminathan set up a ‘Cobalt-60 Gamma Garden’ to study radiation mutation.
  • The aim of this research was to increase plant responsiveness to fertilisers and demonstrate real-world application of crop mutations.
• Administrative Role: Dr Swaminathan served as the director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the first Asian director general of International Rice Research Institute. 
  • In 1979: He also worked as the principal secretary of the ministry of agriculture. 
  • As a member of the Planning Commission, Dr Swaminathan introduced women and environment aspects for the first time in India’s Five-Year Plans.
  • President of IUCN: Dr Swaminathan was also the President of the International Union of the Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN).
  • In 2004: He was appointed as chair of the National Commission on Farmers.
• Member of Parliament: Dr Swaminathan also served as a Parliamentarian for one term as a nominated member of Rajya Sabha.
• Institutional Contribution: Dr Swaminathan played a major role in building the International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics in India; the International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (Biodiversity International) in Italy and the International Council for Research in Agro-Forestry in Kenya.
• New Ideas: He coined the term ‘Evergreen Revolution‘ to address the continuous increase in sustainable productivity that mankind requires.
  • During his Rajya Sabha tenure, he introduced the Women Farmers‘ Entitlements Bill 2011, which proposed to recognise women farmers.
• Formulation of MSP: Dr Swaminathan committee recommended that the Minimum Support Price, which is the price farmers sell their crops to the government, should be at least 50 percent more than the weighted average cost of production.

Honours and Awards To Dr MS Swaminathan

• Awards: Dr MS Swaminathan was awarded with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1971 and the Albert Einstein World Science Award in 1986. 
  • He was awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, which is referred to as the ‘Nobel Prize for Food and Agriculture‘.
  • Swaminathan has also been conferred with the all three of India’s Padma awards: Padma Shri, Padma Bhushan, and Padma Vibhushan.
  • In addition, Dr Swaminathan has been awarded the H K Firodia Award, the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award, and the Indira Gandhi Prize.
  • He was one of three Indians, along with Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore, on Time’s list of the 20 most influential Asian people of the 20th century.
  • He received 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.
• Honour of Father of Economic Ecology: The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has referred Dr Swaminathan as “the Father of Economic Ecology,” because of his leadership of the green revolution in agriculture.

Dr Swaminathan’s Death 

• Dr Swaminathan passed away in Chennai on September 28, 2023 at the age of 98.

Conclusion

Dr MS Swaminathan’s work has not only laid the foundation for a self-sufficient India in food production, it also inspired a generation of scientists working in the agriculture sector across the world.

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