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| M.S.SWAMINATHAN |
Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (born 7 August 1925) is 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.
Swaminathan is known as "Indian Father of Green
Revolution" for his leadership and success in introducing and further
developing high-yielding varieties of wheat in India. He is the founder and
chairman of the MS
Swaminathan Research Foundation.[1] His stated vision is to rid the
world of hunger and poverty.[2] Swaminathan is an advocate of moving
India to sustainable
development, especially using environmentally sustainable
agriculture, sustainable food security and the preservation of biodiversity, which he calls an
"evergreen revolution."[3]
From 1972 to 1979 he was director general of the Indian
Council of Agricultural Research. He was Principal Secretary,
Ministry of Agriculture from 1979 to 1980. He served as Director General of the
International
Rice Research Institute (1982–88) and became president of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature and
Natural Resources in 1988.
In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the 'Time 20'
list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.[4]
Swaminathan's family was among the most important in the
village of Moncombu. Generations before, the rajah of Ambalapuzha had travelled to the neighbouring
region of Tamil Nadu. He had been very impressed by the scholars at the
Thanjavur court and requested that one such scholar be sent to his province.
Enji Venkatachella Iyer, Swaminathan's ancestor, was chosen to move to
Ambalapuzha. The rajah was so delighted and struck by Venkatachella Iyer's knowledge
of the scriptures that he gave him acres of land comprising the village of
Monkombu. They came to be called the Kottaram family (‘kottaram’ means palace).
M. S. Swaminathan was born in Kumbakonam on 7 August 1925. He was the second
son of surgeon Dr. M.K. Sambasivan and Parvati Thangammal Sambasivan. M.S.
Swaminathan learnt from his father, "that the word 'impossible' exists
mainly in our minds and that given the requisite will and effort, great tasks
can be accomplished." Surgeon M.K. Sambasivam, a follower of Mahatma
Gandhi, took the lead in Kumbakonam in "burning his foreign clothes,"
a symbolic act in support of the Swadeshi movement: which emphasized the use of
Indian rather than foreign-made clothes, and handloomed rather than mill-spun
cloth. The political purpose of the swadeshi movement was to free India from
dependence on foreign imports and to protect village industry. His father led
in opening the temples to Dalits, part of the temple
entry movement of the Indian
independence movement in Tamil Nadu, and in eradicating filariasis in Kumbakonom, an area long
infected with the dread disease. The sense of service to one's fellow man was
thus ingrained in him early.
After his father's death when he was 11, young
Swaminathan was looked after by his uncle, M. K. Narayanaswami, a radiologist.
He attended the local high school and later the Catholic Little Flower High
School in Kumbakonom, from which he matriculated at age 15.[5] He then went to finish his
undergraduate degree at Maharajas College in Trivandrum, Kerala (now known as
University College, Thiruvananthapuram).
He studied there from 1940–44 and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in zoology.
Swaminathan then decided to pursue a career in
agricultural sciences. He enrolled in Tamil
Nadu Agricultural University where he graduated as valedictorian with another Bachelor of Science
degree, this time in Agricultural Science.
He explained this career decision thus: "My personal motivation started
with the great Bengal famine of 1943,
when I was a student at the University of Kerala. There was an acute rice
shortage, and in Bengal about 3 million people died from starvation. All of our
young people, myself included, were involved in the freedom struggle, which
Gandhi had intensified, and I decided I should take to agricultural research in
order to help farmers produce more."[6]
In 1947, the year of Indian independence
he moved to the Indian
Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi as a
post-graduate student in genetics and plant breeding. He obtained a post-graduate
degree with high distinction in Cytogenetics in 1949. He wrote the Union
Public Service Commission exam and qualified for the Indian Police Service.[7]
He chose to accept the UNESCO Fellowship to continue his
IARI research on potato genetics at the Wageningen
Agricultural University, Institute of Genetics in the Netherlands. Here he succeeded in
standardising procedures for transferring genes from a wide range of wild
species of Solanum to the cultivated potato, Solanum tuberosum.
In 1950, he moved to study at the Plant Breeding Institute of the University of Cambridge
School of Agriculture. He earned a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree in 1952,
for his thesis, "Species Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum
– section Tuberarium." His work presented a new concept of the species
relationships within the tuber-bearing Solanum.
Swaminathan then accepted a post-doctoral research
associateship at the University
of Wisconsin, Department of Genetics to help set up a USDA
potato research station. Despite his strong personal and professional
satisfaction with the research work in Wisconsin, he declined the offer of a
full-time faculty position, returning to India in early 1954.[8]
Swaminathan has worked worldwide in
collaboration with colleagues and students on a wide range of problems in basic
and applied plant breeding,
agricultural research and development and the conservation
of natural resources.
His professional career began in 1949:
- 1949–55 – Research on potato (Solanum tuberosum), wheat (Triticum aestivum), rice (Oryza sativa), and jute genetics.
- 1955–72 – Field research on Mexican dwarf wheat varieties. Teach Cytogenetics, Radiation Genetics, and Mutation Breeding and build up the wheat and rice germplasm collections at Indian Agricultural Research Institute IARI.
- 1972–79
– Director-General, Indian
Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), established the
National Bureau of Plant, Animal, and Fish Genetic Resources of India.[9]
Established the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (changed in 2006 to Bioversity International).[10] - 1979-80 - Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Transformed the Pre-investment Forest Survey Programme into the Forest Survey of India.[11]
- 1981–85 – Independent chairman, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Council, Rome, played a significant role in establishing the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources.[12]
- 1983 – Developed the concept of Farmers' Rights and the text of the International Undertaking on Plant Genetic Resources (IUPGR).President of the International Congress of Genetics.[13]
- 1982–88 – Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), organised the International Rice Germplasm Centre, now named International Rice Genebank.
- 1984–90 – President of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources IUCN, develop the Convention on Biological Diversity CBD.
- 1986–99 – Chairman of the editorial advisory board, World Resources Institute, Washington, D. C., conceived and produced the first "World Resources Report."[14]
- 1988–91 – Chairman of the International Steering Committee of the Keystone International Dialogue on Plant Genetic Resources,[15] regarding the availability, use, exchange and protection of plant germplasm.
- 1991–1995 – Member, Governing Board, Auroville Foundation
- 1988–96 – President, World Wide Fund for Nature–India WWF,[16] Organized the Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre.[17] Organize the Community Biodiversity Conservation Programme.[18]
- 1988–99 – Chairman/Trustee, Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group,[19] organised the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development,[20] for the sustainable and equitable management of tropical rainforests in Guyana. The President of Guyana wrote in 1994 "there would have been no Iwokrama without Swaminathan."
- 1990–93 – Founder/President, International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems (ISME)[21]
- 1988–98 – Chaired various committees of the Government of India to prepare draft legislations relating to biodiversity (Biodiversity Act)[22] and breeders’ and farmers’ rights (Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act).
- in 1993 Dr M. S. Swaminathan,headed an expert group to prepare a draft of a national population policy that would be discussed by the Cabinet and then by Parliament. In 1994 it submitted its report.[23]
- 1994 – Chairman of the Commission on Genetic Diversity of the World Humanity Action Trust.[24] Established a Technical Resource Centre at MSSRF for the implementation of equity provisions of CBD and FAO's Farmers’ Rights.
- 1994 onwards – Chairman of the Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC) of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), development of policies for the management of the ex situ collections of International Agricultural Research Centers.
- 1995–1999 chairman, Auroville Foundation
- 1999 – Introduced the concept of trusteeship management of Biosphere reserves. Implemented the Gulf of Mannar Biosphere Reserve Trust, with financial support from the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
- 2001 – Chairman of the Regional Steering Committee for the India – Bangladesh joint Project on Biodiversity Management in the Sundarbans World Heritage Site, funded by the UN Foundation and UNDP.
- 2002 – President of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs which work towards reducing the danger of armed conflict and to seek solutions to global security threats.[25]
- 2002 – 2005 – Co-chairman with Pedro Sanchezof the UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger,[26] a comprehensive global action plan for fighting poverty, disease and environmental degradation in developing countries.
- 2004 - 2014 - Chairman, National Commission on Farmers.
- Over 68 students have done their PhD thesis work under his guidance.
Notable mentions
On the occasion of the presentation of the
First World Food Prize[27] to Swaminathan in October 1987,
Javier Perez de Cuellar, Secretary General of the United Nations, wrote:
"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."
Swaminathan has been described by the United
Nations Environment Programme as "the Father of Economic Ecology."
He was one of three from India included in Time
magazine's 1999 list of the "20 most influential Asian people of the 20th
century," the other two being Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.[28]
Swaminathan was the featured speaker at the
2006 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium in Des Moines, Iowa
on, 19 October 2006. He was sponsored by Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the
National Endowment for the Humanities. Swaminathan presented the "Third
Annual Governor's Lecture" and spoke on "THE GREEN REVOLUTION REDUX:
Can we replicate the single greatest period of food production in all human
history?"[29][30][31] about the cultural and social
foundations of the Green Revolution in India and the role of historic leaders
in India, such as Mahatma Gandhi,
in inspiring the Green Revolution there by calling for the alleviation of
widespread hunger. He talked about the links between Gandhi and the great Iowa
scientist George Washington
Carver.[32]
Swaminathan is a Fellow of the Royal Society of
London, the U.S. National
Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy
of Sciences, the Chinese Academy
of Sciences, and the Italian Academy of Sciences.
National Awards
He has been honoured with several awards in India for his work to benefit the country.
He has been honoured with several awards in India for his work to benefit the country.
- Karmaveer Puraskaar Noble Laureates, March,2007 by iCONGO- Confederation of NGOs.
- Dupont-Solae Award for his contribution to the field of food and nutrition security 2004[60]
- Life Time Achievement Award from BioSpectrum 2003[61]
- Indira Gandhi Gold Plaque by the Asiatic Society for his significant contribution towards human progress. 2002
- Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development "for his outstanding contribution in the domain of plant genetics and ensuring food security to hundreds of millions of citizens in the developing world." This prestigious award honours those outstanding global citizens who have made a significant contribution to humanity's material and cultural progress. 2000
- The Indian National Science Academy awarded him Millennium Scientist Award 2001, Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Award for 1999–2000, Shatabdi Puraskar award in the field of Agricultural Sciences 1999, Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Award 1992, B.P. Pal Memorial Award of the 1998, Meghnad Saha Medal 1981, Silver Jubilee Commemoration Medal for contributions to genetics and agricultural research 1971.
- Lokmanya Tilak Award by the Tilak Smarak Trust, in recognition of his contribution to the green revolution in India and for his outstanding scientific and environmental works. 2001[62]
- Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in recognition of creative efforts toward promoting international peace, development and a new international economic order; ensuring that scientific discoveries are used for the larger good of humanity, and enlarging the scope of freedom. 2000
- Millennium Alumnus Award by the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University 2000
- Prof P N Mehra Memorial Award 1999
- Legend in his Lifetime Award by the World Wilderness Trust- India 1999[63]
- Dr. B.P. Pal Medal for unique contributions to agricultural research and development of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India 1997
- V. Gangadharan Award for outstanding contributions to National Development 1997
- Dr. B.P. Pal Medal for unique contributions to agricultural research and development of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, India 1997
- V. Gangadharan Award for outstanding contributions to National Development 1997
- Lal Bahadur Shastri Deshgaurav Samman 1992
- Dr. J.C. Bose Medal, Bose Institute 1989[64]
- Krishi Ratna Award for "devotion to the cause of agroscience, and for being the benefactor of the farming
community," instituted by the Bharat
Krishak Samaj (Indian Farmer's Society)/World Agriculture Fair Memorial Trust
Society, and presented by president Giani Zail Singh of India 1986
- Rathindranath Tagore Prize of Visva Bharati University 1981
- R.D. Misra Medal of the Indian Environmental Society 1981[65]
- Barclay Medal of the Asiatic Society for contributions to genetics 1978
- Moudgil Prize of the Bureau of Indian Standards for contributions to standardisation 1978
- Birbal Sahni Medal of the Indian Botanical Society for contributions to Applied Botany 1965.[66]
- Shanti Swarup Bhatnagar Award for contributions to Biological Sciences 1961
- Indira Gandhi Award for National Integration of the Indian National Congress [67]
International Awards
He has been honoured with recognition from several international organisations for spreading the benefits of his work to other countries.
He has been honoured with recognition from several international organisations for spreading the benefits of his work to other countries.
- UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Gold Medal for his outstanding work in extending the benefits of biotechnology to marginalised and poverty-stricken populations in developing countries and in securing a sound basis for sustainable agricultural, environmental and rural development 1999
- Henry Shaw Medal awarded by the Board of Trustees of the Missouri Botanical Garden in consideration of important service to humanity through emphasis on sustainability in agriculture – USA 1998
- Ordre du Merite Agricole, Govt of France to honour services of the highest quality rendered to the cause of agriculture 1997
- Highest award for International Cooperation on Environment and Development, Govt of China for outstanding contributions to the lofty cause of environmental protection and development, and for his signal accomplishments in the field of international cooperation 1997
- Global Environmental Leadership Award "for encouraging village-level responses to environmental issues" by the Climate Institute 1995
- World Academy of Art and Science 1994
- Asian Regional Award by the Asian Productivity Organization APO 1994
- Charles Darwin International Science and Environment Medal 1993
- Commandeur of the Order of the Golden Ark of the Netherlands 1990
- The VOLVO Environment Prize for his outstanding research and devoted work in turning Indian food production from a deficit to a much increased supply. 1990.[68]
- Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID) international award for significant contributions to promoting the knowledge, skill, and technological empowerment of women in agriculture and for his pioneering role in mainstreaming gender considerations in agriculture and rural development 1985.[69]
- Bicentenary Medal of the University of Georgia, U.S.A. 1985
- Bennett Commonwealth Prize of the Royal Society of Arts for significant contributions to Household Nutrition Security 1984
- Mendel Memorial Medal of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences for contributions to Plant Genetics 1965
