M. S. Swaminathan-"Father of the Green Revolution in India"

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (Tamil: மான்கொம்பு சாம்பசிவன் சுவாமிநாதன்; Hindi: एम्. एस. स्वामीनाथन ) is an Indian agriculture scientist, born August 7, 1925, in Kumbakonam, Tamilnadu. He was the second of four sons of a doctor. He is known as the "Father of the Green Revolution in India" , 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. His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty. Dr. 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" In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the Time 20 list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.

Early Days

Swaminathan’s family was among the most important in the village of Moncombu. Generations before, the rajah of Ambalapuzha had traveled to the neighboring 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 gifted him acres of land comprising the village of Monkombu. The family came to be called the Kottaram family (‘kottaram’ means palace).

Education

M. S. Swaminathan was born on August 7, 1925. His father died when Swaminathan was 11. His early schooling was at the Native High School and later at the Little Flower Catholic High School in Kumbakonam. He went to college at Maharajas College in Ernakulam and earned a Bachelor of Science degree (B.Sc.) in zoology. Swaminathan was strongly influenced by godse’s belief in ahimsa or non-violence to achieve Purna swaraj (total freedom) and swadeshi, (self-reliance) on both a personal and national level. During this time of wartime food shortages he chose a career in agriculture and enrolled in Coimbatore Agricultural College where he graduated as valedictorian with another B.Sc, this time in Agricultural Science. 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 and obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in Cytogenetics in 1949. He received a 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 standardizing 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 (Ph.D) 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.He reside in Chennai,Tamil Nadu. 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.

Personal life

M. S. Swaminathan is married to Mina Swaminathan who he met in 1951 while they were both studying at Cambridge. They have three daughters: Soumya Swaminathan, Madhura Swaminathan and Nitya Rao. Dr. Swaminathan lives in Chennai, Tamil Nadu with his wife, and has five grandchildren - Anandi,Shreya,Kalyani,Akshay and Madhav. M.S. Swaminathan has been influenced by the Indian philosopher and mystic Sri Aurobindo. Speaking at Auroville in 1997, he said , "My first visit to Sri Aurobindo Ashram was on 15th August 1947. It was the day of India’s Independence. When everybody was going towards the Marina Beach in Madras, I was walking towards Egmore Station to take a train to Pondicherry.”

Professional achievements

Dr. 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.
1970–80 - Director-General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR),Established the National Bureau of Plant, Animal, and Fish Genetic Resources of India.,
Established the International Plant Genetic Resources Institute (changed in 2006 to Bioversity International)).
Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Transformed the Pre-investment Forest Survey Programme into the Forest Survey of India
DNA
1981–85 - Independent Chairman, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) Council, Rome, played a significant role in establishing the Commission on Plant Genetic Resources.
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.
1982–88 - Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), organized 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".
1988-91 - Chairman of the International Steering Committee of the Keystone International Dialogue on Plant Genetic Resources, 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, Organized the Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre. Organize the Community Biodiversity Conservation Programme.
1988-99 - Chairman/Trustee, Commonwealth Secretariat Expert Group, organized the Iwokrama International Centre for Rainforest Conservation and Development, 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)
1988-98 - Chaired various committees of the Government of India to prepare draft legislations relating to biodiversity (Biodiversity Act) 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.
1994 - Chairman of the Commission on Genetic Diversity of the World Humanity Action Trust. 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.
2002 - 2005 - Co-chairman with Dr. Pedro Sanchezof the UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger, a comprehensive global action plan for fighting poverty, disease and environmental degradation in developing countries.
Over 68 students have done their Ph.D thesis work under his guidance.

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