Who was M.S. Swaminathan?
M.S. Swaminathan was an Indian geneticist born August 7th, 1925, who played a contributing role in India’s Green Revolution. As a former student of genetics and plant breeding at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Swaminathan became a reputable cytogeneticist that identified chromosomal structure and alterations of various plants.
India’s Green Revolution
In the 1960s, India was one of the highest populated countries in the world with the second largest agricultural land in the world. That said, at this time, food production was so bad that India was on the precipice of major famine and hosted around a quarter of the world’s hungry population. As a consequence, the Green Revolution kick-started in India to counter food insecurity. Through government initiatives, the production of wheat and rice nearly doubled. But, how did this happen? M.S. Swaminathan was a key contributor due to his genetics background. After conducting foundational research on the cytogenetics of various wheat and crop varieties, Swaminathan launched the International Rice Research Institute to cultivate crops with greater photosynthesis and water utilization. The Green Revolution was already underway in Western countries, but Swaminathan played a crucial role in bringing it to a highly agricultural but incredibly hungry country. Outside of the lab, the cytogeneticist led educational initiatives to teach small farmers how to increase outputs with genetically engineered crops and modern agricultural tools.
