M. S. Swaminathan

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan

Dr. M. S. Swaminathan
Born 7 August 1925 (1925-08-07) (age 86)
kuttanad, [kerala]
Residence kerala
Nationality India
Fields agriculture scientist
Institutions MS Swaminathan Research Foundation
Alma mater Coimbatore Agricultural College,
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Known for high-yielding varieties of wheat in India
Influences Dr. Norman Borlaug
Notable awards World Food Prize

Maankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (Hindi: एम्. एस. स्वामीनाथन; born 7 August 1925) is an Indian agriculture scientist in Kuttanad, kerala. 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.[1] His stated vision is to rid the world of hunger and poverty.[2] 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"[3] In 1999, Time magazine placed him in the Time 20 list of most influential Asian people of the 20th century.[4]

Contents

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 Mahatma Gandhi’s belief in ahimsa or non-violence to achieve Purna swaraj (total freedom) and swadeshi, (self-reliance) on both a personal and national level.[5] 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.

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.[5]

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:

Notable Mention

On the occasion of Nobel Peace Prize award in 1970, the laureate Dr. Norman Borlaug, said of Dr. Swaminathan: "The green revolution has been a team effort and much of the credit for its spectacular development must go to Indian officials, Organizations, Scientists and farmers. However, to you, Dr. Swaminathan, a great deal of the credit must go for first recognizing the potential value of the Mexican dwarfs. Had this not occurred, it is quite possible that there would not have been a green revolution in Asia".[26]

On the occasion of the presentation of the First World Food Prize[24] to Dr. Swaminathan in October 1987, Mr. 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.[25]

Following the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake, he advised India to plant new mangrove groves along the shoreline to minimize damage from future tsunamis.

Dr. Swaminathan was the featured speaker at The 2006 Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium: in Des Moines, Iowa on, October 19, 2006. He was sponsored by Humanities Iowa, an affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Dr. 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?" Read full text:,[26] See: Powerpoint Presentation,[27] Hear:[28] 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 also talked about the links between Gandhi and the great Iowa scientist George Washington Carver.,[29]

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.

Controversy

A scientific paper in which Swaminathan and his team claimed to have produced a mutant breed of wheat by gamma irradiation of a Mexican variety (Sonora 64) resulting in Sharbati Sonora, claimed to have a very high lysine content led to a major controversy. The case was discussed as a classic example of scientific misdemeanor and was claimed to be an error made by the laboratory assistant.[30] The episode was also compounded by the suicide of an agricultural scientist.[31][32][33][34][35] Recent workers have also studied it as part of a systemic problem in Indian agriculture research.[36]

Publications

Dr Swaminathan is a prolific scientific researcher and writer. He published 46 single author papers between 1950 and 1980. Out of 118 two author papers, he was first author of 80. Out of 63 three author papers he was first author of 15. Out of 21 four author papers he was first author of 9. In total he had 254 papers to his credit, 155 of which he was the single author or first author. His scientific papers are in the fields of crop improvement (95), cytogenetics and genetics (87) and phylogenetics (72). His most frequent publishers were: Indian Journal of Genetics (46), Current Science (36), Nature (12) and Radiation Botany (12).[37] Some of the papers are listed below.

In addition he has written a few books around the general theme of his life's work, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture for alleviation of hunger.

Dr. Swaminathan's books include

Research reports

He has published laboratory research results in several scientific journals and increasingly writes for a wider audience in environmental journals. Some of his publications are available online in abstract or full text.[46] and.[47]

Environmental articles

Awards and recognition

Dr. Swaminathan has received several outstanding awards and prizes. These prizes include large sums of money, which has helped sustain and expand his work.

biological productivity on an ecologically sustainable basis, and to promoting the conservation of biological diversity”1991

He holds more than 50 honorary Doctorate degrees from universities around the world.

National Awards
He has been honored with several awards in India for his work to benefit the country.

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

International Awards
He has been honored with recognition from several international organizations for spreading the benefits of his work to other countries.

Critics

Despite these awards and honors, the credibility of Swaminathan and his promotion of biotechnology remains open to question by some. His record retains some controversy. There are cases of scientific fraud and scandals involving the suicide of a fellow scientist at the (ICAR).[64] The first among those who came to expose many of the claims made by MS Swaminathan was Claude Alvares. In his article The Great Gene Robbery 23 March 1986 The Illustrated Weekly.[27] Alvares provided enough evidences to show that most of the research that were initiated by him and International Rice Research Institute were not original.[65] In the recent years Shiv Vishwanathan in an EPW [28] article writes he is a sociological phenomenon. He is paradigm, exemplar, dissenter, critic and alternative. .....Swaminathan always assimilates the new. Earlier Claude Alvares had given a better picture as follows

Strangely, he has become more and more akin to HYV of the seeds he sells. Like them, he is capable of high-yielding varieties of phrase and word. At a Gandhi seminar, he will speak of the relevance of Gandhi. At a meeting in Madras on the necessity of combine harvesters. At another meeting on appropriate technology, he will plump for organic manures. At a talk in London, he will speak on the necessity of chemical fertilizers. He will label slum dwellers ‘ecological refugees’, and advertise his career as a quest for ‘imparting an ecological basis to productivity improvement.’ This, after presiding over, and indiscriminately furthering, one of the ecologically most devastating technologies of modern times – the HYV package of the Green revolution.[29]

Current work

Further reading

References

  1. ^ http://www.mssrf.org/about_us/about_chairman.htm
  2. ^ barunroy (2009-02-27). "SIKKIM: Prof MS Swaminathan appointed as Chancellor of Sikkim University". The Himalayan Beacon. Darjeeling: Beacon Publications. http://beacononline.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/sikkim-prof-ms-swaminathan-appointed-as-chancellor-of-sikkim-university/. Retrieved 21 January 2010. 
  3. ^ "Now for the evergreen revolution: Prof. MS Swaminathan, a pioneer of India's green revolution, calls for a new approach to world farming". For A Change. 2001. http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0KZH/is_4_14/ai_30123599. 
  4. ^ Asians of the Century: A Tale of Titans, TIME 100: AUGUST 23-30, 1999 VOL. 154 NO. 7/8
  5. ^ a b http://www.worldfoodprize.org/laureates/Past/1987.htm
  6. ^ Arthur, Dr. J. Richard, Technical Cooperation Programme Assistance for Responsible Movement of Live Aquatic Animals, FAO Field Document No. 2, TCP/RAS /6714(A), Bangkok, July 1998 [1]
  7. ^ Bioversity International
  8. ^ Ministry of Environment & Forests, Forest Survey of India, Dehradun
  9. ^ FAO, Commission on Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture
  10. ^ International Genetics Federation, International Congress of Genetics
  11. ^ UNDP, UNEP, The World Bank, World Resources Institute, "World Resources 2005 - The Wealth of the Poor: Managing ecosystems to fight poverty", 2005. [2]
  12. ^ Final Consensus Report of the Keystone International Dialogue Series on Plant Genetic Resources: Madras Plenary Session, February 1990, Report # 27 [3]
  13. ^ World Wide Fund for Nature/India
  14. ^ Indira Gandhi Conservation Monitoring Centre
  15. ^ REPORT OF AN "AD HOC" INTER AGENCY CONSULTATION ON PROMOTING CO-OPERATION ON THE CONSERVATION AND SUSTAINABLE USE OF WILD PLANTS OF IMPORTANCE FOR FOOD AND AGRICULTURE PARIS, FRANCE, 11–13 February 1998, p.7 [4]
  16. ^ Commonwealth and Government of Guyana Establish International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, November 9, 1995.[5]
  17. ^ "Iwokrama International Centre for Rain Forest Conservation and Development, "The Establishment of Iwokrama Forest" [6]
  18. ^ International Society for Mangrove Ecosystems (ISME), about
  19. ^ Legislation on Forest, Environment and Wildlife - Biodiversity
  20. ^ http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/2006/01/10/stories/2006011000831000.htm
  21. ^ World Humanity Action Trust
  22. ^ Gene Conserve, Biography: "Swaminathan's Fifty Years of Contribution to the Conservation of Plant Genetic Resources and their Sustainable and Equitable Use".[7]
  23. ^ UN Millennium Task Force on Hunger, Final Report, 17 January 2005
  24. ^ World Food Prize, Prof. Swaminathan, 1987 World Food Prize Laureate
  25. ^ Ganguly, Meenakshi, Spaeth, A. "M.S. Swaminathan - The father of the Green Revolution", Time, The Most Influential Asians of the Century, August 23–30, 1999 154(7/8) [8]
  26. ^ Swaminathan M. S. (October 19, 2006) "THE GREEN REVOLUTION REDUX:..." Full text
  27. ^ Swaminathan M. S. (October 19, 2006) "THE GREEN REVOLUTION REDUX:...", Powerpoint Presentation Powerpoint Presentation
  28. ^ Swaminathan M. S. (October 19, 2006) "THE GREEN REVOLUTION REDUX:...", Listen,(26.3 MB, 1:05:31)Audio of the First session, M. S. Swaminathin begins at 44:35
  29. ^ World Food Prize Symposium (October 19, 2006), Norman E. Borlaug International Symposium, Des Moines, Iowa, Retrieved 3/22/2007.[9]
  30. ^ Kohn, Alexander (1997) False Prophets: Fraud An Error In Science And Medicine.
  31. ^ Hanlon, Joseph Top food scientist published false data. New Scientist Vol. 64, No. 922, pp. 436-37
  32. ^ Robert S. Anderson 1983 Cultivating Science as Cultural Policy: A Contrast of Agricultural and Nuclear Science in India. Pacific Affairs, Vol. 56, No. 1 pp. 38-50
  33. ^ New Scientist. "Defence of Swaminathan" (letters). New Scientist, 1975 (30 January): 280-281.
  34. ^ New Scientist. "Swaminathan controversy" (letters). New Scientist, 1975 (February): 339.
  35. ^ New Scientist. "Swaminathan controversy" (letters). New Scientist, 1974 (26 December): 948.
  36. ^ Rajeswari Sarala Raina (1999) Professionalization and evaluation: The case of Indian agricultural research. Knowledge, Technology, and Policy. Volume 11, Number 4 pp. 69-96
  37. ^ Kalyane, V. L. and Kalyane, S. V. (1994) Scientometric portrait of M. S. Swaminathan. Library Science 31(1):pp. 31-46.[10]
  38. ^ Swaminathan M.S.,"An Evergreen Revolution", Crop Sci 46:2293-2303 (2006), DOI: 10.2135/cropsci2006.9999, September 8, 2006 Full text
  39. ^ Swaminathan M.S., (1999)"I Predict: A Century of Hope Towards an Era of Harmony with Nature and Freedom from Hunger", East West Books (Madras) Pvt. Ltd.[]
  40. ^ Swaminathan MS, ed., (1998) "Gender Dimensions in Biodiversity Management", New Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd. [11]
  41. ^ M.S. Swaminathan (1997), "Implementing the Benefit Sharing Provisions of the Convention on Biological Diversity: Challenges and opportunities", Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter, No.112, pp 19-27.
  42. ^ Swaminathan MS, "Agrobiodiversity and Farmers' Rights", 1996. New Delhi: Konark Publishers Pvt Ltd. [12]
  43. ^ Swaminathan, M.S.,(1996) "Sustainable Agriculture: Towards Food Security", Konark, New Delhi.
  44. ^ M.S. Swaminathan (ed.) (1995), Farmers’ Rights and Plant Genetic Resources: A dialogue. Madras: Macmillan India Ltd.[13]
  45. ^ Swaminathan MS (ed) (1993) Wheat Revolution: a Dialogue. Madras, Macmillan India Ltd.
  46. ^ National Center for Biotechnology Information, Literature databases, Swaminathan MS, search result [14]
  47. ^ U.S.D.A., National Agricultural Library, Agricola, search: Swaminathan, M. S., result = 198 articles.[15]
  48. ^ Swaminathan, M.S., "Farmers' Rights and Plant Genetic Resources." Biotechnology and Development Monitor, No. 36,(1998), p. 6-9.[16]
  49. ^ FAO,"Forward: Regional Workshop on the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Coral Reefs",CRSARD, 3rd Cross Road, Taramani Institutional Area, Chennai 600 113, India, 1997[]
  50. ^ Swaminathan MS (1968) The age of algeny, genetic destruction of yield barriers and agricultural transformation. Presidential Address, Agricultural Science Section, 55th Indian Science Congress, January 1968. Proceedings Indian Science Congress, Varanasi, India.[]
  51. ^ UNEP, Sasakawa Environment Prize, previous Laureates, co-winners 94
  52. ^ Honda Foundation, About the award
  53. ^ Albert Einstein World Award by the World Cultural Council
  54. ^ List of Fellows of Bangladesh Academy of Sciences
  55. ^ the Hindu, "Country should move to evergreen revolution.", March 31, 2004. [17]
  56. ^ Suresh,N, BioSpectrum Awards 2003, The search for Biotech greats, December 12, 2003.[18]
  57. ^ The Times of India
  58. ^ The WILD World Network: World Wilderness Trust - India 1999 [19]
  59. ^ Bose Institute, Kolkata
  60. ^ Indian Environmental Society
  61. ^ Indian Botanical Society, MEDALS AWARDED BY THE SOCIETY, Birbal Sahni Medal. [20]
  62. ^ The Volvo Environment Prize Foundation, The 1990 Volvo Environment Prize awarded to Dr. M. S. Swaminathan,[21]
  63. ^ Association for Women's Rights in Development (AWID)
  64. ^ GM WATCH, "India's GM Godfather", Profile: M S Swaminathan, Norfolk Genetic Information (NGIN) Network, 10/8/2004.[22]
  65. ^ Swaminathan as king of scientific frauds M.S. Dalit Voice
  66. ^ UNESCO, UNITWIN, Chairs Programme, Directory, India, 104 AEN, UNESCO-Cousteau Ecotechnie Chair/The Asian Ecotechnology Network, 1996, p.463.[23]
  67. ^ National Commission on Farmers, Ministry of Agriculture, Govt. of India [24]
  68. ^ Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre, 2005
  69. ^ MSSRF, Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre, 2005
  70. ^ Alberts, Bruce, President - National Academy of Sciences, Washington D.C., "The M. S. Swaminathan I know", Current Science, vol. 89, NO. 2, 8/25/2005,[25]

External links

Toppur Seethapathy Sadasivan (1960) • M.S. Swaminathan (1961) • B.K.Bachhawat (1962) • Jagannath Ganguly (1963} • D.S. Athwal (1964) • Chirayathumadom Venkatachalier Subramanian (1965) • Hari Krishan Jain & Neelamraju Ganga Prasada Rao (1966) • Tathamangam Ananthanarayanan Venkitasubramanian (1968) • Madhu Sudan Kanungo & Narayana Balakrishnan Nair (1971) • Birendra Bijoy Biswas&Satish Chandra Maheshwari (1972) • Bhyravabhotla Radhakrishna Murty (1973) • J. Barnabas (1974) • Obaid Siddiqi (1975) • Guru Prakash Gutta (1976) • T.C.A. Kumar (1977) • A.N. Bhaduri (1979) • Asis Datta & Jamuna Sharan Singh (1980) • Prafullachandra Vishnu Sane (1981) • Sunil Kumar Podder (1982) • Govindarajan Padmanabhan (1983) • Thavamani Jegajothivel Pandian (1984) • Chhitar Mal Gupta (1985) • M. Gadgil (1986) • B. Bhattacharyya (1988) • M.R.S. Rao (1988) • Subhash Chandra Lakhotia (1989) • Samir K. Brahmachari (1990) • Kuppamuthu Dharmalingam (1992) • Raghavendra Gadagkar (1993) • A. Bhattacharya (1994) • Seyed Ehtesham Hasnain & Kallappa Muniyappa (1995) • Ghanshyam Swarup (1996) • Jayaraman Gowrishankar (1997) • Krishnaswami VijayRaghavan (1998) • Dinakar Mashnu Salunke (2000) • Raghavan Varadarajan & Amitabha Chattopadhyay (2002) • Satyajit Mayor (2003) • Gopal Chandra Kundu & Ramesh Venkata Sonti (2004) • Tapas K. Kundu & Shekhar C. Mande (2005) • Vinod Bhakuni & Rajesh Sudhir Gokhale (2006) • Upinder Singh Bhalla & Narayanaswamy Srinivasan (2007) • Gajendra Pal Singh Raghava & L.S. Shashidhara (2008) • Amitabh Joshi & Bhaskar Saha (2009) • Sanjeev Galande & Shubha Tole (2010) Amit Prakash Sharma & Rajan Sankaranarayanan (2011)
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