M. S. Swaminathan

Quotes

• “Agriculture is the backbone of the livelihood security system of nearly 700 million people in the country and we need to build our food security on the foundation of home grown food.”
• “Let me make it very clear that the days of cheap food are over, just as the days of cheap oil are over”
• “When you take up lab-to-land transfer, you should know the socio-economic circumstances of the farmer. You should not do experiments with the farmer, because he is already poor. You must be very sure that whatever you are recommending is both economically and ecologically sound. If farm economics and farm ecology go wrong, nothing else can go right in agriculture.”
• “So there is a big transformation. Also if you see the average lifespan, which was 28–29 in 1947, is now 64–65. In Kerala it is 74 or so. I am sure soon it will become 80–90. That is partly also because of food, because without nutrition, it is not possible. So we have had a transformation in our economic wellbeing. But that is not spread evenly in society; there are still very poor people, the highly deprived. In my view, the first task of both science and society is to address this issue”
• “The right to food has to become the right to good food”
• “Eternal vigilance is the price of food security.”

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Key facts

Constituency

Nominated

Born

Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan , ( 1925-08-07 ) 7 August 1925, Kumbakonam , Tanjore District, Madras Presidency , British India (present-day Thanjavur , Tamil Nadu, India)

Died

28 September 2023 (2023-09-28) (aged 98), Chennai , Tamil Nadu, India

Education

University of Kerala ( BSc ) University of Madras ( MSc ) University of Cambridge ( PhD )

Spouse

Mina Swaminathan ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1955 ; died 2022 ) ​

Children

3, including Soumya

Awards

Padma Shri (1967) Ramon Magsaysay Award (1971) Padma Bhushan (1972) World Food Prize (1987) Padma Vibhushan (1989) Bharat Ratna (2024)

Fields

Botany plant genetics genetics cytogenetics ecological economics plant breeding ecotechnology

Institutions

Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI; as teacher, researcher and research administrator, 1954–1972) Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR; as Director General, 1972–1980) International Rice Research Institute (IRRI; as Director General, 1982–1988)

Thesis

Species Differentiation, and the Nature of Polyploidy in certain species of the genus Solanum–section Tuberarium (1952)

Doctoral advisor

H. W. Howard

via Wikipedia infobox

Wikidata facts

Image

Monkombu Sambasivan Swaminathan - Kolkata 2013-01-07 2674.JPG

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