Indian agriculture scientists and policymakers remember M.S. Swaminathan as someone who walked ahead of time not just as a scientist, researcher and academic but also as a visionary administrator. The community believes that developing high yielding Basmati rice varieties, innovatively using the technology of mutation for various crops, application of genetics for increasing production and food security and launching programmes such as “lab to land” were his major contributions to the country’s agriculture sector.
Former Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) Trilochan Mohapatra remembers Dr. Swaminathan as an encouraging teacher and a strong administrator. “He was our professor at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute. He minced no words to encourage us. When we successfully organised a congregation of scientists, he wrote a letter to then Director of IARI congratulating us as ‘students who take pride in perfection’. I had met him last for his birthday in August. In all our meetings, he would passionately talk about research and finding in the field of agriculture, which was so inspiring,” Prof. Mohapatra said.
