Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan (7 August 1925 – 28 September 2023) was an Indian geneticist and plant breeder, administrator and humanitarian.

[2] He has been called the main architect[a] of the green revolution in India for his leadership and role in introducing and further developing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice.

[5][6] Swaminathan's collaborative scientific efforts with Norman Borlaug, spearheading a mass movement with farmers and other scientists and backed by public policies, saved India and Pakistan from certain famine-like conditions in the 1960s.

[7][8] His leadership as director general of the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines was instrumental in his being awarded the first World Food Prize in 1987, recognized as one of the highest honours in the field of agriculture.

Swaminathan contributed basic research related to potato, wheat, and rice, in areas such as cytogenetics, ionizing radiation, and radiosensitivity.

[10] Swaminathan chaired the National Commission on Farmers in 2004, which recommended far-reaching ways to improve India's farming system.

[21] From childhood, he interacted with farming and farmers; his extended family grew rice, mangoes, and coconut, and later expanded into other areas such as coffee.

[24] But when he witnessed the impacts of the Bengal famine of 1943 during the Second World War and shortages of rice throughout the sub-continent, he decided to devote his life to ensuring India had enough food.

Brayne, a former Indian Civil Service officer, whose experiences with rural India influenced Swaminathan in his later years.

Swaminathan turned down a faculty position in order to continue to make a difference back home in India.

There were no jobs in his specialisation and it was only three months later that he received an opportunity through a former professor to work temporarily as an assistant botanist at Central Rice Research Institute in Cuttack.

[42] Half a year later he joined Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) in New Delhi in October 1954 as an assistant cytogeneticist.

[48] Just before receiving his Nobel Prize in 1970, Norman Borlaug wrote to Swaminathan:[49] The Green Revolution has been a team effort and much of the credit for its spectacular development must go to the Indian officials, organizations, scientists, and farmers.

Had this not occurred, it is quite possible that there would not have been a Green Revolution in Asia.Notable contributions were made by Indian agronomists and geneticists such as Gurdev Khush and Dilbagh Singh Athwal.

[53] Droughts during this period led him to form groups to watch weather and crop patterns, with the ultimate aim of protecting the poor from malnutrition.

[57] As director general, he spread awareness among rice-growing families of making the value of each part of the rice crop.

[61] In their commendation letters, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, Frank Press, President Ronald Reagan, and others recognized his efforts.

He helped to build and develop a number of institutions and provided research support in China, Vietnam, Myanmar, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, Iran, and Cambodia.

[66] Swaminathan co-chaired the United Nations Millennium Project on hunger from 2002 to 2005 and was head of the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs between 2002 and 2007.

[2] In his later years, he had also been part of initiatives related to bridging the digital divide,[75] and bringing research to decision-makers in the field of hunger and nutrition.

[88] Efforts towards growing rice with C4 carbon fixation capabilities, which would allow a better photosynthesis and water usage, were started at IRRI under Swaminathan.

[86] Swaminathan's early basic research on the effects of radiation on cells and organisms partly formed the base of future redox biology.

[90] Rudy Rabbinge [nl] calls Swaminathan's paper on neutron radiation in agriculture in 1966 presented at an International Atomic Energy Agency conference in the United States as "epoch-making".

[93] When accepting the Ramon Magsaysay Award, Swaminathan quoted Seneca: "A hungry person listens neither to reason, nor to religion, nor is bent by any prayer.

[97] In the 'Dr Norman E. Borlaug Hall of Laureates' at Des Moines, Iowa, United States, there is an artwork of Swaminathan made up of 250,000 pieces of glass.

Dr. Swaminathan’s visionary leadership has not only transformed Indian agriculture but also ensured the nation’s food security and prosperity.

[104] When the University of Massachusetts, Boston, honoured him with a science doctorate, they commented on the "magnificent inclusiveness of [Swaminathan's] concerns, by nation, socioeconomic group, gender, inter-generational, and including both human and natural environments".

[108] Selected publications include: In addition he has written a few books on the general theme of his life's work, biodiversity and sustainable agriculture for alleviation of hunger.

Swaminathan's books, papers, dialogues and speeches include: In the 1970s, 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.

[115] A paper published in the 25 November 2018 edition of Current Science titled 'Modern Technologies for Sustainable Food and Nutrition Security' listed Swaminathan as a co-author.