MS Swaminathan, a true champion of farmers and sustainable agriculture, PM Modi writes

livemint.com:

shree anna as super foods but Swaminathan had encouraged discourse around millets since the 1990s. My personal interactions with Swaminathan were extensive. They began after I took over as chief minister of Gujarat in 2001.

During those days, Gujarat was not known for its agricultural prowess. Successive droughts, a super cyclone and an earthquake had impacted the growth trajectory of the state. Among the many initiatives we launched was the ‘soil health card’, which enabled us to understand the soil better and address problems if they arose.

It was in the context of this scheme that I met Swaminathan. He appreciated the scheme and also shared his valuable inputs for the same. His endorsement was enough to convince those who were sceptical about the scheme, which would eventually set the stage for Gujarat’s agricultural success.

Our interactions continued during my chief ministerial tenure and also when I took over as Prime Minister. I met him at the International Agro-Biodiversity Congress in 2016 and the next year, in 2017, I launched a two-part book series written by him. The Kural describes farmers as the pin that holds the world together because it is the farmers who sustain everyone.

Swaminathan understood this principle very well. A lot of people call him akrishi vaigyanik, or an agricultural scientist. But, I have always believed that he was even more.

He was a true kisan vaigyanik, a farmers’ scientist. In his heart there was a farmer. The success of his works is not restricted to their academic excellence; it lies in the impact they have had outside the laboratories, in the farms and the fields.