Forty years ago, Indian plant breeder M.S. Swaminathan was hailed as the father of one of the most remarkable food accomplishments in history.
He led a successful effort to develop and win farmer acceptance for new wheat and rice varieties that turned India from a country where millions died from regular famines to a food exporter.
It was dubbed the Green Revolution and for his leadership role, Swaminathan was the first recipient of the United Nations’ World Food Prize.
Now, the 85-year-old is lamenting the stagnation of the Green Revolution and promoting a new food revolution – a sustainable Evergreen Revolution that includes poverty reduction and social policy as well as an emphasis on feed production.
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He insists that hunger in large Asian countries could be eliminated by 2015, “within my lifetime,” if governments, universities and the private sector took the issue seriously.
However, it would take a political commitment that Swaminathan has yet to see.
“Hunger today in my view is not a problem of nature but a manmade problem that can be eliminated if there is a will to do so.”
He said a large part of the problem are social and health policies that exclude many of Asia’s poorest residents from the benefits of the food that is produced.
“When I say we can have the elimination of hunger, I put the condition that we must have a holistic approach,” he said. “Production is just one aspect. You need economic access to food and you have to deal with the absorption of food in the body and that means clean drinking water, sanitation, primary health and so on.”
He insisted that food policies should be aimed at the smaller, poorer farmers and poor consumers and based on social and gender equity.
The public sector should lead research into public varieties that would enable poor, small farmers to save seed rather than farmers being captive to large seed producing companies that require annual seed purchases.
As well, he wants to see modern communications get the best information on weather, prices and seeds to small farmers through cellphones or other forms of up-to-date communication.
With help from Canada’s International Development Research Centre, Swaminathan has been leading a campaign to create village knowledge centres throughout rural India that make daily information available to local producers.
While he talks about sustainable agriculture, Swaminathan said he is not talking about just organic agriculture. His vision for a sustainable food future includes use of artificial fertilizers and chemicals, as well as genetically modified varieties.
However, he said farmers and society must realize that constantly trying to extract as much crop as possible from the land without replenishing it degrades the land.
The original food revolution was based on new varieties but also increased use of chemicals and irrigation. Now, he said, farmers must be taught the importance of bringing an ecological ethos to food production.
“There’s no magic,” he said.
“Inputs in, outputs out. I think what has happened since the Green Revolution is what I call a greed revolution, trying to over-exploit natural resources beyond their capacity, not giving back to the soil what they have taken out.”
However, he does see hope. As an appointed member of India’s Parliament, he is pushing a bill that would give Indians a legal right to the equivalent of at least 25 kilograms of rice per month.
“If it becomes a legal requirement, it would stimulate more production and consumption.”
Productivity increases from the Green Revolution have stalled, but it remains a great success.
Wheat production had increased to six million tonnes in the 4,000 years of cultivation to India’s independence in 1947. By 1964, it had increased to 12 million tonnes, but imports of 10 million tonnes from Canada and the United States were still required.
But Swaminathan said in just four years in the 1960s, new varieties and farming methods increased production by five million tonnes, and over the years production has risen to 70 million tonnes annually.
“In that first four years, 1964-68, we increased production by five million and it was said that 4,000 years of history were condensed into four years,” he said with a laugh. “It was widely thought we would never feed ourselves. That (increase) created a self-confidence in our agricultural capacity that we still have.
