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Magazine
Architect of the green revolution
Suresh K. Sinha
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On the event of the first death anniversary of C. Subramaniam on November 7, it is appropriate to remember his contribution to Indian agriculture. The introduction of a scientific and industrial outlook has to a large extent shaped the growth and development of agriculture over the years.
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INDIA now has a food grain stock of 60 million and tonnes, and we do not know how to make the best use of it for the society and the country. But when C. Subramaniam was asked by Lal Bahadur Shastri to be the Minister of Food and Agriculture in his Cabinet in 1964, the country was going through a food crisis not known and experienced in post-independent India. The country imported 25.4 million tonnes of food grains between 1961 and1965, and 19 million tonnes in just two years, 1966 and 1967. The import of food grains was about 10 per cent of the indigenous production and the population of the country was 480 million. It was not surprising that Shastriji gave a call to the countrymen to miss a meal in a week. No one could have anticipated the miracle for which C. Subramaniam laid not only the foundation but also a road map for self-sufficiency in food in the country. On the floor of the Parliament he said, "Therefore if this House and the country want that we should reach self-sufficiency, as far as I am concerned, as far as this Government is concerned, I want to give this pledge that we shall do everything possible to become self-sufficient and to see that we get rid of our dependence on imported food grains as early as possible.'' The pledge was fulfilled when the country between 1976 and 1980 imported no grains despite a severe drought of 1979 that resulted in decreased production by 22 million tonnes over the previous year.
C. Subramaniam, in fact, changed the direction of agriculture in India by introducing a scientific and industrial outlook. He did not receive a return commensurate with his labour or with the investment that he had to make. This was mainly because of the pricing policy that had been adopted since Independence, a legacy of the strategy that was adopted during the Second World War.
C. Subramaniam thus set out two major objectives of the agriculture policy for achieving self-sufficiency in food grains. These were (i) introduce science and technology in agriculture, and (ii) establish a pricing policy to motivate farmers for enhancing production. He constituted a panel of scientists from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi led by Dr. B. P. Pal to advise him on scientific aspects. Dr. Ralph Cummings of the Rockefeller Foundation, with the support of the Ford Foundation had been attempting to introduce new high yielding wheat varieties from Mexico. Seeds of wheat varieties were distributed to IARI, Pantnagar and Ludhiana that gave a yield of 5000 to 6000 kg per hectare, and yet there was no progress in the propagation of these new varieties. Ralph Cummings could convince C. Subramaniam about the suitability of new wheat varieties. The Agriculture Minister did discuss the results of the studies mentioned to him by Ralph Cummings with the scientific panel that he had constituted. While there was a difference of opinion amongst scientists, some taking a conservative view, C. Subramaniam took the decision of introducing new technology. Such a decision had to be converted into a policy, which not only included the supply of inputs and multiplication of seed but also provision of a remunerative price. This was to increase Government expenditure and therefore, needed the concurrence of the Ministry of Finance and the Planning Commission. There were reservations in these ministries as well as among economists and agriculture experts. Fortunately for CS, as he was fondly called, he had the confidence of both the Prime Ministers, Shastri and Indira Gandhi, apart from some bureaucrats. However, there was criticism for introducing new varieties of wheat with the support of the Rockefeller Foundation and the members of the Communist Party attacked him for his pro-American policy, not realising that the country was already importing food grains from the U.S. In fact, the Soviet Union was also importing food grains from the U.S. but that did not bother communist in India. The question was basically to get rid of the imports by making the country self-sufficient in food. Even his colleague from Tamil Nadu, T. T. Krishnamachari The Finance Minister, was not supportive of C. Subramaniam. When C. N. Annadurai asked as to what was the new policy, C. Subramaniam's reply in the Rajya Sabha was as follows. ``Annadurai asked what is the new policy? The new policy is whether we go in the same way the traditional agriculture or whether we shall break away from that and to scientific and modern agriculture. This is the issue, the fertiliser and non-fertiliser (cow dung), the plant protection, non-plant protection. Some of us have been saying that we have been carrying on this agriculture for 2000 years and our peasants know everything in the world with reference to traditional agriculture but modern scientific agriculture is not known to every one of us. We have to learn many new things. Therefore, the policy decision with reference to the question is that we are not going to stick to traditional agriculture. We are going to turn to modern agriculture on the basis of modern material input, based on science and technology.''
To break all resistance, CS adopted a unique approach by converting his five acre bungalow lawns and playgrounds to a Demonstration Farm with high yielding varieties of seeds and once it proved to be a success, he obtained instant approval from his cabinet colleagues for the new agricultural policy. It so happened that CS visited Manila to attend an FAO regional conference, which took him to the International Rice Research Institute. He was given small quantities of seed of 12 new varieties including Taichung Native 1, and Taichung Native 3. This material brought in 1965 was not only suitable for cultivation, but also as parental lines for developing high yielding varieties to meet consumer needs in India. Thus, with this new policy, we took advantage of both wheat and rice technology unlike many other countries where only one of these could be successfully attempted. Accordingly, the change was to be brought in North, East and South. Subramaniam took a deliberate decision to introduce high yielding wheat varieties in Punjab (Punjab and Haryana of today) and parts of western U.P., while recognising that the climate and soil of Bihar were good for introduction. But he had a lot of confidence in farmers of Punjab who indeed lived up to his expectations. What today one must admire is not only his vision but also the fact that for agriculture and food the whole country was his constituency. Having decided to introduce new technology, there were several decisions to be taken — (i) to gain confidence that the technology would be successful in wheat growing regimes, (ii) if it was indeed successful then to spread to a large area as soon as possible to do away with PL-480 supplies. In a meeting of scientists, M. S. Swaminathan, then Head of the Botany Division, IARI, suggested organisation of 1000 demonstration plots of two hectare each in farmers' fields. On the question of failure of demonstrations, CS promised to compensate farmers if they lost. Thus began the ambitious programme of producing 25 million tonnes of wheat, unparalleled in the history of agriculture anywhere in the world. 23,000 tonnes of seed was imported from Mexico for distribution in the 1966-67 crop season. Dr. Borlaugh later said that while CIMMYT evolved the new seed, but the decision of India to import 18000 tonnes (23000 tonnes in all) of this seed set a chain reaction not only in India but also in Pakistan and elsewhere. This led to improvement in agricultural production in many developing countries. Dr. Borlaugh received the Noble Prize for his contributions for peace through agricultural production that popularly came to be known as ``Green Revolution''.
Several important decisions were needed for sustaining the change. The first was the reorganisation of agricultural research in the country. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research was reorganised following the vision of Homi Bhabha called ``Growing Science''. The Director General was to be the Secretary to the Government of India and thus agricultural research and education were taken out of the Department of Agriculture. The ICAR unfortunately has grown as a large organisation having layers of Managerial Scientists and thus becoming a bureaucratic organisation. How much one wishes to see a person of the perception of C. Subramaniam to reorganise ICAR as a scientific organisation. Participating in a workshop at the MSS Foundation, C. Subramaniam said ``The time has come to realise that agricultural sciences cannot function in isolation. It has to interact with other scientific disciplines. Mathematics has its own impact on agricultural sciences, physics has its own and of course so does biology. Therefore, in the fora in which I have been participating in the last few years, I have been suggesting that there is no question of isolating agricultural sciences and agricultural universities. There should be greater interaction with the general universities and with research in other disciplines.''
The organisations that were established in the short period he was Minister for Food and Agriculture are National Seed Corporation, State Farm Corporation of India, Agriculture Price Commission and many others. An important organisation which earned a name for itself is the National Dairy Development Board established by the decision of CS at the initiative of Shastriji and with Dr. V. Kurian as Chairman. This organisation is now known to a common man as Mother Dairy through its outlets.
C. Subramaniam remained committed to agriculture and the welfare of farmers all through his life. He realised that introduction of new seed was the need of the hour when he was Minister of Food and Agriculture. When he was nearing 90 years, he realised that the productivity improvements achieved as a result of Green Revolution were plateauing and there was need for a holistic approach for agriculture while continuing emphasis on marketing and income to farmers. He perceived that our soils are getting depleted of nutrients, particularly of micronutrients and there is unnecessary use of pesticides. He established the National Agro Foundation for bringing awareness of the emerging needs to the farming community. I was fortunate to visit him on behalf of the Technology Information Forecast And Assessment Council (TIFAC-DST) for a Project that he established. This is the first project in the country that is a Referral Laboratory. He got it established on October 7, 2000, the Vijayadasami day to make a lasting contribution to agriculture.
C. Subramaniam was a man who had the courage to take decisions and put the nation above himself. A reply during the debate in Rajya Sabha summed up his conviction. He said, ``There is a proverb in Tamil, and I am sure my Honourable Friend (Referring to C. N. Annadurai) will bear me out. It is to the effect that it we wait for all the waves to subside before we enter the ocean for the purpose of taking a bath, then we will never be able to enter the ocean at all. We have to brave the waters and enter the ocean.'' C. N. Annadurai: ``First you should learn swimming before that.''
C. Subramaniam: ``That is the basic thing: I know we sometime miss the basic facts of it. We know to swim now; we have the experience, we have the knowledge. But if we say, let us utilise this knowledge and this experience when everything becomes ideal, when response from farmers becomes ideal, when our Parliament is ideal, when the Ministers are also ideal, when there is greater cooperation with the Ministers, if I have to wait for all these things, then we will never be able to take it up. We must go.''
He is the man we remember on his first death anniversary on November 7, 2001, who made India self-sufficient in food through his conviction, courage and commitment. The country rightly recognised this great son of India with the Bharat Ratna Award.
The writer is a Former Director, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi.
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