MS Swaminathan, 'father of the Green Revolution' in India will be honoured with the Bharat Ratna posthumously.
It was a period that began in the 1960s during which agriculture in India was converted into a modern industrial system by the adoption of technology.
This movement was a great success as it changed the country's status from a food-deficient economy to one of the world's leading agricultural nations.
Green Revolution began in 1967 and lasted till 1978. Major milestones in this undertaking were the development of a high-yielding variety of seeds.
The Green Revolution resulted in a great increase in the production of food grains, especially wheat and rice.
The Green Revolution resulted in large-scale use of pesticides and synthetic nitrogen fertilisers for improved irrigation projects and crop varieties
MS Swaminathan in an interview said that use of HYV seeds, and fertilisers in regions of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh, was a game changer.
Swaminathan said that in 1947, India produced 6 million tonnes of wheat a year. But during Green Revolution, wheat production was about 17 million t