Eminent agricultural scientist and former Rajya Sabha MP MS Swaminathan, hailed as the ‘father of the Green Revolution’ in the country, died in Chennai this morning at the age of 98.

Professor Swaminathan was a renowned agronomist and plant geneticist credited with introducing high-yielding varieties of wheat and rice in India and further developing these strains. His work with American scientist Norman Borlaug is widely seen as having saved India from famine in the 1960s.

In 1987 Professor Swaminathan was awarded the first World Food Prize, which is seen as the highest honour in the field of agriculture. He has received numerous other awards, including the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1971 and the Albert Einstein World Award for Science in 1986.

Professor Swaminathan was also acclaimed by TIME magazine as one of the twenty most influential Asians of the 20th century; he was one of only three from India, alongside Mahatma Gandhi and Rabindranath Tagore.

He is survived by daughters Soumya Swaminathan, who was the Chief Scientist for the World Health Organization, Madhura Swaminathan (an economist), and Nitya Swaminathan (a gender and rural development professional). His wife, Mina Swaminathan, an educationist, died in March last year.