Alappuzha: Close on the heels of the Tamil Nadu Government’s decision to rename an Agricultural Research Institute at Thanjavur after Dr M S Swaminathan, calls are getting louder to rename the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) after the renowned agricultural scientist, who passed away last month.

Dr K G Padma Kumar, Director, International Research and Training Centre for Below Sea Level Farming in Kuttanad, said the demand has been mostly coming from the farmers’ community in Central Kerala whose lives have been bettered by the intervention of Swaminathan, the architect of Indian Green Revolution. 

“The farmers, especially in Kuttanad, are keen to pay tribute to the great man who turned their lives for the better. They are making recurring calls during the various events organized to commemorate the scientists. It’s now up to the government to take a call,” said Dr Padmakumar, who had worked closely with Dr Swaminathan in framing the Kuttanad package.

According to him, the practice of naming varsities after eminent personalities to honour their contributions is so common in states like Tamil Nadu. At a meeting held in Kuttanad a couple of weeks ago, Congress Working Committee member K C Venugopal MP and Kodikkunnil Suresh MP had demanded to rename the Rice Research Station under the KAU at Moncompu here after Dr Swaminathan. 

Dr Swaminathan, who transformed the post-Independent India’s image from that of an agricultural basket case to a breadbasket, had his roots in Kuttanad -Kerala’s granary. One of his key contributions, the high-yielding rice variety called IR8, was instrumental in revolutionizing the state’s paddy farming sector in Kerala.

In 2007, a committee led by him submitted a report on the "Measures to mitigate agrarian distress in Alappuzha and Kuttanad wetland ecosystem", which prompted the government to announce a special package to restore Kuttanad. The study, meanwhile, also prompted the Food and Agriculture Organisation to declare the Kuttanad Wetland Agriculture System as a Global Heritage Agriculture System.