M. S. Swaminathan Quotes

In Punjab wheat production it is a 'gamble of temperature' unlike other parts of the country where there is a 'gamble of rainfall'.

There are no miracles in agricultural production.

We don't get typhoons in December. They normally end by September. A typhoon happening in October is considered a late event.

Corn is a greedy crop, as farmers will tell you.

One of the great things about Lanai is that the weather is always fabulous. Always 82 degrees and sunny. The problem is that, like California now, Lanai needs more water.

Our farmers feed the world. They are up before dawn and work till well after sunset. They face any number of challenges they can't control, from too much rain to not enough, from disease to insect infestations.

Working with food was fraught with anxiety when I was a girl. Like all farmers, we were at the mercy of the weather, and we lived in fear of crop failure.

In India, one has to plan according to the monsoons.

Changes to weather patterns that move crop production areas around - we'll adapt to that. It's an engineering problem, and it has engineering solutions.

Technology has allowed us to have more drought-resistant crops. The spotty nature of drought, the spotty nature of rains can sometimes result in better yields than anticipated.

We can no longer let the threat of an early frost send a chill of fear throughout a large portion of our workforce. Diversification is the only answer.

There are a lot of farmers and ranchers who are struggling. I get on my knees every day. If I had a rain prayer or a rain dance I could do, I would do it.

If you know how many acres you have sown of each kind of corn, inquire how much the acre the soil of that land takes for sowing, and count the number of quarters of seed, and you shall know the return of seed, and what ought to be over.

It looks as though yields of over 10 times what we can currently grow per acre are feasible if you control the CO2 concentration, the humidity, the temperature, all the various factors that plants depend on to grow rapidly.

Let me tell you about a place where technology won't work. When you walk onto a farm and are standing on soil, there is no technology that is going to take that soil and transform it into something that is five times more productive.

Cereal production in the rain-fed areas still remains relatively unaffected by the impact of the green revolution, but significant change and progress are now becoming evident in several countries.

My husband says he wants to have the best hay field in Britain. I can't wait.

What happened to Haiti is a threat that could happen anywhere in the Caribbean to these island nations, you know, because of global warming, because of climate change and all this.

Years of drought and famine come and years of flood and famine come, and the climate is not changed with dance, libation or prayer.

The country has been of better character since leaving the Buttes than E. of them, but has now a very fertile appearance. This may be said to begin about the 3rd crossing of Milk R of the line.

Storms make trees take deeper roots.

The agricultural potential of Africa is unlimited.

The farmer had the right to migrate to where the rain fell.

We now know that if the crops fail, it was not caused by demons. Centuries of scientific dialogue has made a difference.

Three little words achingly familiar on a Western farmer's tongue, rule life in the dust bowl of the continent - if it rains.