When it was his turn, Swaminathan spoke powerfully about the new technology and hybrid seeds that they had at their disposal which [American agricultural scientist] Norman Borlaug had sent. He was convinced that based on their trials in IARI [Indian Agricultural Research Institute] controlled plots, if these seeds could be sown in the fields of actual farmers, the yield stagnation in India could be overcome on a scale not witnessed before.
‘What is stopping you then, Swaminathan?’ Subramaniam looked intrigued. ‘Money, sir. We don’t have any!’ came the prompt reply.
‘I had submitted a proposal earlier which the Ministry refused to pass citing a lack of funds and more importantly, little belief in the new technology itself. The dwarf Mexican seeds provided by Dr Borlaug have proven they work but the Ministry had their doubts and that led to inaction on their part. Every year we are routinely humiliated by the import of PL 480 wheat from the United States. We need to break this debilitating cycle of our ship-to-mouth existence. Importing food is like importing unemployment. Seventy per cent of our people are employed in agriculture so when we import food, we are actually supporting farmers in other countries,’ Swaminathan responded passionately. ‘Developing a hybrid seed variety on our own is exceedingly time consuming as well and not entirely feasible within our current timeframe. We have tried, I can assure you. It usually takes about a decade at least, if not more, to develop a new seed variety, which is essentially considered a scientific breakthrough, and which will yield more grain and will simultaneously also be disease free. That is a tall order. We then need to have innumerable trials to disseminate this new information to the farmers and all relevant stakeholders concerned through various partner and extension agencies. We simply don’t have that kind of time. Since Borlaug had the technology readily available we asked to use it in our fields and he was magnanimous enough to let us use it. It took him a good part of a decade to perfect this technology. I wanted to use this opportunity to then “purchase time” to leapfrog in terms of spreading new varieties. But some in the government see it as an American ploy to control our fields and farmers. That is simply not true. They forget that we approached Dr Borlaug to share his miracle seeds with us and not the other way around. He finally visited India after several requests were made. There is also a fear that the new Mexican variants will bring with them new diseases. This is completely unfounded as we have sowed them in IARI plots nationwide and there hasn’t been a hint of disease. We have every reason to believe that we are on the precipice of a massive breakthrough, but we require vital and immediate funding to take it to the farmers.’
 "The voice of farmers: How Subramaniam backed Swaminathan's seed dream")
