n May 1998 ICARDA had the privilege of welcoming Dr M.S. Swaminathan, the first World Food Prize winner, to the Center. He visited ICARDA to chair the meeting of  the CGIAR System-wide Genetic Resources Policy Committee (GRPC). During his visit, Dr Swaminathan delivered a stimulating address to a large and attentive audience. 
      The Director General, Prof. Dr Adel El-Beltagy, introduced Dr Swaminathan as "one of the leaders of agricultural research of this century." He added that Dr Swaminathan was a pioneer of the Green Revolution and had played an instrumental role in the development of agriculture in his own country, India, as well as elsewhere in the world. 
      It was a view shared by a former Secretary General of the United Nations, Javier Perez de Cuellar.  In 1987, when Dr Swaminathan was awarded the first World Food Prize, Dr Cuellar wrote that Dr Swaminathan was a "living legend... His contributions to agricultural science have made an indelible mark on food production in India and elsewhere in the developing world. By any standards, he will go into the annals of history as a world scientist of rare distinction."

n his address at ICARDA,   Science and sustainable food security: challenges ahead, Dr Swaminathan--one of the fathers of the Green Revolution--called for an 'evergreen revolution' which would provide real food security during the century ahead. And he took his audience step by step through exactly what he felt had to be done to achieve this.