Dilbagh Athwal
Scientist whose work on hybrid wheat helped India to feed itself
DILBAGH ATHWAL, who has died aged 88, was a plant geneticist dubbed “the father of the wheat revolution” for his work creating new varieties of wheat and millet that allowed millions of farmers in India to enjoy larger yields with a greater nutritional value.
In the early 1960s India was feared to be on the brink of famine. A succession of poor harvests, combined with a rapid increase in the population, had forced the authorities to start importing basic foods from overseas at high cost.
Help came in the form of Norman Borlaug, an American agronomist whose efforts to introduce new wheat varieties in Mexico had seen crop yields double on test plots. Subsequently 18,000 tons of “semidwarf ” wheat seed was delivered to India. Athwal, heading up research in Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana, set to work selecting the breeding lines that would deliver the greatest benefit and distributing them among the region’s wheat breeders.
One significant problem was that the varieties which grew most successfully in Punjab soil were red, which made them unattractive to farmers and consumers. Athwal therefore modified two wheat varieties – known as Lerma Rojo 64 and PV 18 – to produce ambercoloured grains that could be turned into perfect golden chapatis, while retaining all the desirable qualities of the sister strain.
The new variety was called Kalyan 227, after Athwal’s home village, and was released for cultivation in 1967. Its success was such that it became known as Kalyan Sona, or “golden saviour”. At one time there was no room left in granaries, so the Indian government had to compel schools to store excess wheat on their premises. In 1975 Dilbagh Athwal received the Padma Bhushan Award, India’s third-highest civilian honour, for his contributions to biological science.
Dilbagh Singh Athwal was born in Lyallpur, India (now in Pakistan), on October 12 1928. During the partition his family moved to Punjab and he attended Punjab University to study agricultural sciences. In 1954 he received a PHD in plant breeding and genetics from the University of Sydney, before returning to India to become head of the department of plant breeding at Punjab Agricultural University.
There he made his first significant contribution to commercial farming with his work on pearl millet (bajra), which was an important source of animal fodder in Punjab. Athwal’s new hybrid millet, dubbed HB-1, helped to revolutionise production in India, from a yearly yield of 3.5 million tons in 1965 to 8 million tons in 1970.
While in Punjab, Athwal also conducted significant research into the genetics of crop resistance. In particular, he was interested in growing wheat with an inherited immunity to stem rust, a disease that produces reddish-brown pustules and can wipe out whole crops. The later success of Kalyan Sona was due, in large part, to its rust-resistant properties.
Athwal went on to join the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) in the Philippines, initially as assistant director general. He retired as deputy director general in 1977 and joined the Rockefeller Foundation’s International Agricultural Development Service (later Winrock International), which was devoted to disseminating high-yield agricultural techniques among nations such as Indonesia and Nepal. As programme officer for Asia and the Pacific, Athwal travelled the region extensively, helping to design and implement new farming initiatives.
Settling in Toms River, New Jersey, following his retirement, Dilbagh Athwal enjoyed a successful second career in real estate.
He married, in 1955, Gurdev Clair. She survives him, as do their two sons.
Dilbagh Athwal, born October 12 1928, died May 14 2017