Modern figure
Dilbagh Singh Athwal
ਦਿਲਬਾਗ ਸਿੰਘ ਅਠਵਾਲ
Wheat breeder at Ludhiana whose new varieties, bred with Norman Borlaug's dwarf wheats, began the Green Revolution in the Punjab.
Dilbagh Singh Athwal worked at the Punjab Agricultural University in Ludhiana in the 1960s. Crossing the dwarf Mexican wheats of Norman Borlaug with Indian strains, his team produced short, strong, high-yielding varieties such as PV 18 and Kalyan Sona that would not fall over under heavy grain.
Within a few years Punjab's farmers had doubled their harvests, and India stopped depending on food aid. Athwal later worked for the Rockefeller Foundation and at the rice institute in the Philippines.