One of the leaders of the Green Revolution in India will discuss world hunger Tuesday.

The second annual Norman Borlaug Lecture series will feature M.S. Swaminathan, who will present “Hunger-Free World: The Final Milestone” at 8 p.m. in the Great Hall of the Memorial Union.

The Green Revolution in India refers to a time when India significantly increased small grain production throughout the country in the 1960s, said Donald Beitz, distinguished professor of animal science and emcee for the lecture.

The revolution was an effort of India to achieve food self-sufficiency.

“[Swaminathan’s] research led to the major use of newly developed grains that promoted the Green Revolution in India,” Beitz said. “Now India can be a food exporter [rather than importer] because its grain production has increased so much.”

Swaminathan totes a long list of accomplishments in his career, including serving as India’s secretary of agriculture and director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research.

Swaminathan is currently on a world hunger task force with the United Nations, and is the founder and leader of the Centre for Sustainable Agricultural and Rural Development in India.

“Swaminathan was chosen to speak [for the second lecture in the Norman Borlaug series] because of his prominent stance on world food issues and his association with the World Food Prize Foundation,” said Helen Jensen, who is working on behalf of the nutritional sciences council for the Norman Borlaug Lecture Series.

The presentation by Swaminathan will coincide with a variety of World Food Prize activities around the state, including the World Food Prize ceremony.

The prize is awarded annually to people who have significantly contributed to feeding the world and will be held on Thursday evening in the Iowa State Capitol in Des Moines, said Jensen, professor of economics.

Swaminathan was the first person to win the award in 1987 and has come from his home in India to attend the ceremony and will stop in Ames for his lecture.

Norman Borlaug, the namesake of the lecture series, was the speaker at the first annual event in the series and will be a special guest at Swaminathan’s lecture.

Borlaug, an Iowan, was one of the researchers who founded the original Green Revolution in the 1940s, which aided food production in Mexico, and was later implemented in Asia and Latin America.

Swaminathan’s visit will give students, faculty and the whole ISU community a chance to learn about world hunger issues that still exist today, Beitz said.

“This is a golden opportunity to get to know the people who have made major contributions to seeing that the world feeds itself,” he said.