Mankombu Sambasivan Swaminathan, a renowned agricultural scientist who revolutionized India’s farming and was a key architect of the country’s “Green Revolution,” died Thursday. He was 98.

Swaminathan died at his home in the city of Chennai after an age-related illness, news agency Press Trust of India reported.

In the late 1960s and 1970s, the agriculturalist was instrumental in bringing industrial farming to India, making the country self-sufficient in food and reducing widespread hunger. India’s “Green Revolution,” as it was known, turned the northern states of Punjab and Haryana into breadbaskets for wheat and rice production, helping low-income farmers.

For his work, Swaminathan was named one of the 20 most influential Asians of the 20th century by Time magazine.