Swarna was developed at the Maruteru Research Station in Andhra Pradesh, from the cross Vasista/Mahsuri (IR8/Slo 13//Taichung 65/Mayang Ebos 80). Swarna was officially released in Andhra Pradesh, but is now grown mainly outside that state, throughout the eastern India plateau, the terai of Nepal, and higher fields in Bangladesh.
It is grown in shallow rainfed lowlands (water depths to about 50 cm) where submergence is not a problem. Swarna is similar in quality to its parent Mahsuri, but it is short-statured and highly responsive to N fertilization. It has a characteristic dark green leaf color.
As farmers began to see big yield increases from the use of fertilizer and improved varieties in irrigated fields, they became interested in an input-responsive variety for favorable lowlands. With its high yield potential and preferred quality, Swarna spread quickly, occupying many millions of hectares in south Asia even in areas where it was never officially released or even tested.
The wide-scale production of Swarna has led to the sort of disease and pest pressure expected when a uniform variety is planted to a huge area; Swarna is susceptible to sheath blight and brown planthopper, and does not tolerate drought or submergence well. It is also very long in duration for some of the upper fields in which it is often grown. Nonetheless, it is being replaced only slowly, and will be grown for many years to come. The small Andhra Pradesh research station that developed Swarna has had a tremendous impact in South Asia. It has recently scored another major success with the release of MTU 1010, a short-duration variety that is rapidly coming to dominate upper fields in drought-prone parts of eastern India.