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Indian-Mexican agricultural scientist whose wheat saved millions of lives globally

12:06 PM Jan 30, 2022 | Team Udayavani |
Rajaram was a man who emphasised the necessity of sharing his knowledge and findings with the rest of the world, in addition to his ingenuity. His knowledge and skill-set were passed on to others who would go on to speed the development of high-yield wheat varieties. He trained and mentored over 700 scientists from the developing countries.
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Dr. Sanjaya Rajaram, who died on February 17, 2021, at his home in Ciudad Obregón, Sonora, Mexico, was one of the most distinguished agricultural experts of his generation. Building on the success of the Green Revolution, his research has resulted in the invention of 480 wheat varieties that are grown by small and large farmers in 51 countries across six continents, resulting in a global production increase of more than 200 million tonnes.

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The Indian government posthumously gave him the Padma Bhushan, the country’s third-highest civilian honour, earlier this month, in recognition of his tremendous achievement.

The Padma Shri was bestowed upon him by the Indian government in 2001.

His wheat cultivars are produced on 58 million hectares globally, according to the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), and have prevented starvation in various parts of the world.

After Nobel Laureate Dr Norman Borlaug left CIMMYT in 1972, Rajaram took over the wheat breeding programme at the age of 29. Before joining the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas, he worked with the organisation for 33 years, including seven as Director of the Global Wheat Program (ICARDA). In 2008, he will formally step down from his official duties.

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Rajaram was born in 1943 and grew up in a humble family near Raipur, a small farming community in Uttar Pradesh’s Varanasi region. His family made a living cultivating wheat, maize, and rice on their 5-hectare farm. Meanwhile, Rajaram completed his basic and senior school education at a country school about 5 kilometres from his house. He was a bright student who received a scholarship to attend high school and then went on to the University of Gorakhpur, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in agriculture. Following graduation, he earned a master’s degree in genetics and plant breeding at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in New Delhi, where he studied under Dr. MS Swaminathan, a pioneer in India’s Green Revolution.

He received a scholarship to continue his PhD in plant breeding at the University of Sydney after completing his master’s degree. He met with Dr. IA Watson, as a graduate student at the University of Minnesota who had studied alongside Dr. Norman Barlaug. At the CIMMYT in Mexico, it was Dr Watson who recommended Rajaram to Barlau.

Rajaram worked under Borlaug’s supervision on his research and fieldwork from 1969 to 1972 before taking over as head of the wheat breeding team at CIMMYT.

“Like Borlaug, Rajaram had the amazing capacity to visually recognise and select for crossbreeding the plant varieties exhibiting a range of desired qualities, a talent that was vital to wheat breeding in the 1980s and 1990s,” according to the World Food Prize citation.

His new wheat varieties would find their way to places where farmers were fighting for higher yields, such as remote parts of China, Pakistan, and even Brazil, where he developed an aluminum-tolerant variety that thrived in acidic soil. He could even predict some of the diseases that could jeopardise this important crop. They would improve the resistance to these diseases in their wheat types by working with his team at CIMMYT.

Rajaram was a man who emphasised the necessity of sharing his knowledge and findings with the rest of the world, in addition to his ingenuity. His knowledge and skill-set were passed on to others who would go on to speed the development of high-yield wheat varieties. He trained and mentored over 700 scientists from the developing countries.

Despite his Mexican citizenship, Rajaram never forgot about India and continued to promote wheat breeding, genetic engineering, and precision agriculture in the country. His legacy, on the other hand, includes the work he accomplished for the rest of the world, and that is something we should be proud of.

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