Professor Arun Kumar Joshi felicitated

Varanasi, January 18, 2013: Professor Arun Kumar Joshi, Senior Wheat Breeder and South Asia regional Coordinator (Wheat Breeding) Global Wheat Program, CIMMYT-South Asia (Kathmandu-Nepal), was felicitated by the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi for being awarded INSA Fellowship (FNA). Prof. Joshi is the first faculty member in 81 years’ long history of the institute to be inducted as fellow of INSA.

Prof. GC. Mishra introduced the chief guest Prof. Arun Kumar Joshi, who happens to be one of the faulty members of the institute, and he informed the gathering about Prof. Joshi’s induction as FNA.

Welcoming the faculty members, staff and students of the institute, Prof. Ramesh Chand threw light on the academic and research excellence and achievements of Prof. Joshi who untiringly have worked over 3 and half decades on various wheat problems including Gene flow, farmer’s participation in varietal selection, diversification of adapted and high yielding disease resistant lines, spot blotch pathogen and heat stress beside working on the improvement of socio-economic status of the farmers of the region.

Dr. Joshi has contributed to food security in India, Asia and Africa by facilitating development and dissemination of about a dozen agronomical superior Ug99 resistant wheat varieties. His research collaboration with Nepal team of wheat researchers led them to win the first Gene Stewardship Award of Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI), in 2012 at Beijing, China.

Prof. JP. Lal, Head of the department of Genetics and Plant Breeding read the citation and presented it to Prof. Joshi was always very hard and dedicated students and that leads him to become worldwide renowned and successful agriculture scientist and is one of the bright stars of the institute and the university today.

Dr. B. Arun gave a pictorial presentation of Prof. Joshi’s journey of wheat research and and academic contribution of Prof. Joshi.

In his speech Prof. AK Joshi was grateful to the founder Pt. Madan Mohan Malviya ji, his mentor Late Dr. GS Sharma, BHU and the farmers of the region. He emphasized the need of trying to understand the problems of the crop, and farmers of the region and motivated all the researchers especially the young generation to dedicate and devote through meaningful research and multi-disciplinary team work spirit.

He said that we should prioritize the goals and proceed in that direction to achieve what we want. He stressed that the farmer’s participation is also of immense importance in diversifying any new technology, variety and also for the development of the region and ensuring the food security.

In his address Prof. Ravi Pratap Singh, the Director of the Institute of Agricultural Sciences, Banaras Hindu University, congratulated Prof. Joshi on receiving FNA fellowship. He threw light on remarkable research and academic achievements of Prof. Joshi and his contribution on the development of the very popular wheat varieties which are being cultivated across countries. He was of the view that Prof. Joshi’s induction as FNA (INSA Fellow) has brought great honour to the institute since he is the first faculty member to obtain this honor since the establishment of the institute 81 years ago. The Director honored Prof. Joshi by presenting citation and memento.

Vote of thanks was proposed by the Dean Prof. Subedar Singh.

Photo and news: PPP Cell-BHU