From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Indian agricultural scientist
Gurcharan Singh Kalkat
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Born
| (
1926-06-17
)
17 June 1926
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Died
| 27 January 2018
(2018-01-27)
(aged 91)
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Occupation
| Agricultural scientist
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Awards
| Padma Shri
Padma Bhushan
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Gurcharan Singh Kalkat
(17 June 1926 ? 27 January 2018)
[1]
was an Indian agricultural scientist and the founder chairman of the Punjab State Farmers Commission (PSFC), known for his contributions in bringing the
green revolution
to Punjab.
[2]
The
Government of India
awarded him the fourth highest Indian civilian honour of
Padma Shri
in 1981
[3]
and followed it up with the third highest Indian civilian award of
Padma Bhushan
in 2007.
[4]
Biography
[
edit
]
Gurcharan Singh was born on 17 June 1926 in the Indian state of Punjab.
[5]
[
dead link
]
He graduated in agriculture from Punjab Agricultural College,
Lyallpur
in 1947 and secured a master's degree in agriculture from the
University of Punjab
in 1956. Receiving the
Rockefeller Fellowship
, he went to US and completed his doctoral studies at
Ohio State University
, Columbus, to obtain a PhD in agricultural
entomology
in 1958.
[5]
Returning from US, he started his career as the deputy director of agriculture with the
Government of Punjab
in 1960 and became the director in 1971.
[5]
Two years later, he was shifted to the Indian
Ministry of Agriculture
in New Delhi as the Agricultural Commissioner, a post he held till 1978. After a stint in Washington, D.C., as senior agriculturist with the
World Bank
with the responsibility of attending to the agriculture development programmes in Ghana and Nigeria and subsequently in India and Nepal, he returned to India to take up the post of the vice chancellor of the
Punjab Agricultural University
, Ludhiana in 1998 and worked there till 2001.
[5]
When the
Government of Punjab
established the Punjab State Farmers Commission in 2005, Kalkat was appointed its founder chairman.
[2]
Kalkat is known to have initiated the cooperation between Punjab Agricultural University and the farmers for fast dissemination of modern agricultural methods.
[5]
He is also credited with initiatives for coordination between the local cooperatives and the Punjab State Cooperative Marketing Federation for smooth disbursal of farming credits and supply of materials.
[5]
During his stint as the agricultural commissioner, he got the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research
and National Seeds Corporation involved in various state level agricultural programmes.
[5]
He has also worked with
Norman Borlaug
when the
Nobel Laureate
was working on high yielding wheat varieties in the 1960s.
[6]
The
Government of India
awarded him the civilian honour of
Padma Shri
in 1981.
[3]
Twenty six years later, he was again included in the
2007 Padma honours list
for
Padma Bhushan
award.
[4]
See also
[
edit
]
References
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