From sugarcane council to the nation’s MSP table

Born. Born 12 March 1951.

Chairman, Indian Sugarcane Development Council. Led sugarcane development under the Ministry of Agriculture; early advocacy for power alcohol / ethanol blending and international technical exchange.

Chairman, State Farms Corporation of India. Headed the Government of India undertaking; founder member of SFAC; chaired AGRI EXPO ’95 Farmers’ Participation Committee; headed National Seeds Programme delegation to the Netherlands and Switzerland (Oct 1995).

GOI–UNDP IPM Steering Committee. Member of the joint Integrated Pest Management project steering committee, Ministry of Agriculture.

Krishi Ratan. Awarded Krishi Ratan by Shivaji Shikshan Sansthan, Amravati — conferred by Shri Sharad Pawar, then Chief Minister of Maharashtra.

Director, NAFED. Served on the board of the National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India.

Guest of Honour — 88th Indian Science Congress. Honoured as Guest of Honour at the 88th Indian Science Congress (IARI, New Delhi) by Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, then Minister of HRD — recognition of contribution for Indian farmers.

Wheat patent revoked at EPO. Jointly filed legal objection with Greenpeace (Germany) at the European Patent Office against an illegal Monsanto patent on an Indian wheat variety (27 Jan 2004). EPO revoked the patent on 23 Sept 2004. Also invited to meet the Prime Minister on farmers’ issues and pre-budget agriculture discussion (28 June 2004).

WTO, FAO, Seeds Bill & NBPGR. WTO Hong Kong Ministerial (2005); FAO Asia-Pacific biotechnology dialogue, Bangkok; NBPGR lecture on Transgenics and Indian Agriculture; Parliamentary Standing Committee witness on The Seeds Bill, 2004 (suggestions prioritised in the report).

Global farmer voice. Greenpeace seed-patenting meetings (Munich & Berlin); Terra Madre / Slow Food (Turin); WTO ministerials in Geneva, Bali, and Nairobi; Nourish Scotland World Food Day speaker (Glasgow, 2014); Penguin publishes Development Misplaced (2014).

Parliamentary pesticide bills. Invited by the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Agriculture for The Pesticide Management Bill 2008 and again for the 2020 Bill (5 Aug 2021) — suggestions appreciated and prioritised in the Committee Report.

D.Litt. (Honoris Causa). Awarded Honorary Doctorate D.Litt. by the University of Central America, Bolivia (12 Feb 2021).

BKS President & MSP Committee. President, Bharatiya Krishak Samaj; Member, High Level Committee on MSP, Natural Farming & Crop Diversification (GOI); Editor, Kisan Ki Awaaz; regular voice on national television and farmer policy debates.