En dansk forsker har fået en pris i Nepal for sine livslange fortjenester.
Dr Suresh Behari Mathur, Former Director of the Danish Government Institute of Seed Pathology for the developing countries (DGISP), Copenhagen, Denmark has been honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award in Seed Pathology by the Society of Agricultural Scientists of Nepal.
The award was presented earlier this year in Kathmandu by the Deputy Prime Minister of Nepal, Bharat Mohan Adhikari.
The President of the Society, Dr Hira Kaji Manandhar spoke of the outstanding global contributions Dr Mathur had made around the world, especially in over 70 countries of Africa, Asia and latin America.
Dr Mathur has created awareness on the use of healthy seeds in agriculture, testing of seeds for quality and health prior to sowing in field, training of scientists, seed technologists and extension workers in laboratory seed health testing methods for detecting fungi, bacteria, viruses, nematodes and insect infestations, significance of movement of disease free seed in international trade and exchange of genetic material across international boundaries.
Dr Manandhar elaborated the role Dr Mathur played in the establish-ment of hundreds of laboratories around the world for teaching and conducting research at universities and international agricultural research institutes like ICRISAT, IRRI, WARDA, CIAT, IITA, ICARDA and CIMMYT, and for daily monitoring of health of seed lots at seed companies for national and international trade.
In his acceptance speech Dr Mathur thanked the Society for giving the Award. He said he would like to share the Award with the Danish International Development Agency (Danida) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark who were responsible in establishing the Institute of Seed Pathology in Copenhagen where he started his professional carrier as a Seed Pathologist and served the developing world for over 36 years.
Dr Mathur showed his appreciation of the Nepalese scientists as very hard working and dedicated workers. He said that to meet the future requirement of agricultural production in Nepal the Government of Nepal and the Nepal Agricultural Research Council must make suitable adjustments in the existing institutional set-up in the country with an overall vision for supporting a strong research system in Nepal.
Dr. Mathur, FIS World Seed Prize winner of 1992, has received a number of awards and honors from different societies and Governments of different countries.
Dr Mathur has authored several books and more than 125 research articles and technical bulletins on identification of seed-borne pathogens, seed health testing methods, seed health issues and improvement of food and seed production, especially for resource poor farmers.
The establishment of DGISP in 1966 was Dr. Mathur’s brainchild and the institute became world famous over the years.
