Ludhiana, March 8
Punjab Agricultural University conferred the degree of Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) on Dr Karen A. Holbrook, President, Ohio State University (OSU), Columbus, USA, at a special convocation here today.

Dr Holbrook was chosen for the honour for her outstanding contributions to science and reviving second phase of partnership between the PAU and the OSU. The Governor of Punjab and Chancellor of the University, Gen S.F. Rodrigues (retd), presented the degree.

In her convocation address, Dr Holbrook said the OSU and the PAU had had a long and fruitful association for five decades. “I am thrilled to be part of the history of these two fine institutions, and now we enter second 50 years of our relationship,” she added.

“The association of the two universities has helped Punjab to achieve a dominant place in India, as a top producer of foodgrain. This eventually helped the country to rise from a “hunger state” to a “food surplus” nation,” she said.

Dr Holbrook said though the foodgrain production in India increased from 50 MT in ’60s to over 220 MT at the turn of the century, the growing needs of people would require 325 MT of foodgrain by 2025.

“There is still a lot to be done. Effective research and development programmes in plant breeding, weed control, plant protection and agricultural engineering will have to be implemented to achieve this target,” she remarked.

“For this, a strong OSU-PAU linkage is inevitable with inter-institutional exchange programmes and necessary budgetary provision. The participation of their faculty in exchange programme is necessary in order to achieve high level of competence in research and education,” she added.

“Modern technological innovations provide ample opportunity to discover and explore new forms of collaborative research, teaching and outreach programmes. Thus, it is important both for the OSU and the PAU to seek new ways to work together, as partners,” she said.

While praising the PAU for maintaining excellent relationship with farmers, Dr Holbrook said this relationship should be broadened to involve them in post-harvest activities and food processing to help them increase their income.

Dr Holbrook said the OSU, in collaboration with the Tata Trust, was engaged in another project for sustainable management of soil and water resources and finding alternate to the rice-wheat cycle.

This project was being presently carried out in Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu in the first phase.

About the future plans, Dr Holbrook said with the meeting of George Bush and Dr Manmohan Singh, the USA and India had agreed for an Indo-US “knowledge initiative” that would focus on capacity building in higher education, food processing, biotechnology and water management.

Earlier, the Vice-Chancellor, Dr K.S. Aulakh, described Dr Holbrook as a “great visionary”, who made the OSU a great research and teaching university. The problems of post-Green Revolution period required a new thrust in agricultural research and education and relationship between these two universities under the leadership of Dr Holbrook would go a long way in meeting the new challenges of sustainability and economic viability of agriculture in Punjab, he added.

The convocation was attended by members of the board of management. Dr Holbrook was accompanied by a seven-member delegation from Ohio.

During the two-day visit, the Ohio team visited experimental fields at PAU and exchanged notes with the scientists.

The team included David O. Hansen, Jerry R. Ladman, Rattan Lal, Bobby D. Moser, Walden W. O'Dell, Daniel M. Slane and Barbara R. Snyder.

Ludhiana, March 8
PAU Chancellor and Governor of Punjab Gen. S.F. Rodrigues (Retd.) in tete-a-tete with Ohio State University President Dr (Ms) Karen A. Holbrook today gave a bird’s eye view of agriculture in the state and the role played by the university in shaping the future of farmers.

He explained how Punjab had built an efficient agricultural support structure to provide multifarious services to the farmers to enable them adopt high-yielding crop varieties developed by PAU, how Punjab made the country self-sufficient and later surplus in foodgrain. “We are now poised to bring about the second Green Revolution”.

Gen. Rodrigues told Dr Holbrook that in future agriculture will be “market driven” with consumer making the choice. In view of that a state-of-the-art modern terminal market for fruits and vegetables is being set up near Chandigarh at village Makhan Majra. The market will have a centrally electronic auction facility, 3000 metric tonnes cold storage, latest testing and certification laboratory and provision for food processing units. The properly graded and packed produced will be exported from the terminal market, while 20 collection centres across Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh will supply fresh fruits and vegetables to the proposed terminal market.

To question from Dr Holbrook, Gen. Rodrigues said Punjab is seriously concerned over depletion of underground water and PAU scientists are engaged in developing simple technologies of harvesting water for re-fortification of aquifer.

Agriculture processing is another thrust area to improve the income and economy of the farming community. For this the General said entrepreneurs were being impressed upon to set shop in Punjab for corn oil. Efforts were also on to bring about major shift from wheat and paddy cycle to intensified diversification by encouraging farmers to go in for less water-guzzling crops like maize and soybean.

Dr Holbrook was all praise for PAU. In an interaction with the Vice-Chancellor Dr K.S. Aulakh, she said it is time to step into second 50 years of partnership between Ohio University and PAU for collaborative research, teaching and out-reach programmes.

Recalling the contribution of PAU in early sixties, she said the US government agency for international development was told by Ohio officials about the research initiatives of PAU over the years.

“We are convinced research programme at PAU is highly productive because it is frame-oriented and highly relevant to the needs of Punjab’s agriculture. The University is blessed with a significant number of highly competent progressive minded research leaders and scientists, who possess capability of planning and execution of timely research projects and bringing them to the application stage”.

In her talk with Gen. Rodrigues and Dr Aulakh, Dr Holbrook also made a special reference to certain effective research and development programmes she and her team-mates saw at the campus. These pertain to plant breeding, weed control, plant protection, agricultural engineering, soil and water engineering management, animal and veterinary science. “Innovative work in future and collaborative efforts between Ohio and PAU will go a long way to re-shape agriculture”, she added.

Dr Holbrook referred to her meeting with the President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, who she said had emphasized that India desired to be free of “fossil fuels” by 2030, replacing them with “nuclear and solar” energy and “bio-fuels”.

When she invited Dr Aulakh to visit Ohio University to further strengthen the partnership between the two institutions, she told him there are other avenues we can explore in which to develop concepts and proposals to work together.