Dr S A Patil: A Revered Farmers' God

Bengaluru: Dr S A Patil, a distinguished Plant Breeder, and an able administrator cum taskmaster with a series of accomplishments to his credit left the mortal world on Monday at his residence in Kalaburagi. He was 78 years old. Here is a glance at his achievements all along his wonderful journey:

 
Born in a farmer's family: SA Patil was born on 5th August 1946 in a farmer's family to Ayyan Gowda and Mrs. Lakshmibai Patil in Hirebirala village of Jewargi taluk of Kalaburagi district. He grew up in a family full of two brothers, aunts, brothers and sisters in a typical joint family set-up of the yesteryears. He completed his primary, secondary and high school in Shahapur town. He completed PUC in Kalaburagi and B. Sc (Agri), M.Sc  (Agri) and PhD degrees from Dharwad Agricultural University with first-class scholarship.

Varalakshmi and DCH-32 cotton varieties: Because of his great interest in research, with his perseverance, thinking and planning power, he discovered the world's first inter-species hybrid cotton Varalakshmi and DCH-32 cotton varieties, which made him admired not only in India but also by the whole world.

Export of superior cotton abroad: Four varieties of cotton have been developed for dry land. Varalakshmi and DCH-32 cotton varieties not only improved the financial condition of millions of farmers in India but also stopped the country from importing cotton worth10 thousands of crores of rupees every year on the other hand, India exported thousands of crores worth of this superior cotton.

Prominent role from Karnataka: Since 1973 his workplace was Raichur. There, cotton was developed a lot and from 1982 to 1987, he took up the development of oilseeds and developed several varieties in groundnuts and castor. During this period Karnataka played an important role in the country's mission to overcome the shortage of oilseeds.

New Research Centre: From July 1987, as Associate Research Head, Hyderabad Karnataka Division, he succeeded in setting up many new research projects, Agricultural Science Centers and Research Centers for the service of farmers in the region.

Separate Agricultural University at Raichur: He played a major role in establishing Agricultural College in 1984 and Agricultural Technical College in 1987 with the dream of making it a University. Today, his dream has come true and he is credited with starting a separate agricultural university in Raichur in 2009.

Hundreds of crores of money: Then from 1993 to 1999, he made the fame of Krishi Mahavidyalaya reach the national level as the Director of Education. As Research Director in 1999-2000, he has ensured hundreds of crores of money flow from several state, national and international sectors.

Many projects to improve the economic situation: Recognizing his talents, the Karnataka Government appointed him as the Vice Chancellor of Dharwad Agricultural University in 2000 November. When he was appointed, the financial situation of the university was very bad. Taking all the scientists, staff and students of the university into confidence, he devised many schemes to improve the financial situation.

The most important ones are:
1) Revival fund for every scientist
2) Planning for state, national and international organizations
3) Earning huge money from the cultivation of seeds.

Top Rank University: He made the university get more than one hundred crores of money every year from these sources, developed all the campuses of the entire university and enabled UAS Dharwad to become the top university in the country in terms of education, research and extension.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Award: During his tenure University of Agriculture, Dharwad bagged many awards at the all-India level. Also, the students showed their talent by getting a large number of scholarships at the national level. Among these awards, the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Award is the most important one given by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research as the best university.

Permanent Vice Chancellorship: The Government of Karnataka recognized his performance and appointed him as the Vice Chancellor of Dharwad Agricultural University for a second term in November 2003. The then Agriculture minister Srinivasa Gowda once said to him, Patil, if I had become the chief minister, I would have made you the permanent vice chancellor.

The glory of taking the university to the international level: In the first period, he took the university to the national level and in the second period, it was taking the glory of the university to the international level. Key points of the second period: The talents of scientists created useful institutions to bring new technologies to the farmers and bring the research closer to the farmers. Prominent among them are,

1) Institute of Biotechnology
2) Organization of Organic Farming
3) Seed Production Institute
4) Hi-Tech Horticulture
5) Human Nutrition
6) Clothing, clothing design
7) Global Agricultural Knowledge Network and Business Development Institute.

Unique reputation in the nation: To send hundreds of scientists to national and international level institutions for training and education, as well as for research strengthening, he undertook educational and research projects with leading universities such as Cornell and Texas in the US and McGill University in Canada. He was instrumental in taking Dharwad Agricultural University to the international level. Accordingly, he built international-level basic facilities in Dharwad Agricultural University and made students from other countries come to Dharwad to practice. It goes to his credit for the country in making hundreds of crores of income from various sources every year through all these efforts and making the students of Agricultural University Dharwad self-reliant.

Director of Indian Institute of Agricultural Research, New Delhi: Considering his talent, before the end of his term as Chancellor, the Agricultural Research Council of the Central Government appointed him as the Director of India's apex body, the Indian Institute of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. So far he is the only agronomist from Karnataka to hold this position.

Acknowledgement as a National Farmers' Organization: This organization has been successfully recognized as a National Farmers' Organization by creating policy rules to spread the efficiency of this highest institution in New Delhi to the entire nation.

25,000 crores from a single variety: He is credited with accelerating the seed production of rice varieties for private companies and covering tens of lakhs of hectares in a short period of time with those varieties of Basumati species Pkhaoo-10 and PUSm-1121 Basumati in 3 years. Today, Fusha-1121 Basmati rice is a single variety with a total export of 35,000 crores and 25,000 crores are coming to India from this single variety. Till today all the scientists celebrate that this is a bold step taken by Patil in history.

Business Development Plan Institute: Similarly, under the World Bank's plan in the history of the whole country the thrust to provide technology training for research, production, business, and income generation and to prepare such entrepreneurs in unity took a massive scale. He is credited with founding the organization "Business Development Plan".

Unforgettable in the history of the institution: When he retired on 31 March 2009, the leaders of the farming community of the entire nation came with their families and built a huge stage in the field to bid him farewell as there was no space in the auditorium of the institution. It is an unforgettable event in the history of the institution.

Work from Delhi: In 2008, while he was still in service, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka State BS Yeddyurappa told him: "I have decided to make you the Chairman of the Karnataka Agriculture Mission to create policies and innovative schemes to help the farmers and provide a separate budget for agriculture to help the farmers stand on their own feet". He also insisted that SA Patil agreed.
Acknowledging his request, SA Patil that he would accept this post in April 2009 and come to Bangalore after his term is over. But BS Yeddyurappa ofered him to join the post from November 2008, working from Delhi and then coming to Bengaluru.

Separate Agriculture Budget: As per the wishes of the Chief Minister, besides helping to establish a Horticulture university in Bagalkot, an Agricultural university in Raichur, Agricultural university in Shimoga and including them in the budget, he succeeded in giving many pro-farmer projects as a consultant to the farmers in presenting a separate Agricultural budget. Until 2012-13, farmers' views were considered in fixing the scientific price of sugarcane without any dispute.

An excellent scheme: New policies and schemes like the Agriculture Diploma for Farmers' Children, Organic Farming for farmers, Self-Seed Production, Integrated Agricultural Resource Farming and Land Reclamation were implemented. He continued in the position even after a new government took over in May 2013. During this period, a revolutionary scheme called Krishi Bhagya Yojana was formulated and given to the government to generate more income from dry land farming. This scheme is an excellent scheme and other states have come forward to emulate it. There are several awards worthy of his talent. Some of them were:

In 1998, he was felicitated for his contribution to plant breeding by the internationally acclaimed institution of England
1) International Biographical Center Cambridge's Decree of Merit International Award
2) Bharat Ratna M. Visvesvaraya Memorial National Eco Ratna 2000, Award,
3) Sardar Patel Best Organization Award -2000 New Delhi.
4) Karnataka Rajyotsava Award -1997

299 Agriculture-related research articles: So far he has published 299 Agriculture-related research articles in international, national and state-level journals. He has served in more than fifty associations related to teaching, research, extension, development and administration in the field of agricultural science.

Addressed as God of Farmers several times: As Vice Chancellor of Agricultural University, Dharwad, Director of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, President of Karnataka Agricultural Mission, and the head of the International Sorghum Project of Morocco, his services are unparalleled. After Swaminath, his name has national and international reach. The farmers of India have worshipped him many times as the farmer's God.

Representative of India to Scientific Councils of many countries: He has served 15 Master of Science and 08 PhD students. Not only has he represented India in scientific councils of many countries, other countries have also invited him and benefited from his expertise. The major countries he visited were Israel, Italy, Netherlands, Egypt, Canada, USA, Philippines, Indonesia, Uganda, Ethiopia and Morocco.

Food for more than one lakh people: Farmers, students and their colleagues say that his wife Mrs. Annapurna Devi is responsible for all these achievements. As the name suggests, she is Annapurna. Married in 1975, She is credited with feeding more than one lakh people in this period of 30 years. Similarly, when he was in New Delhi for only one and a half years, she had the credit of providing food and lodging to around ten thousand people!

Working in America: His first son Dr. Shashikanta is working in America. His second son Prashanth Patil is working as an engineer in a multinational chemical engineering company in America. His first daughter Dr. Shilpadevi Patil is working as a reader in America. The second daughter, Dr Shantala Patila, is working as a Senior Lecturer at Reva Engineering University, Bangalore. All the children have contributed in their own way to see to it that their father strived day and night to encourage and motivate farmers.

Establishment of Institute at Kamalapur: Gadaga Tontadarya Shri gave him the title of Krishna Karmayogi. The Sri Sindagi Saranga Math recently honoured him with the prestigious Bhaskaracharya Award. He worked in all the government-owned institutions and was of great help to the farmers. Somewhere in his mind, because of the pain that this work is not complete, he resigned from the position of Chairman of the Agricultural Mission on February 14 with the intention of building a resource and research institute to help the farmers directly and engaged himself in the construction of the institute at Kamalapur in his home district, Kalaburagi. 

 

About 50 acres of rocky land: For the establishment of this organization, he bought a land of about 50 acres of rocky land and developed it step by step. Now degree and diploma students in agriculture are getting training in this institute. In the coming days a High School, Agriculture College, from LKG to PUC will be set up here, and efforts are being made to include agriculture education in the curriculum and prepare experienced farmer agro-scientists. 

-Manohar Yadavatti