My Unforgettable moments
B. Yerram Raju
The year was 1979. I was Project
Monitoring & Evaluation Officer in the Department of Agricultural Finance
and Rural Development at the Local Head Office of the SBI. I was having regular
interface with the then faculty and Dean of the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural
University -APAU (now Prof. Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University
– PJTSAU). One evening in July 1979, I received a call from A. Appa Rao, then
Dean and later Vice Chancellor of the APAU to join a meeting being held at the
local Horticulture Department of the University at Khairtabad, the next morning
at 11 a.m., as the topic for discussion was on Agricultural Credit under the
joint auspices of the APAU and the Society of Scientists for Advancement of
Agriculture (SSAA).
After the discussions, they
invited me to be a Life member of the SSAA. I did not hesitate a moment as it would give me the association
of several leading agricultural scientists that periodically holds conferences,
discussions, deliberations on key issues affecting the farm sectors and farmers
in general. J. Raghotham Reddy, the only farmer Vice Chancellor of an
Agricultural University to which he donated his family property of 200 acres. His memoirs have been published
in a book form latter by the Farm and Rural Science Foundation (FRSF), which
was a Trust formed by the family members of Raghotham Reddy garu. Almost a year
later, I was requested to be a member of the Board of SSAA. I was on the Board
for a decade.
There used to be field visits and
training of farmers and frequent interactions with the scientists, agricultural
economists in which I had a unique opportunity to learn. Under the auspices of
this platform, it was decided to give Awards to the best farmers in
agriculture, animal husbandry, agri-technology, agricultural journalism in
first and second categories. It was an experience to select the Awardees as
part of the jury. Those progressive farmers and their achievements have always
been moments of great learning and interactive experience.
My six-year stint as Senior
Faculty and Vice Principal ( for a few months) during 1984-90 at the Stte Bank Institute of Rural Development (SBIRD), this association
and learning experience made me different from others both academically and
administratively. After leaving SBI in 1994, thanks to such association and
learning experience, I was taken as Senior Professor and Area Chairman,
Agriculture and Rural Development at the Administrative Staff College of India (ASCI).
It also helped me to interact with persons like Pascal Lama, the first
President of World Trade Organisation.
In the year 2000, when AP
Government formulated Vision document, sectoral vision aspects were discussed
at a Roundtable conference in MANAGE under the auspices of the then Vice
Chancellor and Ganaga Prasada Rao, a very eminent farm scientist and former Vice
Chancellor of Pantnagar Agricultural University. This was brought out as a
Conference Publication under the joint authorship of Ganga Prasada Rao and me.
This was uploaded to academia.edu and this continues to get readership of high
value. APAU published the vernacular version of the book that was released by
the then Minister for Agriculture, Government of AP, Vadde Sobhanadreeswara
Rao.
In one of those precious years,
all the members also visited Marathwada Agricultural University and held
intense discussions.
I was entrusted with organising the
first Memorial Lecture in memory of the Founder J. Raghotham Reddy garu and the
SSAA took the lead. This Address was given by R. Radhakrishna (popularly known as RR), an eminent
agricultural economist in his capacity as the then Vice Chancellor of Andhra
University. Since both SSAA and FRSF were housed in the building donated by
Acharya JRR, and since both the organisations were performing similar
functions, it was decided to merge both as FRSF. From that day, I had been
member of the Board of Trustees of FRSF and biannually we have been conducting
the Annual Award and Memorial Lecture Function. As I have decided to bid
goodbye to my 45 years of association with the FRSF, it would be a worthy
recall and hence this blog. A period of great association and learning when I interacted
with great savants in farm science like late M.S. Swaminathan, K. V. Raman
(NAARM fame) Ganga Prasada Rao, E. A. Siddique, Yella Reddy (Extension
Specialist), A. Appa Rao, V. Praveen Rao ( Vice Chancellor of PJTSAU where he
retired last year), Dr. Padma Rao, Anil Epur and many others is an
unforgettable journey in my life.
I salute to all of them in all
humility.
