Showing posts with label SBIRD. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SBIRD. Show all posts

Tuesday, April 2, 2024

My Unforgettable Moments

 


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.