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Biography
Dr. Rajendra Singh Paroda (born 1942 in Ajmer, Rajasthan) is an Indian agricultural scientist. He is a former Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) and Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Government of India. He was General President of the Indian Science Congress Association during 2000-2001 and was the President of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) from 1998-2000. He was elected as the first Chairman of the Global Forum on Agricultural Research (GFAR), FAO, Rome from 1998-2001. He is also serving as Executive Secretary of the Asia Pacific Assisiation of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI) based at FAO Regional Office, Bangkok since 1992. He also served as Chairman, Board of Trustees, ICRISAT, Hyderabad, member of IRRI Board, Los Banos, Philippines and member of Advisory Council of Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (ACIAR), Canberra, and the Commonwealth Agriculture Bureau International (CABI), London.
In 1996, he organised the second International Crop Science Congress in New Delhi. In 2001, he Presided over the Indian Science Congress held at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi which was inaugurated by the Prime Minister of India Shri Atal Behari Bajpai. In 2012, he organised the first Global Conference on Women in Agriculture (GCWA) in New Delhi which was attended by the President of India Mrs Pratibha Patil. He served as Chairman of the Organising Committee of a very successful Global Conference on Agricultural Research for Development (GCARD 2) organised jointly by GFAR and CGIAR in October, 2013 at Punta del Este, Uruguay
As Executive Secretary, APAARI he has organised by now more than twenty regional expert consultations on thematic areas of high regional importance. Also he is instrumental in bringing out more than 40 success stories from different countries in Asia Pacific region.
Awards
Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Memorial Prize (1982–83), ICAR Team Research Award (1983–84), FICCI Award (1988), Om Prakash Bhasin Award (1992)' Asia-Pacific Seed Association Special Award (1995), CGIAR Award for Outstanding Partnership (2000), Life Time Award by Association of Agricultural Scientists in America (2001), Dr Harbhajan Singh Memorial Award (2001), Silver Jubilee Commemoration Medal (2001) by the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), Dr B.P. Pal Memorial Award (2003), ISCA Gold Medal for Excellence in Science (2006), Gold Medal from Ministry of Agriculture of Armenia (2006), Life Time Achievement Award of 'Agriculture Today' (2008), Dr A.B. Joshi Memorial Award (2012) presented by Prime Minister of India Dr Manmohan Singh, Prof. Kanniyan Memorial Award (2012), Gold Medal from Ministry of Agriculture of Vietnam (2012) and Krishi Shiromani Samman by Mahindra and Mahindra Ltd. (2013).
He was decorated by the President of India Dr KR Narayanan with the country's prestigious Padma Bhushan Award in 1998.
He also received Norman Borlaug Award on 5 January 2006 from the President Dr A.P.J. Abdul Kalam at a function in the 93rd Indian Science Congress held in Hyderabad.
Dr Paroda is a Fellow of almost all Science Academies of India, beside Fellow of Third World Academy of Sciences (TWAS), Russian Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Armenian Academy of Agricultural Sciences and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He is also elected Honorary Member of the American Society of Agronomy and the Crop Science Society of America. He has been conferred honorary D.Sc. Degree by 15 academic institutions including Ohio State University, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Scientific Council of Agricultural Academy, Republic of Azerbaijan and State Agricultural Universities at Pantnagar, Kanpur, Jorhat, Coimbatore, Hyderabad, Udaipur, Varanasi, Srinagar, Meerut, Bhubneshwar, Ludhiana and Dharwad. He also received Honorary degrees from Agricultural Universities of Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.
International Crop research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad has named its Gene Bank after him as 'Rajendra S. Paroda Gene Bank'.
Currently, he is serving as Chairman of the Trust for Advancement of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS) and as Chairman of Haryana Farmers' Commission.