Indian-American soil scientist Dr Rattan Lal has won the prestigious World Food Prize, considered to be equivalent to a Nobel Prize in agriculture, in recognition of his contribution to increase the global food supply by helping small farmers improve their soil’s health.
Dr.Rattan Lal was awarded for his role in developing and mainstreaming a soil-centric approach to increase food production that restores and conserves natural resources and mitigates climate change.
Dr. Rattan Lal has a career spanning more than five decades. He has promoted innovative soil-saving techniques benefiting the livelihoods of more than 500 million small farmers.
His inventions were aimed to improve the food and nutritional security of more than two billion people and saving hundreds of millions of hectares of natural tropical ecosystems.
Lal is a Distinguished Professor in the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences (CFAES) at The Ohio State University.
World Food Prize was first awarded in 1987. The award is presented by the World Food Prize Foundation, with various sponsor companies.
The award recognizes contributions that are made in the various field involved in the world food supply including Animal Science/Aqua Culture, Food Technology/Food Safety, Nutrition/Health, Plant Science/Seed Science, Plant Pathology/Crop Protection, Soil Science/Water/Conservation, Policy/Research/Extension, Infrastructure/Emergency Relief, and Poverty and Hunger Alleviation.
The first awardee of the award is an Indian agricultural scientist Dr. M S Swaminathan, who is the father of the Green Revolution in India.