Dr. SB Mathur and DGISP Fund – Seed Health and Food Production

This fund has been established in honor of Dr. S. B. Mathur (borne January 1936), a world renowned seed pathologist known for his contribution in seed health and food production, and in memory of the Danish Government Institute of Seed Pathology for Developing Countries (DGISP). DGISP was established in Copenhagen in 1966 by the Danish International Development Agency (Danida), Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark. DGISP was the only institute of its kind in the world, imparting knowledge to plant pathologists, seed technologists and researchers on the role healthy seeds play in the production of high quality food for consumption and in producing high quality seeds for sowing in seed multiplication programs around the world. More than 1,000 scientists and technologists from 72 countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America were trained at DGISP, including 25 from 10 European and North American countries. Courses of seed pathology were started by these trained people in their home countries resulting in a snowball effect in the fight against losses caused by seed-borne diseases. DGISP, renamed as Danish Seed Health Center as part of the then Royal Veterinary and Agriculture University (now University of Copenhagen) in 2004, does not exist anymore.

Dr. Mathur served DGISP since its establishment along with Dr. Paul Neergaard (father of seed pathology) and as its Director from 1982 till 2003. He was the chairman of the Working Group on Tropical and Sub-tropical Crops, Plant Disease Committee of International Seed Testing Association from 1972 to 1996 and contributed in the development and standardization of a number of seed health testing methods. He has assisted various International Agricultural Research Centres in training their staff and establishing seed health testing facilities for monitoring seed health in exchange of germplasm, and in many developing countries, including Nepal. He led in establishing Danida-supported two Seed Health Centres, one in Africa at the Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania and the other in Asia at the University of Mysore, India, before his retirement. Dr. Mathur has numerous research articles and chapters in his credit and has authored and edited dozens of books on seed borne diseases and plant quarantine, which have been widely used in research, extension and teaching purposes across the world.

Dr. Mathur’s contribution to agriculture was recognized by the international community when he received the World Seed Prize in 1992 awarded by the International Seed Federation, Switzerland; the Professor K. M. Safeeulla Gold Medal by the University of Mysore, India in 2002; a Medal of High Services from the Government of Vietnam in 2003; and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the Society of Agricultural Scientists of Nepal in 2011. He is an Honorary Fellow of the Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology (1991), the Indian Botanical Society (1992) and the Indian Society of Seed Technology (1994). He is visionary, kind hearted and a highly regarded person, internationally.

Menuka Pandey, IAAS, Tribhuvan University, 2021-2022

Evaluation of rice genotype against Fusarium proliferatum and its management using bacterial antagonists under laboratory and screenhouse conditions.