Narinder Singh Randhawa (1927–1996) was an Indian agricultural scientist, writer and the director general of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He was the president of the Indian Society of Soil Science during 1980–81 term and was a recipient of National Citizen Award and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The Government of India awarded him the third highest civilian honour of the Padma Bhushan, in 1989, for his contributions to agricultural science.

Biography

Randhawa, born on 13 March 1927, secured his doctoral degree (PhD) from the

University of California The University of California (UC) is a public land-grant research university system in the U.S. state of California. The system is composed of the campuses at Berkeley, Davis, Irvine, Los Angeles, Merced, Riverside, San Diego, San Francisco, ...

in 1964. Returning to India, he joined the ''All India Coordinated Project on Micronutrients in Soils and Plants'' of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a national coordinator in 1967 and served the project till 1977. During this period, he also served Punjab Agricultural University as a professor at the Department of Soils and stayed at the university till 1979, holding positions such as that of a senior professor, head of the department, dean of the College of Agriculture, and the director of research. In 1979, he returned to ICAR as the deputy director general and continued there till his superannuation in 1985 as the director general. In between, he also had a short stint as a government secretary at the Department of Agricultural Research and Education of the Ministry of Agriculture. Randhawa was known to have done research in micro-nutrient management of soil and

soil fertility Soil fertility refers to the ability of soil to sustain agricultural plant growth, i.e. to provide plant habitat and result in sustained and consistent yields of high quality.

and published several books, articles and monographs. He was a member of the Indian National Science Academy Council (1993–95), the research advisory council of the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research (1986–90) and the consultative group of the CGIAR Consortium of International Agricultural Research Center (1985–90). He presided two science organizations, Indian Society of Soil Sciences and Indian Society of Plant Nutrition and was the vice president of the

National Academy of Agricultural Sciences The National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) is a Government of India funded agency, established in 1990, is a research platform in the fields of crop husbandry, animal husbandry, fisheries and agro-forestry. It acts as a research base for ...

and the vice chair of the

International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) is an international organization which conducts agricultural research for rural development, headquartered in Patancheru (Hyderabad, Telangana, India) with several r ...

, Hyderabad from 1985 to 1990. He delivered several award orations including the inaugural ''Dr. S. P. Raychaudhuri Memorial Lecture'' of the Indian Society of Soil Science (1990) and the ''Professor N.R. Dhar Memorial Lecture'' of the

National Academy of Sciences, India The National Academy of Sciences, India, established in 1930, is the oldest science academy in India. It is located in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh. Prof. Meghnad Saha was the founder president. Fellows *Suddhasatwa Basu * Sudha Bhattacharya * Ch ...

(1993). The Indian Council of Agricultural Research awarded him the Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award in 1975 and he received the civilian honor of the Padma Bhushan in 1989. A recipient of the National Citizen Award (1990), he was an elected Fellow of the

and the Indian National Science Academy. Randhawa died on 26 November 1996, at the age of 69. The

have instituted an annual award, ''Dr. N.S.Randhawa Award'', in his honor. His contributions have been compiled in an article, Contributions of ''Dr. N. S. Randhawa to Indian Horticulture'', published in Punjab Horticultural Journal.

Biography

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