Sri Rajendra Singh.

Rajendra Singh beside a check dam in Rajasthan

Rajendra Singh (born 6 August 1959) is a well known water conservationist from Alwar, Rajasthan in India. He won the Ramon Magsaysay Award (Nobel Prize of Asia) for community leadership in 2001 for his pioneering work in water management. He is the founder of an NGO called Tarun Bharat Sangh. The NGO has been instrumental in fighting the slow bureaucracy and has helped villagers take charge of water management in their area, through the use of check dams and other time-tested as well as path-breaking techniques. This NGO played a vital role in reviving Arvari River.

Tarun Bhagat Sangh, is supported by the United Nations, USIAD, and the World bank. He was highly appreciated and recognized for the efforts he made for harvesting rain water by building check dams in Rajasthan. It is because of this he is popularly known as the 'Jal Purush' or the 'Water man of Rajasthan'

Since 1985, Tarun Bhagat Sangh, headed by Rajendra Singh has been working in the Alwar district of Rajasthan, focusing on the revival of Johads, streams and rivers in the area. They were of the opinion that without water in region no other significant development could take place. With the successful implementation of the programme with the total dedication of all the team members and cooperation of the villagers, today more than 4,500 working Johads dot Alwar and surrounding districts. (Johad is a concave structure which collects and stores water throughout the year. It is used for the drinking purpose by humans and cattle).

Above all what is really commendable is that they work for the revitalization of the five rivers that went dry for the long time. River Ruparel, that went dead, has started flowing again after the span of three decades. Even the Arvari River basin, which was once barren became a water source, due to the active participation and hard work of the team members. On the other sides rejuvenation of the traditional water harvesting structures on such a large scale is a positive indication of development in the state. And it was definitely a sincere effort by Rajendra Singh for eradicating the scarcity of water in the rural areas of Rajasthan. In many villages people have started building Johads of their own. Now the women need not travel to the far away places to collect water, fuel wood and fodder. They educated the people had made them understand the importance of water conservation. It is a perfect solution for the long standing problem of water in the remote areas. Water harvesting is a good way to tackle with the problem of drought and floods.

Rajendra Singh, along with his other team members persuaded the villagers to rejuvenate their functioning style, which in turn changed the total life line of Rajasthan. He has plans to cover more of 45 villages in the next one year. He has also decided to take up the project of river Luni, the only flowing water source in western parts of Rajasthan. The condition of the river is getting worst with the day by day increasing pollution from the numerous textile units at Pali.

Organization of Rajendra Singh has overall 45 full time employees and 230 part time workers. He is a charismatic personality and the real hero of poor. He spends eight months of the year on road working day and night without seeing the face of his wife and son. Until 1984, he knew nothing about the water and its conservation methods. It were the villagers who showed him the value of water, and now the work done by Rajendra Singh is a inspiration for the million others in the nation.

Dr. Verghese Kurien.

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Born: November 26, 1921
Achievement: Known as the "father of the white revolution" in India; Winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award; Awarded with Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

Dr. Verghese Kurien is better known as the "father of the white revolution" in India. He is also called as the Milkman of India. Dr. Varghese Kurien was the architect behind the success of the largest dairy development program in the world, christened as Operation Flood. He was the chairman of the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) and his name was synonymous with the Amul(Anand Milk Producers’ Union Limited) brand.

Born on November 26, 1921 in Kozhikode, Kerala, Dr. Verghese Kurien graduated with Physics from Loyola College, Madras in 1940. Subsequently, he did his B.E.(Mechanical) from the Madras University and went to USA on a government scholarship to do his Masters in Mechanical Engineering from Michigan State University. In between, he completed special studies in engineering at the Tata Iron and Steel Company Institute at Jamshedpur, Bihar, in February 1946 and underwent nine months of specialized training in dairy engineering at the National Dairy Research Institute of Bangalore.

Dr. Verghese Kurien returned from America in 1948 and joined the Dairy Department of the Government of India. In May 1949, he was posted as Dairy Engineer at the Government Research Creamery, a small milk-powder factory, in Anand, Gujarat. Around this time, the newly formed cooperative dairy, Kaira District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited ((KDCMPUL), was engaged in battle of survival with the privately owned Polson Dairy, which was a giant in its field. Enthused by the challenge, Dr. Verghese Kurien left his government job and volunteered to help Shri Tribhuvandas Patel, the Chairman of KDCMPUL, to set up a processing plant. This led to the birth of AMUL and the rest is history.

In 1965, the then Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, created the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) under the leadership of Dr. Verghese Kurien to replicate the success story of Amul throughout the country. In 1973, Dr. Kurien set up GCMMF (Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation) to market the products produced by the dairies. Under Dr. Kurien's stewardship India became the as the largest producer of milk in the world,

During his illustrious career, Dr. Verghese Kurien won many accolades and awards. These include: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership (1963), Padma Shri (1965), Padma Bhushan (1966), Krishi Ratna Award (1986), Wateler Peace Prize Award of Carnegie Foundation (1986), World Food Prize Laureate (1989), International Person of the Year(1993) by the World Dairy Expo, Madison, Wisconsin, USA, and Padma Vibhushan (1999).

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The Unknown Architect

Approximately 3′000 years ago the people of cordillera took on one of mankind’s most impressive landscape modification projects in order to farm effectively on the surrounding mountainsides and slowly transform the region into what some now call the eighth wonder of the world. due to the sheer scale of this farming system it’s hard to disagree: the rice terraces of the philippine cordilleras, if laid out end to end, would stretch halfway round the globe. if this ingenious feat had been accomplished in recent times the clearly enormous task would have seemed more than impressive, however the fact that it was completed thousands of years ago without the use of modern apparatus and machinery takes the terraces and integrated irrigation systems to a whole new level.

          The idea behind field terracing is simple and something not unique to the philippines: carve horizontal ledges into hills, essentially creating thousands of small walled fields from base to peak in which to grow crops and retain much needed water. however, in the cordilleras region this has been applied to an area on an elsewhere unseen scale: approximately 10′360 square kilometres. entire mountains, sometimes thousands of feet high, sculpted like blocks of wood. that itself is incredible. then you have the irrigation system: the natural streams and rivers of each terraced mountain and its forests have been diverted using a huge and complex arrangement of canals, sluices and taps, the same water is then pushed to the highest terraces using miles of wooden piping. when the terraces fill up they overflow and start to fill the terraced field below, and the cycle continues until the entire mini-waterfall covered mountain is carrying an immense weight of water.

         The rice terraces are, understandably, a huge tourist attraction and have attracted attention and money from across the world. however the tourism is also thought to be responsible for the start of what could be a slow death of the terraces for a couple of reasons. firstly, the new generation of locals see the hospitality industry created by the terraces as a far more appealing line of work than the constant farming and attention needed to sustain the terraces themselves. secondly, water isn’t as readily available as in the past due to the effects of an earthquake in 1990 and the new demand for water itself from the tourist industry.

For that reason unesco has placed the terraces on a list of world heritage sites it believes to be ‘in danger’ in hope of starting a successful rehabilitation of the world’s most incredible agricultural engineering system.

Prof. MasonVaugh

Prof. MasonVaugh is the father of Agricultural Engineering in India. He was an agricultural engineer at Allahabad Agricultural University. He is the first person to start research in the field of agricultural engineering and became the father of Agricultural Engineering in early forties. He established Department of Agricultural Engineering in Allahabad Agricultural University. Several implements such as Mould Board Ploughs (Wah Wah Plough, U.P. No.1, U.P. No.2, Shabash Plough) hoes, cultivators and wheat thresher were, for the first time introduced in India, by Prof. Vaugh.

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