STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Dr. Vivak M. Arya, soil scientist & Dr G K Rai, plant biochemist working in SKUAST-J has been awarded with prestigious SCSI gold medal and leadership award by the prestigious Soil Conservation Society of India (SCSI), New Delhi in 31st National Conference held at Navsari Agriculture University, Gujarat on account of their contribution in the area of climate change, soil conservation, plant and soil health management. The award contains a gold medal, memento and excellence certificates which were presented by Soil Conservation Society of India, New Delhi to both the scientists.
The award is confirmed to Dr. Arya on his work related to nitrogen management through LCC a climate smart agriculture tools. Dr. Arya popularized the real time nitrogen management through LCC (leaf colour chart) in J&K which had reduced the losses of nitrogen & checked the nitrate pollution.
The LCC distributed by SKUAST-J are very popular among the farming community. Dr. Arya had adopted various scientific interventions on pilot basis for revival of village ponds in lower Shivaliks of Jammu region. His research regarding usage of resource conservation techniques (RCT’s) is widely adopted for reducing the sediment yield and nutrient loss in Shivalik. He had handled externally funded projects on the themes soil quality, climate change and natural resource management. Dr. Arya has written more than 25 research papers in reputed international and national journals. He had authored two books, many book chapters and more than 30 popular articles. Dr. Arya has been awarded with various best research paper awards and other distinguished awards by societies & organizations of national & international reputations. He is an external expert to many prestigious universities & organizations viz. DST, DBT, ICAR, MIDH, NABARD, PAU, HPKV, IGKVV, & SKUAST-K.
Dr. G.K Rai has achieved numerous feats and accolades in the area of Plant and Soil Health Management. He has handled/ ongoing many externally funded research projects from DBT, DST and ICAR as Principal Investigator and Co-PI.