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Ludhiana | PAU scientist elected as ISSSWQ fellow
The fellowship was bestowed on Om Parkash Choudhary,principal soil chemist and university librarian from PAU, Ludhiana, for his scientific contributions to the field of soil salinity, sodicity and water quality
Principal soil chemist and university librarian (additional charge) and ex-head of the department of soil science, Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Om Parkash Choudhary has been elected as the fellow of the Indian Society of Soil Salinity and Water Quality (ISSSWQ).
Deputy director-general (natural resource management) of ICAR SK Chaudhri, and vice-chancellor of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, Geethalakshmi Vellingiri bestowed the fellowship upon Choudhary, during the 6th National Salinity Conference at Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu, on October 11, for his scientific contributions to the field of soil salinity, sodicity and water quality.
PAU vice-chancellor Satbir Singh Gosal congratulated Dr Choudhary for this national recognition and said that it was a great honour for PAU.
Choudhary is also a recipient of two gold medals and university roll of honour. His well-designed field and laboratory research led to prediction of sodicity hazards and development of site-specific technologies (27) for judicious and efficient use of saline and sodic waters, bringing substantial improvements (25-50%) in crop productivity and economic benefit to farmers.
He has more than 320 publications, including 100 research papers, in reputed national and international journals, nine books (authored/edited), 19 review papers and book chapters, and 68 proceeding papers among others to his credit. Dr Choudhary has also served as a visiting scientist at the University of California, Davis, USA, in 2008.
Currently, Choudhary is also associated with the World Bank sponsored mega ICAR-NAHEP-CAAST multidisciplinary project on “Sustainable Natural Resource Management (SNRM)” worth ₹2,000 lakh, which began in 2019.
He is also leading another multi-disciplinary mega Indo-Israel Project on “Centre of Excellence for Utilization of Brackish Water for Fruit and Vegetable Production” funded by the National Horticulture Mission (NHM), Government of India, since 2012, with a budget of ₹1,496 lakh.
