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May 2019
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There is one member of the community of Little Abary that chose a different path: “I come from a very poor family and my parents were doing cash crop farming for their livelihood,” says Dr Rajendra Persaud. “So I was a slow learner and very playful as a kid - and not doing very well in school. They threatened to take me out of school and make me join them on the farm. That was the turning point in my life. I got serious about school and academics.” Serious is an understatement. At only 38 years of age, Persaud’s scholarly work in plant pathology (the scientific study of plant diseases) has earned him coveted positions in academia in the University of Guyana (UG), The UWI St Augustine and other institutions. It has earned him international recognition and key positions in state agencies with jurisdiction over his country’s agricultural destiny. In February of this year it even earned him the prestigious “Golden Arrow of Achievement Award”, a national award of Guyana. Perhaps most importantly of all, Rajendra Persaud’s commitment to academics has allowed him to positively impact the lives of farmers like his parents, in agricultural communities like Little Abary, all over Guyana. How did he do it? Rice. Yields under threatTheir names are “blast” and “sheath blight” - together they are the most devastating diseases affecting rice crops worldwide. Blast, caused by a fungus called Magnaporthe oryzae, is the most important rice affecting disease worldwide because of its massive reach (85 countries) and devastating effects. Sheath blight, caused by the Rhizoctonia solani fungus, is almost as potent a threat. In countries such as Japan and the US it has caused losses in crop yields as high as 20 to 25 per cent. “We have some very serious disease problems with sheath blight and blast,” says Dr Duraisamy Saravanakumar, Senior Lecturer in Plant Pathology at UWI St Augustine’s Faculty of Food and Agriculture (FFA). “They cover all stages of the plant, starting from the seedling to the harvest. This means they can lead to severe yield loss.” When Dr Sara (as he is commonly known) says “we”, he is speaking about major rice producing countries. And Guyana is very much a rice producing country. Rice is one of the six major export commodities that comprise 60 per cent of GDP, and a major contributor to agriculture’s more than 15 per cent of GDP. In the words of a United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) document on the Guyana rice industry, “the industry has become one of the economic cornerstones of this country”. This means threats like rice-affecting diseases can have a major negative impact on the economy. As a young academic from a rural background, Persaud found himself involved in the field of plant pathology right out of secondary school, becoming a trainee with the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB). He’s been on that path ever since, acquiring his diploma from the Guyana School of Agriculture, his degree from UG, and his master’s from the Indira Gandhi Agriculture University at Raipur, in India. Then came The UWI. “I was on a visit to Guyana in 2015 with Dr (Lynda) Wickham (Senior Lecturer, Crop Science/Post-Production Technology at FFA),” said Dr Wayne Ganpat, Dean of the UWI St Augustine FFA, recounting how he first met and recruited Dr Persaud to do his PhD in Trinidad and Tobago. At the time, Persaud was working for the GRDB at their Rice Research Station in the village of Burma in Mahaicony. “He was doing amazing work,” says Ganpat. “We saw the potential in him, and the zeal. We recruited him right there on the spot.” Because Dr Persaud is a committed family man (he is married and has three children) the FFA designed a special programme for him where he would come to the St Augustine Campus for his courses and then go back to Guyana to do his research. Through this process he completed his PhD, an experience he looks back on happily. “My experience was wonderful,” he says, describing the “professional, dedicated and experienced” staff he met with at The UWI and the FFA’s Department of Food Production in particular. Persaud speaks highly of Dr Ganpat “who was always there to help” and Dr Sara, his supervisor, who gave him “support and expert guidance.” “Studying at UWI was a life-changing experience,” he says.
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