Fish-farming pioneer wins ‘Nobel’ prize of food Published: 13 October, 2005
INDIAN scientist DR Modadugu Gupta, who spent 30 years creating a cheap and environmentally sustainable system of small-scale fish farming using abandoned ditches and seasonally flooded fields and water holes, was formally presented with the the prestigious $250,000 World Food Prize this week, Usatoday.com reported.
The prize is considered by many to be the Nobel Prize of food and agriculture. The scientist is credited with having launched a “blue revolution” (a rapid increase in fish production) in the developing world. He received the World Food Prize for his work to enhance nutrition for over one million people, mostly very poor women, through the expansion of aquaculture and fish farming in South and Southeast Asia and Africa. Dr Gupta developed unique methods of fish farming, requiring little cost while causing no environmental damage. As a result, landless farmers and poor women have turned a million abandoned pools, roadside ditches, seasonally flooded fields and other bodies of water into mini-factories churning out fish for food and income. Keen to duplicate the success achieved in Asia, Dr. Gupta is working with a growing number of African countries to implement similar measures. He received the award in a Des Moines ceremony that’s part of the World Food Prize International Symposium.
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