CHENNAI: Renowned wheat breeder and Indian food scientist, Sanjaya Rajaram, was announced as the winner of the World Food Prize for the year 2014 on Wednesday.
The announcement was made in Chennai by the Chairperson of the global jury, M S Swaminathan and the official announcement was made by the US Secretary of State, John Kerry later in the day.
Constituted by the renowned food scientist and Nobel Laureate, Norman Borlaug in 1986, the World Food Prize was previously been bagged by other leading food scientists from India including M S Swaminathan, who was the first recipient and Varghese Kurien, the renowned social entrepreneur.
The prize is given out as a recognition for ‘Advancing Human Development by improving quality, quantity or availability of food’.
Rajaram, who is known for his work with staples, mainly wheat will be the recipient of this prestigious award for this year which also marks Norman Borlaug’s centenary.
The prize which was announced on Wednesday is usually presented to the laureates in a ceremony held on the United Nations World Food Day which falls on October 16. Some previous eminent recipients of the awards include Robert Chandler from the United States, Muhammed Yunus from Bangladesh, Pedro Sanchez from Cuba, Gebesa Ejeta from Ethiopia, Yuan Longping from China and Daniel Hillel from Israel.
The World Food Prize for 2013 was shared by three scientists namely Marc Van Montagu from Belgium, Mary-Dell Chilton and Robert T Fraley from the United States.