S. Mohan
Whether the food grains are stored in farm, home or warehouse, insects continue to create problems by causing qualitative and quantitative damage in storage. This warrants immediate action in evolving useful, adoptable and eco-friendly technologies to manage these insects at all levels (farm, home & warehouse). Hence author Dr. S. Mohan has developed useful tools/ gadgets for monitoring and early detection of insects in stored food grains namely- TNAU Probe Trap, TNAU Pit fall trap, Two-in-one model trap; for population level estimation- Indicator device and Stack Probe Trap (Indian Patent Application No.284727); for early and sustainable removal of field carried over adults and to prevent further build up in storage namely- Insect removal bin for farmers and for insect control namely TNAU UV light trap technology for trapping insects in warehouses; Insect egg removal device (Indian patent No: 198434) for farm level/ community level/ traders level storage. These tools have become essential in the current scenario of food security. Having found these gadgets effective (as established through his life time research work evidenced in his publications), attempts were made by him to transfer these tools/ gadgets to end users in a systematic and scientific way following all basic principles of Agricultural extension. Author has used significant methods in this Transfer of Technology (TOT) effort such as, developing entrepreneurs for uninterrupted supply of gadgets to farmers/ end users, conducting feedback studies, reaching out to the students both at school and college level through developing educational kit and incorporating the techniques in the curriculum, publication in journals and popular media etc. This has resulted in significant spread of the technologies to households, farmers, government and private warehouses in India. Nearly 300 thousand people in India use TNAU insect trap. In addition around 300 agricultural colleges/ KVK’s/ farmers training centers across the country and around 400 schools enrolling 12 thousand students in Tamil Nadu are using the TNAU education kit for teaching and training. In the North-eastern zone of India around 5000 farmers use the insect removal bin for paddy seed storage. Moreover, Food Corporation of India (FCI) and Tamil Nadu State Warehousing Corporation (TNSWC) have adopted TNAU-UV light trap technology. The gadgets are also used in Ethiopia, Rwanda, Nigeria, Turkey, Egypt, Thailand and France for successful stored pest management.
Thus, through the author's 35 years of research work on post harvest technology, he made our country as one of the world leaders in this science as evidenced by the invitation to act as keynote speaker and deliver lecture on this success story in the 11th International working Conference on Stored Product Protection.
Awards
i) Membership of National/ International Academies:
1. Member in American society of Agricultural and Biological Engineering (2009-10).
2. Member in Madras Agricultural Students Union.
3. Life member in National Academy of Biological Sciences.
ii) National/ International Awards/ citations/ recognitions:
1. Awarded ICAR – Junior fellowship for M.Sc. (Ag.) (National 2nd Rank), 1980-82.
2. Tamil Nadu Government Award (Cash Award Rs.5,000/-) for probe trap and named the probe trap as “Mohan Trap” - 1993.
3. Jawaharlal Nehru Award (ICAR) for best Ph.D Thesis on “Stored Product Entomology” - 1994.
4. Ramasastrulu Munagala Award by Madras Agricultural Students Union, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore for Automatic insect removal bin - 1995.
5. Lakshminarayana Reddy Shield for Best Entomology work in “Stored Product Entomology” - 2000.
6. National Technology Day Invention Award for the Automatic Insect Removal Bin on May 11th 2002 by National Research Development Corporation, Government of India - 2002.
7. Best Creative Product Stall Award for TNAU Insect Trap by South Indian Chamber of Commerce - 2002.
8. Tamil Nadu Scientist Award 2003 by Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology - 2003.
9. TNAU Best Researcher Award - 2005.
10. Honoroured with a cash award of Rs.5000/- by TNAU for obtaining an Indian Patent for a device to remove insect eggs from stored pulse seeds - 2006”.
11. ICAR - Outstanding Extension Scientist Award, 2010
iii) Recognitions:
1. Member in Indian Grain Storage Working Group (IGSWG) from June, 2015.
2. Honour from CII (Confederation of Indian Industries): CII shortlisted my innovations after several screening by experts and included in the special publication on ‘Innovations in Tamil Nadu' show casing innovators and their innovations from three broad categories such as Academics, Industrialists and social entrepreneurs. Name of the Publication: Breakthrough - Bringing ideas to life, 2009.
3. My name was recommended by Dr.David Pimentel (Former Scientific Advisor to Honourable President of USA), Professor, Entomology, Cornell University, New York for writing a chapter on “LIGHT TRAP” for the Encyclopedia of Pest Management brought out by M/s. DEKKER Publication, New York during 2002.
4. Letter of appreciation from FAO for development of TNAU kit for stored product insects and acceptance to circulate the leaflet in this regard in the various departments with in FAO.
5. Commercialisation of TNAU insect Probe trap mention in Plan document. Reference: Report on the working group on Agricultural Research and Education for XI Five Year Plan. Planning Commission GOI. P: 288.
