Benjamin Peary "B.P." Pal

'''Benjamin Peary "B.P." Pal''' (1906-1989) was a prominent Indian plant breeder who was a major figure in the Green Revolution. Pal received his PhD in plant genetics at Cambridge in the UK, first studying under Rowland Biffen and later under Frank Leonard Engeldow. Upon receiving his PhD in 1933, Pal returned to India and assumed a position as an Economic Botanist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) at Pusa. Four years later, in 1937, he became the head of the division of botany at IARI. In the 1960's, Pal was one of the leading figures involved in bringing Norman Borlaug's high yielding Mexican varieties of wheat to India. (For more, see the article on Wheat Breeding in the Green Revolution.) Pal was appointed as the director of the Indian Council for Agricultural Research (ICAR) by Minister of Food and Agriculture C. Subramaniam in 1965, a position he held until his retirement in 1972.

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Green Revolution
 * Rockefeller Foundation
 * Ford Foundation
 * U.S. Agency for International Development
 * Norman Borlaug
 * World Bank
 * Timeline of the Green Revolution
 * People in the Green Revolution
 * Wheat Breeding in the Green Revolution