Instructor: Gurdev Khush, Department of Plant Sciences, College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
Description: This seminar series is designed to introduce the students to problems of world hunger and malnutrition. In spite of major advances in food grain production during green revolution, one billion people still go to bed hungry every night. In addition, millions of people in the developing world suffer malnutrition, e.g. deficiencies of micronutrients (vitamin A, iron and zinc). There will be 2 billion more people to feed in 2030. This will require 50% increase in food grain production. The first sessions will be devoted to understanding the extent of world hunger and malnutrition. Subsequent seminars will discuss the constraints that impact food production such as stagnant crop yields, water shortages for agriculture, loss of biodiversity, unsustainable use of natural resources, climate change, shortage of trained human-power and poor investment in agricultural research. International efforts to alleviate these constraints will be reviewed. The seminars are intended for all disciplines; no previous knowledge of agriculture is required.
Format: There will be no text for the series. The seminars will consist of lectures supplemented by PowerPoint presentations. Each lecture will be followed up by a group discussion the week after (beginning with the third session). For every discussion session, the students will be assigned background reading material. This material will be provided to the students at the end of the lecture one week prior to the discussion. The topics of discussion will be synchronized with the lectures. At the start of each discussion, students will turn in one paragraph commentary (preferably typed and submitted electronically) about what they learnt from background reading material. This commentary should include a short discussion question and some those questions will be addressed during the discussion. Grading: 80% of the grade (letter grade) will be based on the collection of commentaries submitted by students. The remainder of the grade will be based on the students’ contributions to weekly discussions. The primary objective of the series is to foster skills in communication and make them aware of international development issues. One absence will be permitted without an impact on student grade. A schedule of seminar topics will be distributed at the first session.
About the Instructor: Professor Khush was Principal Plant Breeder and Head Division of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Biotechnology at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines for 35 years. He spearheaded the Institutes’ program for developing high yielding varieties of rice with disease and insect resistance that led to green revolution in rice farming.