ICAC Researcher: “The Best Is Yet to Come”
September 21, 2011 Each year, during the opening session of the International Cotton Advisory Committee’s (ICAC) plenary meeting, the association names the recipient of its “Researcher of the Year.” On Sept. 4 in Buenos Aires, that individual was announced to be Dr. Sukumar Saha, a research geneticist with the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture.
Dr. Saha’s research opens new paradigms in cotton breeding and genetics studies, providing a tool to overcome the problems of interspecific introgression and in the discovery of some novel genes or traits. He also made a major contribution in developing PCR-based SSR markers, a critical first step for the use of PCR-based marker technologies in the cotton breeding.
As agricultural research scientists, we have learned from the beginning of our careers that the primary responsibility of our research is to solve the problems of our stakeholders, including farmers and industries. Today’s cotton breeding programs are increasingly focused on adding value to the cotton crop in ways never before contemplated. Commercial breeding has used most of its resources to quickly develop acceptable transgenic lines that combine insect resistance and herbicide tolerance with desirable characteristics of previously developed cultivars. As a consequence, there is very little effort for germplasm improvement. The genetic diversity is very low in current Upland cotton cultivars, yet genetic diversity is the foundation of any crop improvement program. Superior fiber quality is one of the driving forces of the current global cotton market. Cotton industries need germplasm with improved productivity and fiber quality because farmers receive reduced prices for poor fiber quality.”
It has been a good year for Dr. Saha, who was named the 2010 Cotton Genetics Researcher of the Year at the 2011 Beltwide Cotton Improvement Conference, providing two major bookend honors to open and close this year.
“I have received these awards with deep gratitude and great humility,” Dr. Saha tells Cotton International in Buenos Ares, after receiving the award. “Compared to some of the giants of cotton science who have received these awards before me, my accomplishments are trivial. I am blessed throughout my career to have support from an outstanding group of collaborators. My awards are tributes and testimonies to their outstanding work. I am also earnestly grateful to those farmers who taught me long ago, in the early phase of my career as an agricultural extension worker, the responsibility of an agricultural scientist to help famers to feed and clothe the world. Finally, I have derived the strength to challenge myself and perform better at each stage of my career because of the sacrifice, inspiration and dedication of my family.
“It is difficult to realize the full impact of our research because we are still conducting it with many of these new genomic tools and resources. But I strongly believe that the best is yet to come.”
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