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Dr.Ch. Krishna Moorthy's Biography.

Dr. Ch. Krishna Moorthy was born in Dondapadu village in Prakasam district of Andhra Pradesh on 15th March 1921. He had his schooling at his native place and moved to Hyderabad for higher studies. He joined the B.Sc. (Chemistry) degree programme at the Nizam's College, Hyderabad and obtained his degree with distinction. Recognising his talent and brilliance, HE.H. the Nizam's government of Hyderabad State offered him a scholarship to study for a Bachelor's degree in Agriculture at the Agricultural College, Coimbatore. His academic performance at the Agricultural College was extraordinary, and has remained unbeaten He obtained a B.Sc.(Agriculture) degree with distinction from the University of Madras, and earned ten Gold Medals. He secured the first First Class in Agriculture from that college. Dr.Krishna Moorthy was awarded a fellowship at the University of California, US to work for a doctoral degree in soil science. At the University of California, he had an opportunity to work and interact with scientists of repute whose contributions were globally recognised. He earned his doctoral degree in 1949, and his contributions towards the understanding of the cation exchange properties of soils, which formed a part of his thesis work, have been of unmatched excellence. His work led to the development of the Krishna Moorthy and Overstreet (1950) equation, which yielded satisfactory equilibrium constants for the exchange of metal cations on selected bento ite clays, soil colloids, and synthetic resins. This is a classical work, which even today, is frequently quoted by soil scientists all over the world. On his return from the United States, he served the Government of the erstwhile Hyderabad State in various capacities as an Agricultural Assistant, Research Assistant, Assistant Agricultural Chemist, and Agronomist. Subsequently, his services were sought by the government of India as a Soil Conservation Officer at the Soil Conservation Training and Research Institute, Bellary. At this centre, he worked on the chemistry of soil phosphorous and developed empirical relationships between phosphate availability and properties of soils which formed the basis for determining precise fertilizer phosphorous recommendations based on soil tests. In 1966, he was appointed the first Director of Research at the Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, in which capacity he served with distinction until October 1970. He moved to the national scene in 1970 and served as Assistant Director General of, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research and the first Project Director of the All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture until 1978. In 1978, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations appointed him Technical Advisor, and subsequently, he also served as Agricultural Advisor to the Government of Thailand. In a professional career spanning over three decades, Dr Krishna Moorthy had an enviable record of scientific achievements and had an opportunity to study agricultural research and development in such progressive and developing countries as the United Kingdom, United States of America, Canada, Malaysia, Thailand, and Sri Lanka. He was also the Vice-President of the prestigious Indian Society of Soil Science. His contributions in the fields of soil chemistry, soil fertility, plant nutrition and dryland agriculture are very well recognised. He published more than forty research papers in scientific journals of repute, besides authoring several status reports and editing the proceedings of scientific seminars. In recognition of his contributions towards the development of dryland agriculture in the country, the Government of India honoured him with the prestigious Norman Borlaug Award in 1979. • Dr Krishna Moorthy will be remembered as a great scientist and a visionary.