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AAHF Award of Gold Medal 2002
to
Prof. (Dr.) Nalini Sadhale

Prof. (Dr.) Nalini Sadhale was born on 3rd November 1934. She had her early education in Pune, Maharashtra. She obtained MA degree in Sanskrit in 1957 from the University of Poona, Pune and Ph.D. in Sanskrit in 1985 from Osmania University at Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh). She retired as Professor and Head, Department of Sanskrit at Osmania University in 1994.

Prof. Sadhale has had an illustrious career. She was a member of several prestigious committees and boards at different times. She was a Resource Person for the University Grants Commission (UGC) and also a UGC Shastra Chudamani Scholar. She was a member of the Marathi Sahitya Parishat, Andhra Pradesh and Surabharati Samiti, Hyderabad. She was Chief Editor of Panchdhara, a quarterly journal in Marathi, published by Marathi Sahitya Parishat from 1979 through 1996.

Prof. Sadhale has published several books namely, Samshayaratnamala and Tulasi Manasa Nalinam (Balakanda) in Sanskrit, Urvashi, Vasantasena, Nammalvara and Sitajosyam in Marathi and Katha in Sanskrit Poetics in English.

Prof. Sadhale was honored by His Holiness Shankaracharya of Shringeri, His Holiness Shankaracharya of Kanchi Kamakoti and Jnyanaprabodhini, Pune for her contributions to Sanskrit.

Prof. Sadhale has made very significant contributions to the activities of the Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF). She voluntarily translated two Sanskrit Manuscripts, Surapala?s Vrikshayurveda and Krishi-Parashara into English. She reviewed and edited Kashyapiyakrishisukti and contributed articles to the journal, Asian Agri-History. She has been a strong supporter of AAHF and made a generous financial contribution to the corpus fund of AAHF.

Prof. Sadhale continues to be professionally very active and the AAHF trustees wish her many more active years.

To recognize her contributions to AAHF and to the field of agri-history, the trustees of AAHF hereby award Prof. Sadhale the AAHF GOLD MEDAL 2002.

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AAHF Award of Gold Medal 2004
to
Dr. Shivcharan Lal Choudhary

Born in 1946, in Jaipur, Rajasthan (Raj.), Dr Shivcharan Lal Choudhary received his early education at Bhawani Mandi (Raj.) and college education in Udaipur and Jobner (Raj.). Dr Choudhary received his M.Sc. (Ag.) degree in 1969 and Pill in Plant Pathology in 1988. He began his professional career as an assistant professor in Plant Pathology at G V College of Agriculture, Sangaria (Raj.). In subsequent years, he worked in various positions and since 1986, he has been working at the Rajasthan College of Agriculture, Udaipur. Currently he holds the position of Associate Professor of Plant Pathology. For six months in 1996, Dr Choudhary worked as a Visiting Scientist (Plant Pathology) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISA T), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh. He has so far authored over 40 publications and guided 11 M.Sc. (Ag.) and 2 PhD students. Dr Choudhary made professional trips to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Hungary, and France.

Dr Choudhary is an organizer par excellence. During his tenure of the Indian Society of Mycology and Plant Pathology, Dr Choudhary was instrumental in enhancing the prestige of the Society to an international level by successfully organizing a Global Conference on Plant Disease Management at Udaipur in 1995.

It was Dr Choudhary's initiative and hard work that the Rajasthan Chapter of the Asian Agri-History Foundation was established at Udaipur (Raj.) in 2000. As Secretary of the Chapter, he has organized several national meetings on topics of agricultural heritage. All this has led to increased awareness of the need to study our agricultural heritage. He was able to locate a rare copy of the Sanskrit text, Vishvavallabha, written in the 16th century during Maharana Pratap's reign. Vishvavallabha contains a wealth of information on the horticulture of medieval times in Rajasthan. Dr Choudhary has been invited all over the country to deliver lectures on agricultural heritage. He has translated one publication of the Asian Agri-History Foundation, Surapala's Vrikshayurveda, in Hindi.

To recognize Dr SL Choudhary's immense contribution to the study of Indian agricultural heritage, the trustees of the Asian Agri-History Foundation are delighted to award him the AAHF Gold Medal 2004.

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AAHF Award of Gold Medal 2004
to
Sri Shyam Mohan Sinha

Sri Shyam Mohan Sinha was born on 21 September 1940 at Kashipur, Uttar Pradesh. After his early education in Kashipur, he graduated in 1964 from the Delhi College of Art, which is affiliated to the All India Council for Technical Education, Government of India.

Sri Sinha began his professional career with the Ford Foundation in New Delhi in 1964 as the Head of Art, Photography, and Printing. In 1974, he joined the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh to work as Senior Manager, Art and Production in the Information Management and Exchange Program. He took early retirement after working at ICRlSAT for 23 years. Publications of ICRlSAT have been considered to be of a very high standard, major credit for which is due to Sri Sinha.

He has received several professional recognitions, which include "Agricultural Communicators in Education (USA) Award" in 1991 and "The Blue Ribbon Award" of the American Society of Agricultural Engineers for designing a publication in 1986.

Sri Sinha is a professional par excellence and a perfectionist. The Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF) has been most fortunate in having Sri Sinha as the Honorary Advisor, Art and Printing from the very beginning. He has actively monitored the quality of all AAHF publications, which have been acknowledged to be excellent.

To recognize his immense contribution to the success of the publication activities, the Trustees of the AAHF are delighted to honor Sri Sinha with the award of AAHF Gold Medal, 2004.

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AAHF Award of Trustees Medal 2004
to
Mrs. Sheila Vijayakumar

Mrs. Sheila Vijayakumar was born in 1955 in Secunderabad, Andhra Pradesh. She had her education in Secunderabad. In 1976 she obtained MSc degree in Biological Sciences from the Amrit Kapadia Navjivan College, Hyderabad, which is affiliated to the Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Mrs. Sheila Vijayakumar joined the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRlSAT), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh in 1976 and worked as a Senior Research Associate in research as well as in research management until 1997. During this period (1987-88) she worked as a Visiting Scientist with the Tissue Culture for Crops Project (TCPP), Colorado State University, Fort Collins, Colorado, USA.

Having recognized her potential to be a research editor, ICRISA T sponsored her for a course in Book Publishing in 1995. After a long, satisfying and successful career at ICRlSAT, she joined the Asian Agri- History Foundation (AAHF) as Assistant Managing Editor in April 1997 and continues to work in that position. She also does freelance scientific editing for different national and international organizations.

During her research career at ICRISA T, she contributed significantly to projects in pulses pathology and tissue culture. She has been a co-author in over 60 research publications, including a book "The Pigeonpea" which she co-edited. She was elected Fellow of the Indian Phytopathologial Society, New Delhi. She was a trustee of AAHF from 1994 to 1997.

Mrs. Sheila Vijayakumar has taken the major responsibility for editing all AAHF publications, eight volumes of the journal Asian Agri-History and five bulletins so far. The quality of the editing of these publications has received praise from international readership.

To recognize her immense contribution to the success of AAHF, the trustees are delighted to honor Mrs. Sheila Vijayakumar with the award of Trustees Medal, 2004.

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AAHF Award of Trustees Medal 2004
to
Mrs. S. Lalitha Annapurna

Mrs. S Lalitha Annapurna was born in 1955 in Perur, East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. She had her high school and college education in Hyderabad. She received B.Com. degree in 1975 and MA in 200 1, both from Osmania University, Hyderabad.

Mrs. Lalitha Annapurna worked in the Library of the International Crops Rsearch Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISA T), Patancheru, Andhra Pradesh from 1977 through 1994 and then opted for voluntary retirement. In ICRISA T's library she moved through various administrative positions to that of Secretary to the Manager, Library.

Mrs. Lalitha Annapurna was the first staffmember to join the Asian Agri-History Foundation (AAHF) with the designation Administrative-cum-Accounts Officer. She has seen the Foundation to grow to its present stature and has carried out all kinds of required administrative and accounts activities. In addition to her normal duties, she now handles all the desk-top publishing (DTP) work for the Foundation. Mrs. Lalitha Annapurna has been a "pillar" of AAHF.

To recognize her immense contribution to the success of AAHF, the trustees are delighted to honor Mrs. S Lalitha Annapurna with the award of Trustees Medal, 2004.

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AAHF receives a national award

In a short span of its activities of 12 years,the Asian Agri-History Foundation(AAHF)was honoured with through an annual national award,"Param Poojaniya Shree Guruji Puraskar-2009",instituted by the Rasgtriya Swayamsevak Sangh(RSS) Janakalyan Saminthi,Maharashtra,India.A Grand function was Held in Jalna on the Evening of 22nd February 2009.Three Awards were given this year;one to AAHF,"for its devoted and Excellent research work in the field of Indan Agriculture",one to PadmaShree Ms Mary Kom,a champion boxer from Manipur,and one to Deendayal Research Institute, Chitrakoot,Madya Pradesh.Each award consist of Rs 51000/- cash,shawl,memnto,citation, and the auspicious coconut. Dr YL Nene,AAHF Chairman,recieved the award on the behalf of AAHF.Dr Nalini Sadhale,who now lives in the naerby Aurangabad City also attende the Function.Typical of the RSS functions,his function too was most well organized and participated by enthusiastic crowd of over 1500 persons.

Past recipients included several voluntary organizations and well known persons such as Dr MS Swaminathan and Dr RA MaShelkar.

 YL Nene receiving the Award

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