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Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore

Mangalore, Jun 23: For a scientist who has 21 new crop varieties in oil seeds and pulses to his credit and almost 42 years of research experience at Homi Baba National Institute, Dr Stanislaus F D'Souza comes across as a self-effacing and genuine personality. He is a celebrity in his own right with credentials that speak of his adventures in the field of agriculture, crop improvement, food technology, food irradiation and many more. Dr Stanislaus, who was the Associate Director, Bio-medical group and Head of the Nuclear Agriculture and Bio Technology at Baba Atomic and Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai, till his retirement on April 30, this year at the age of 64 (including four years of extension), is not bored contemplating retirement in the real sense because he cannot detach himself from research. Post retirement Dr D'Souza is planning to work on space mutation breeding in collaboration with ISRO. For the time being he is just enjoying the little sabbatical, which he truly deserves.

For Mangaloreans it is a matter of great pride and utmost satisfaction that Dr Stanislaus is one among the few Mangaloreans and the only Catholic to hold a position of such eminence at BARC. When he received four years of extension at BARC, which is not a commonplace practice at BARC, it was in recognition of his exemplary track record, veritable talent and humungous contribution in the field of Plant biochemistry and Enzyme and Microbial Biotechnology. It is to the credit of Dr D'Souza that he was instrumental in developing the large Gujarat variety of peanut famous all over the world. Interestingly, D K district where groundnut is not usually grown for reasons not known, has successfully experimented growing the groundnuts developed by Dr D'Souza. The experiment has been conducted under the guidance of Fr Dr Leo D'Souza, who is the brother of Dr Stanislaus D'Souza, at St Aloysius Boys Home in Someshwar, near Ullal.

Designer seeds – soon a reality

Speaking to Daijiworld.com during his recent visit to his alumni - St Aloysius College, Mangalore, to participate in the 3rd convocation of the College, Dr D'Souza pointed out that designer seeds which can resist harsh environment such as drought, pests, salinity, frost and even rain but with better yields, would soon become a reality and would be the harbinger of the next green revolution.

Apart from developing seeds that can grow in harsh environment, there have been significant efforts by BARC scientists in ensuring that Indian fruits especially mangoes are exported to markets in US. “Though India is the second largest producer of fruits in the world most of our fruits especially mangoes were not exported to markets in US for quarantine purpose until 2007. Earlier proper food irradiation process was not available in India. As a condition of entry into USA, the mangoes must be treated in India with irradiation by receiving a minimum absorbed dosage of 400 Grays. Through food irradiation process we expose food to ionizing radiation to destroy microorganisms, bacteria, viruses or insects that might be present in the food. Through irradiation ripening of mangoes can be delayed up to 8 to 10 an day which enables easy exports of Mangoes to US. As a result our farmers are able to export mangoes to US since 2007 and earn good returns for their product. Now we are trying to use this technique to a variety of litchis which are highly perishable and India might be able to export them soon”, Dr D'Souza declared.

In addition to this, each consignment of mangoes exported to USA must be accompanied by a phytosanitary certificate issued by national plant protection organization (NPPO) of India) certifying that the fruits received required irradiation treatment.

Dr D'Souza allays all fears about the health hazards as a result of induced radioactivity on food saying “food undergoing irradiation does not become more radioactive than a person undergoing a normal x-ray or a baggage going through an airport x-ray scanner. The only precaution required is that the person himself/herself should not be exposed to radiation”.

Dr D'Souza also talked about the potential and progress achieved in nuclear mutated agricultural seeds. He said agriculture being a major source of livelihood nuclear technology has a vital role to facilitate the development of mutants with desirable traits. Giving an example he said “if there is a tall tree and if a farmer does not like that tallness scientists can manipulate by removing a part of the DNA that may cause tallness in the tree through deletion mutation. We have introduced the dwarf variety of rice through this process. We are now working on thermo tolerant mutants of wheat so that it will help farmers to grow them even under adverse conditions”.

All-Season seeds

According to Dr D'Souza the challenge for nuclear agriculture at the moment is to produce new all season crop varieties which are resistible to harsh conditions such as rain, heat, insects, drought, salinity etc., but with better yields. At the same time he sounds a word of caution saying along with enhanced food production attention should be given to ensure food safety and reduce harvest loss. With India’s population increasing rapidly the requirements of feeding additional mouths can be met only by reducing post harvest losses. He says BAARC has been working persistently to develop improved crop varieties through an effective blend of mutation and recombination breeding and has succeeded to a considerable extent.

Dr Stanislaus D'Souza believes that agriculture is a continuous process because one has to keep on developing newer varieties and techniques to meet future challenges. Naturally research is a quintessential part of this process and Dr D'Souza takes pride in saying that he has guided over 30 Ph.D students who will continue the research work in the field. His work speaks volumes of his achievements and the tremendous contributions he has made in the field. He has to his credit over 200 original international papers and more than 200 articles in reputed international journals, more than 200 papers in text books and symposia proceedings, 70 gene bank submissions, 2 patents and over 250 invited lectures.

Dr Stanislaus who hails from Kadri Kambla, Mangalore (Bejai Parish), is the youngest among the eight children of four boys and four girls, out of which five have served in religious vocations with outstanding achievements to their credit. While three sisters had joined Apostolic Carmel order two of his brothers joined as Jesuits priests. One of his brothers Dr Fr Leo D'Souza had served as the Rector and Principal of St Aloysius College. He has completed his doctorate in Plant Breeding and has been instrumental in establishing the Laboratory of Applied Biology at St Aloysius College. Fr Leo now looks after the Aloysian Boys Home at Someshwar.

Dr Stanislaus is an alumnus of St Aloysius College, Mangalore from where he completed his B.Sc with physics, chemistry and maths. He showed keen interest in organic chemistry from childhood it was his good fortune that when he graduated Msore University had started PG in biochemistry, thus opening him the floodgates of opportunities. In subsequent years BARC had opened its training school and began recruiting M.Scs at the national level. Dr D'Souza came out with flying colours in the written test and interview and was one among the 8 people selected and recruited as Class I gazetted officers. He completed his Ph.D from Bombay University and went to US for his Post Doctorate studies.

His Wife Dr Sandra D'Souza is also a BARC scientist and is specialized in etremophilic organisms that live in extreme conditions. Sandra who also retired recently, had done extensive research on organisms found in Dead Sea.

Awards and accolades have come on the way of Dr D'Souza from time to time recognizing his yeoman service in the field of nuclear agriculture. He was the recipient of the ‘Louis Pasteur Award’ for his considerable contributions in the field of Microbiology and DAE Group Achievement Award for Oilseeds and Pulse improvement programme. He is also the recipient of DAE Group Achievement Award for AKRUTI Team (Advanced Knowledge & Rural Technology Implementation). Indian Nuclear Society has honoured him with ‘Outstanding Service Award’ for his contributions in nuclear sciences. Fellow of the National Academy of Science, Fellow of the Association of Food Scientists and Technologist and Fellow of the Maharashtra Academy of Sciences are the other honours bestowed on him. He was also conferred with the eminent Aloysian Alumni award in 2010.

Despite such stupendous achievements to his credit Dr D'Souza is not the one to rest on his laurels. His quest for research is like a never-ending thirst and it is only work and more work in his field of interest that can quench his thirst for more knowledge. We can expect a few more feathers in the cap of his glorious life in the days to come in his new role at ISRO.