Benjamin Peary Pal

Benjamin Peary Pal (1906 to 1989) was an Indian plant breeder and agronomist who directed the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in Delhi and served as the first Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. Born in Mukandpur as Brahma Das Pal, he took the name Benjamin Peary Pal at school in Maymyo in 1914, studied botany at Rangoon University, and took his doctorate at the University of Cambridge on hybrid vigour in wheat under Rowland Biffen and later Frank Engledow. In 1954, after 18 years of research, he developed the NP 809 wheat, a variety able to combat all three types of rust. He founded the Rose and Bougainvillea Societies of India and the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1972, and received the Padma Shri in 1959 and the Padma Bhushan in 1968.