Dr Gupta’s name was announced by the World Food Prize Foundation yesterday at a ceremony at the US State Department at Washington DC, according to a press note from the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) here.

Dr Gupta, whose hometown is Bapatla in Andhra Pradesh, was till his recent retirement the Assistant Director General at WorldFish, an international fisheries research institute under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) based at Penang in Malaysia.

While making the announcement, Ambassador Kenneth M Quinn, president of the World Food Prize Foundation, said through Dr Gupta’s dedicated and sustained efforts in Bangladesh, Laos and other countries in Southeast Asia, he made small-scale aquaculture a viable means for over one million very poor farmers and women to improve their family’s nutrition and well-being.

As a result of Dr Gupta’s efforts, freshwater fish production has risen dramatically in these countries by as much as three to five times. He developed unique methods of fish farming, requiring little cost while causing no environmental damage.

“The World Food Prize is a great honour for all those who work with improving fish production for reducing poverty and environmental protection,” said Dr Gupta.

Dr Gupta is the sixth citizen of India to receive the World Food Prize since it was established in 1986. The World Food Prize will be formally presented to Dr Gupta at a ceremony on October 13, 2005, in the Iowa State Capitol Building in Des Moines, USA.