Prof Kadambot Siddique
The University of Western Australia, Hackett Professor of Agriculture Chair and Director of the UWA Institute of Agriculture
Prof Siddique has over 30 years’ experience in agricultural research, teaching and management in both Australia and overseas. He has developed a national and international reputation in agricultural science especially in the fields of crop physiology, production agronomy, farming systems, genetic resources, breeding research in cereal, grain and pasture legumes and oilseed crops.
He has published >850 scientific papers, books and book chapters. Professor Siddique was the Highly Cited Researcher in Agricultural Science in 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021 and 2022. He is the Highly Cited Researcher (Hi Ci) in 2021 and 2022 in two categories: (i) Agricultural Sciences (ii) Plant and Animal Science (Thomson Reuters/ Clarivate Analytics). Google Scholar h-index: 104 and citations: 41,949 (15 May 2023).
Fellow of the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, Australian Agricultural Institute, Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Foreign Fellow of the Pakistan Academy of Sciences and Fellow of African Academy of Sciences (first Australian to be elected to the Academy). Professor Siddique was designated by United National FAO as Special Ambassador for the International Year of Pulses 2016.
Professor Siddique is the recipient of national and international awards including: Urrbrae Memorial Award, Member of the Order of Australia (AM), 2014 Western Australian Year of the Award (CitWA), the Dunhunag Award by China’s Gansu Provincial Government. He received the Friendship Award from the Chinese Central Government (the highest award for a foreign expert) in recognition of his outstanding contributions to agricultural science and education in China over the years and was the Western Australian Indian of the Year 2021. Professor Siddique was one of the three finalists for the Western Australian Scientist of the Year 2022 Award. He received the Sanquin Friendship Award from the Shaanxi Province China in April 2023.
Professor Siddique has also trained numerous Honours, MSc and PhD students. He has developed an extensive network of scientists within Australia and has also established a diverse range of overseas (China, India, Turkey, Syria, Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Malaysia, East Timor, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Europe, Canada, USA) collaborative research and educational projects. He holds a number of national and international committee positions.
ABSTRACT
Future Smart Crops: The key to improving dietary diversity and fighting hunger and malnutrition
Asia and the Pacific continue to suffer from a high prevalence of malnutrition. An estimated 479 million undernourished people, 58 % of the worldwide total, live in this region. Chronic undernutrition is due to the persistent inability to meet minimum micronutrient and macronutrient requirements, or the frequent recurrence of acute malnutrition episodes, or a combination of both.
Food-based approaches that address malnutrition, especially micronutrient deficiencies, are embedded in evidence-based healthy diet patterns. But they are disconnected from the current agricultural production system. Neglected and underutilized species (NUS) are fundamental to improving dietary and production diversity. These species are nutrient-dense, climate-resilient, profitable, adaptable, and locally available.
2023 is the UN International Year of Millets and along with The Future Smart Food Initiative, is being led by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations to harness the enormous benefits that millets and other NUS offer in the fight against hunger and malnutrition. Recognizing that NUS covers crop, livestock, fisheries and aquaculture and forest, FAO sets crop as an entry point among NUS to address hunger and malnutrition. Many NUS can tolerate various stresses, which would make production systems not only more diverse but more sustainable and climate resilient. Their resistance to climate change implies that NUS can provide food when other crops fail.
Neglected and Underutilized Crops: Future Smart Food, edited by Muhammad Farooq,and Kadambot H.M. Siddique, was published in November 2022.