Born on 1st January 1969, Dr. Prakash kumar did his Post graduation in Agronomy and Ph.D. in Plant Nutrition. On 10th October 1991, he joined as an Agriculture Research Officer in the Department of Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan, India. At the age of merely 26, the Government of Rajasthan assigned him a major responsibility of research as 'officer in charge' of the 200-hectare Agriculture Research Station, Barore, Sriganganagar (One of the largest Agriculture Research Stations of Rajasthan State) of IGNP canal command.
He realized that extension functionaries in the command area are sharp in program implementation but not able to perform well in the diagnosis of crop problems. A huge amount of chemicals are being pumped into crop fields in 'fear of damage' by the farmers in lack of reliable and efficient 'Crises Management Advisory Services'. He tried to improve the diagnostic skills of extension functionaries and in the process, he decided to establish a reliable advisory mechanism.
First time he coined the term ‘Specific Identification Mark’ which later became popular with its abbreviation ‘SIM’, among researchers in clinical diagnosis of field problems. SIM is one of the scientifically established diagnostic features, easily visible on the external part. SIM of problems was closely photographed and highlighted on ‘Identification and recommendation photo sheets’ to be used by extension functionaries. SIM is now considered one of the most reliable signs for clinical field diagnosis of agriculture problems by researchers and field extension functionaries.
In his own field of expertise (Plant Nutrition), he realized that the problem is so severe that most the crop fields suffer from one or multiple nutritional problems and these problems are most difficult to diagnose. For farmers Soil analysis was available for a few nutrients only and plant analysis facilities for farmers are almost zero. The only option available was the correct clinical diagnosis by extension functionaries. With his Soil Science researcher colleague, he started intensive work on nutrient problems of various crops. His popular piece of scientific work on Plant Nutrition entitled ‘A Guide to identifying and Managing Nutrient Deficiency in cereal crop’ was first published by renowned scientific organizations CIMMYT (Mexico) and IPNI (Georgia) in coordination. This work was later translated into several languages of the world.
In December 2013, CABI, UK published his book ‘Nutrient Deficiencies in field crops: Guide to diagnosis and treatment’. With over 600 illustrated photographs, this became one of the biggest nutrient deficiency diagnostic collections presently available in the world.
The authors allowed in agreement with CABI, the use of all photographs and related literature for the Global farming Community in farmer’s welfare programs without any financial gains to the authors. This publication has major contribution in ‘Nutrient deficiency diagnostic photographs’ being used by CABI in its farmer’s welfare program ‘PLANTWISE’ whether in ‘Plantwise diagnostic Field Guide’ or in ‘Plantwise Knowledge Bank’.
Dr. Prakash Kumar provided the biggest academic contribution of his life in developing a public sector farmer’s welfare project named ‘Pro-P’ in the Department of Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan. With his colleague Mr. Rajendra Singh, presently working as Joint Director, Research, Department of Agriculture, Rajasthan, he designed this ‘Crises Management Farmer’s Advisory Project’. The "Production with protection (Pro-P) project" provides a methodology to transfer & utilize high-level diagnosis and treatment expertise to the village level through agriculture extension functionaries. With the help of 24 scientists from various Agriculture Universities/ National Research Institutions and more than 50 experts from State Agriculture Universities Dr. Prakash Kumar completed the entire technical work of this project within four years. With the entire team, Dr. Prakash Kumar edited more than 4000 Identification & Recommendation Photo Sheets (IRPS) and compiled 10 Pro-P Guides for 10 agro-climatic Zones of Rajasthan. Pro-P Project is presently the biggest ‘Written Farmers Advisory Project’ on crop crisis management in India. Pro-P may be implemented anywhere on Globe in public sector extension services with the help of local Agriculture University support.
Dr. Prakash Kumar contributed a substantial number of precious ‘identification photographs’ to the National Database of ‘The National Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
During his service career, Dr. Prakash Kumar contributed many popular books as an author, published by the Department of Agriculture, Government of Rajasthan. Most of such popular books were published under World Bank-funded farmer’s welfare projects of the Rajasthan Government.
The contribution of Dr. Prakash Kumar to the farmers and department was many times recognized and honored by the Government on occasions like Republic Day and Independence Day.
After working 28 years as a researcher in the field of Agriculture, he realized that the agriculture sector needs advisory services at a professional level. The Government alone can’t fulfill this vast need. In absence of this single factor, humanity is suffering from many problems with the environment, food, and health. Farm productivity levels are extremely low and the farmers are struggling for occupational survival. This is all when we are dreaming of organic farming, restoring nature, and high-tech agriculture. We are cultivating 30 percent surface land area of this earth without Plant Doctors and professionally trained advisors. Sooner or later, the world has to rectify this biggest human blunder on earth. A few global organizations such as CABI and IRRI have already started brilliant efforts in this direction but the entire human community has to awaken, every Government has to support and every agriculture university has to contribute. Dr. Prakash Kumar decided to work in this direction. He resigned from his magnificent officer job as Deputy Director, of Agronomy (Research) in the Government of Rajasthan in July 2021 and decided to launch ‘Consultant Plant Doctor Mission’. The mission will motivate Agricultural students (through free academic lectures) to serve farmers as professional advisors with the spirit - To serve nature & humanity.