Dr. Girish Kumar Panicker delivers invited lectures at the 31 st International Horticultural Congress in France

Invited by the International Society for Horticultural Society (ISHS), Belgium, Dr. Girish Kumar Panicker (Honey), professor and director of the Center for Conservation Research in Mississippi delivered invited lectures on ‘Advanced composting technology and Soil health’ at the 31 st  International Horticultural Congress held in Angers, France, recently.

His first speech on ‘Long Term Application of Animal and Forest Waste on a Vineyard and its Effect on Quality, Yield and Soil Health’ was in collaboration with Cornel National Soil Health Lab, Dr. Frank Matta, and Dr. Juan Silva (MSU), and Dr. Leonard Kibet and Willie Mims (ASU). This two decades of research on a vineyard to keep the soil and the humans healthy has been evaluated and rated by the Cornel University as ‘Excellent’.

Panicker’s second speech was on ‘Slow Release and Environmentally-Friendly Compost Production with Magnesium and poultry manure’. Based on the U.S. Army’s patent, Dr. Panicker developed this technology in collaboration with the Army scientists, Dr. Charles Weiss, and Dr. David Ringelberg. Thenew technology promotes the bacterial production of low- solubility ammonium magnesium phosphate (Struvite) in an alternative organic composting process. This struvite-based composting system reduces the ammonia air pollution problem and prevents groundwater pollution.  Struvite-enriched compost is a new type of storable and marketable organic fertilizer that animal farms can economically produce and sell.

"Groundwater pollution and climate change are some of the major challenges the world faces today," said Panicker. "Groundwater and surface water supplies are threatened with contamination. One of the most serious sources of nonpoint pollution is animal waste”. Both these research papers are accepted for publication in ‘Acta Horticulturae’, a peer-reviewed global journal of the International Society for Horticultural Science (ISHS), Belgium.

Dr. Panicker, a Fellow of the Mississippi Academy of Sciences, is the recipient of ‘Pride of India Award’, and ‘2020 International Organic Achievement Award’. A native of Kerala State of India, his parents are the late Sukumara Panicker and Mrs. Pankajam Panicker, Thiruvananthapuram. His wife Rani K. Panicker, (Data Analyst, Alcorn State) is the daughter of the late Mrs. and Mr.  Kozhencherry V.K. Padmanabhan, (Rtd. Asst. Secretary to the Govt. of Kerala), Thiruvananthapuram. Panickers’ only child Ms.Aja Panicker (Gem) is an Architect and Designer.