Surajit Kumar De Datta is an Indian American agronomist who is best known for his high yield variety of rice IR-8 that contributed significantly to the Green Revolution across Asia. He worked 27 years at the International Rice Research Institute in Philippines helping Southeast Asia get self-sufficiency in rice production. His book on rice production, Principles and Practices of Rice Production, is considered an authoritative opus in the field of rice cultivation. He has also written two books namely, "Availability of Phosphorus and Utilization of Phosphate Fertilizers in Some Great Soil Groups of Hawaii" in 1963 and "Availability of Phosphorus to Sugar Cane in Hawaii as Influenced by Various Phosphorus Fertilizers and Methods of Application" in 1965 with James C. Moomaw. For his works, he has been awarded the Norman Borlaug Award for Outstanding Contribution to Agricultural Sciences and a citation from the President of Philippines. Prior to his arrival at Virginia Tech in 1991, Dr. De Datta served as an agronomist and principal scientist at the International Rice Research Institute in the Philippines for 27 years. During that time, Dr. De Datta's research in rice production contributed to the green revolution that helped Southeast Asia gain agricultural self-sufficiency. Dr. De Datta has received many awards over his long career. He has been named a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, American Society of Agronomy, Soil Science Society of America, Crop Science Society of America, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in India, and Indian Society of Soil Science. In addition, he received the Norman Borlaug Award for Outstanding Contribution to Agricultural Sciences and the Green Revolution in India as well as a presidential citation from the president of the Philippines in recognition of his outstanding contributions to agricultural productivity in the region. Dr. De Datta has advised a total of 77 master's and Ph.D. students in his career. He has published 366 journal articles, technical bulletins, and other reports in the areas of soil science, soil and crop management, and weed science. He has served on numerous boards, societies, and committees.
The term “Green Revolution” refers to the transformation of agriculture that occurred from the 1940s through the 1960s, when farmers used the discoveries of science, planting higher-yielding rice varieties to great success. In 1968, De Datta, then an agronomist at the institute, published his findings about IR8, a variety of rice that yielded 5 tons of rice per hectare with almost no fertilizer and 9.4 tons per hectare with fertilizer. This was nearly 10 times the yield of traditional rice and came to be known as Miracle Rice. The introduction of IR8 and new management practices changed a hungry landscape to one of food self-sufficiency in Asia. It is difficult to overstate this achievement; rice sustains about 3.5 billion people either partially or fully for caloric intake around the world, mostly in Asia.
