Gopal Ji Trivedi

Gopal Ji Trivedi was a vice-chancellor who went home to his village and spent his last three decades farming alongside his neighbours. He was named for the Padma Shri in 2026 in the field of science and engineering, from Bihar ^[1]. He died in May 2026, before the award was presented ^[2].

Scientist

Trivedi was born on 15 February 1930 ^[2]. He studied agriculture at the Agriculture College, Sabour, and took a PhD in agricultural extension at IARI in New Delhi in 1963 ^[2]. He taught at Tirhut College of Agriculture, Dholi, and at Rajendra Agricultural University, Pusa, where he was director of extension education and then vice-chancellor from 1988 to 1991 ^[2].

He devised a socio-economic status scale for rural families, widely known as the Trivedi Scale, which turned qualities that are hard to measure into numbers ^[2].

Farmer

For 34 years he lived in his village, where people called him Gaon Purush and Kisan Mitra ^[2]. He persuaded 22 farmers to turn 86 acres of waterlogged land into fish-based farms, a model called BABA (Bihar Aquaculture Based Agriculture) ^[2]. Around Muzaffarpur he linked litchi growers with processing companies, and he was the first farmer in the state to prune and rejuvenate an old litchi orchard ^[2]. Later he pushed winter maize, and farmers using new methods got yields above 10 tonnes a hectare ^[2].

He received the Krishi Rishi award in 2015 ^[2]. He died on 12 May 2026 ^[2].