Siddique is a leading scientist in the field of legumes and currently serves as a professor of agriculture and chair and director of the Institute of Agriculture at the University of Western Australia.
As Ambassador for the International Year, Siddique will work to raise awareness on the important contribution of pulses to food security and their positive impact on health and the environment, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) said in a statement.
Besides encouraging new connections throughout the food chain to better use pulse-based proteins in our food and address trade challenges, Siddique is also tasked with seeking out opportunities for dialogue on these nutritional legumes and efforts to ensure more people have access to information on pulses.
Siddique’s research includes papers on the adaptation of crops to the dryland environment and traits that allow crops to cope with various stresses. He is credited with contributing to Australia’s ascent to become one of the world’s leading pulse exporters and for strengthening the chickpea industry in particular.
Siddique is an International Fellow of the Indian Society of Plant Physiology, a Foreign Fellow of the Indian National Academy of Agricultural Sciences and a fellow of the Australian Agriculture Institute.
Siddique’s designation took place during the opening of the 2016 International Conference on Pulses for Health, Nutrition and Sustainable Agriculture in Drylands. About 300 leading agricultural scientists, policy-makers, donors and representatives of private sector organisations are attending the Marrakesh conference to deliberate and address the challenges facing developing countries in the production of pulses and the widening gap between supply and demand.
The UN has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses. India is the largest producer, consumer and importer of pulses in the world.

Source : Business Line