Professor R.K. SIVANAPPAN:
Education, Career, Post Retirement and Publications
Professor Ramampalayam Karuthiruman Sivanappan was born on 4th May 1928 near Karamadai, Tamil Nadu.
A. Education
He received his B. E degree in Civil Engineering in 1953 from Madras University, India, and M.Tech degree in 1962 from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur, India. He was an USAID fellow and visited USA during 1968-69 to study Irrigation, Drainage, Soil and Water Conservation techniques at the University of California, Davis; Utah State University Logan; Oklahoma State University at Still Water; and United States Soil Salinity Lab at River Side, California, USA.
He was conferred Honorary Doctorate Degree by the Linkoping University Sweden in 1989 for his outstanding research on water and related subjects. The Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore, India also awarded the Doctor of Science (Honoris causa) for his outstanding services in Irrigation Management, in 2005.
B. Career
He started his career as a civil engineer in the Public Works Department, Tamil Nadu in 1953, until 1956. He then worked as Lecturer, Professor and Dean, College of Agricultural Engineering at the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore, India from 1956 until his retirement in 1986.
He was the Founder Director of the Water Technology Centre at TNAU, Coimbatore, by obtaining a sizeable grant from SIDA, Sweden. He also served as Member, Tamil Nadu State Planning Commission, 2005 – 2006.
C. Post Retirement
Since his retirement from TNAU in 1986 and upto 2016, he has served as a Consultant / Adviser to a number of international donor and funding agencies, such as, World Bank, UNDP, FAO, SIDA, DANIDA, JICA / JBIC, USAID, World Water International, and International Development Enterprises (IDE, USA).
Professor Sivanappan’s consultancy / contributions for the FAO include country missions to Africa (Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia, and Zimbabwe) on Small Scale Irrigation Technology Transfer; to Thailand on drip Irrigation for oil palm crops; to Cambodia and Vietnam for training in water management. Within India, he has been consultant to the Government of India, State Governments, national consultancy companies, and NGO’s such as IPCL, AFC, NABARD, CAPART, WAPCO, INCID, and others.
For JICA, he had conducted studies on Rehabilitation of Minor Irrigation Tanks in Tamil Nadu, and for SIDA, he served as Project leader for research on sharing common water resources in the Bhavani river basin, Tamil Nadu. He was a member of the State Planning Commission, Tamil Nadu (2005-2006) in-charge of Water Resources, irrigation, land use etc.
D. Publications
He has authored more than 30 books in Irrigation, Water Management, Dryland Farming, Sprinkler Irrigation, Drip Irrigation, etc. He has published more than 1250 articles in national and international journals, and others, and about 50 manuals and reports on water and water related topics to help the governments, researchers, students and farmers.
Since 2015-2016, he has been involved in writing book chapters in the Micro Irrigation series (6 volumes out of 10), and in Agriculture and Biological Engineering Series (in 5 volumes), for the CRC Press and Apple Academic Press, USA.
Prof. Sivanappan has travelled to more than 30 countries for consultancy work, conferences, seminars /workshops, etc.