India-trained entomologist tackles paddy bug

Sep 21, 2014 News

Essequibo, still regarded by many as the Cinderella County, continues to produce many successful academics. Entrepreneurs are no exception. Adding to the fleet of academics is newly appointed Entomologist, Dr. Viviane Baharally.

Dr. Viviane Baharally

Dr Baharally, who is from Kakabakuri, in the Upper Pomeroon River, recently graduated from Sam Higginbottom Institute of Agriculture,Technology and Sciences (formerly Allahabad Agricultural Institute) in Allahabad,Uttar Pradesh, India with her Masters in Science. She majored in Agriculture Entomology.
Dr. Baharally also has a Diploma from the Guyana School of Agriculture and a Bachelors of Science Degree from the University of Guyana. She worked as a research assistant with the Guyana Rice Development Board since 2000.
Today, the Essequibo-born Scientist is an Entomologist with the Guyana Rice Development Board, at Burma, Mahaicony. She was recently promoted to head of the National Paddy Bug Management Unit. This unit, she explained, has a proposed programme of work that targets the paddy bug.
Dr. Baharally was academically driven as a child growing up in Pomeroon. Her motivation came from her now dead grandmother, Mrs. Clara Bennett. It was the woman’s wish to see all of her grandchildren succeed. Bennett died in 2008.
Dr. Baharally reminisced that it was during her third year at the University of Guyana that she became more focused on her studies.
“I woke up one day asking myself what I will become and I realized that if I continued to settle for just passing my courses, I would not go anywhere. Chances are that I would become nothing, so I pulled myself together. My grades improved immediately. I realized I was doing well when studying insects.”
She obtained her early Primary childhood at the Kabakaburi Primary School, in the Upper Pomeroon River. Dr. Baharally attended the Anna Regina Multilateral School, on the Essequibo Coast before furthering her studies in Agriculture, at the Guyana School of Agriculture.
She later went on to study at the University of Guyana for a Degree and more recently in a University in India where she gained her PHD.
Dr. Baharally is the third of five children. Her parents Jennifer and Nicholas Baharally are both retired teachers.
“I grew up with two brothers and two sisters. I didn’t grow up in luxury, but my parents ensured that our basic needs were met.”
Dr. Baharally said that she eventually grew closer to her parents after she completed her studies at the University of Guyana.
Studying in India was a challenge. Despite the medium of communication being English, she said that a lot of discussions, particularly at the University, were done in Hindi. Dr. Baharally said she had to get accustomed to the accent and pronunciation. She admitted that while she didn’t take the time to learn Hindi formally because all of my friends were versed in English, for studying however she did a lot of homework to make up or supplement her lecturer notes.
“I made the culture a study and it worked for me. I erased all of my expectations and opened myself up to all possibilities. I stopped suffering from culture shock and learned to embrace their way of life. I would like to visit India again; I have really good friends in India.”
Dr. Baharally says her immediate plan is to work on effective management strategies to contain insect pests that continue to affect the rice plant in Guyana. Her attention would also be directed at strategising plans to address the Acoushi ant issue that continues to prevail in Kabakaburi and in the other Amerindian Communities in the Pomeroon River.
The 37-year-old Essequibo scientist is encouraging all youths to remain focused, be realistic and don’t let anything stop you. “Stop! Do a self analysis; ask if that’s what you want and how you want it, see what you can do differently, don’t look back at what you could have done differently. Don’t because it will not change where or how you are now.”
And apart from work,Dr. Baharally, who described herself as a constructive individual, says that she loves to fix things around the house as well as cook. (By Yannason Duncan).

Discover more from Kaieteur News

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

Latest News