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The first Sunhak Peace Prize was awarded to Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta, noted Indian agriculture scientist, along with the President of Kiribati Islands, Anote Tong. The Sunhak Peace Prize is billed as an alternative to the Nobel Peace Prize.

Dr Modadugu Vijay Gupta, 76, who has done pioneering work in aquaculture in India and many other countries, shared the USD 1 million prize with Anote Tong at a glittering function attended by invitees from all through the world.
Tong, 63, was chosen for the award for his determined fight to end the carbon emissions which are spelling disaster for small island nations. The Pacific Ocean island nation is facing terrible prospects by 2050 likely to be engulfed by rising sea waters.

Dr Hak Ja Han Moon, South Korean religious leader and the wife of late Rev Sun Myung Moon, presented the awards. Moon instituted the awards to recognize individuals who work for making big enough efforts for the betterment of the society and people.

Modadugu Vijay Gupta - first winner of Sunhak Peace Prize

Regarded as a rebel within the ranks of the agricultural scientist community in India, Modadugu Vijay Gupta hails from Bapatla, AP. Gupta is a biologist who also won the World Food Prize in 2005 for development and dissemination of low-cost techniques useful for freshwater fish farming.

Gupta served as the Assistant Director General at an international fisheries research institute WorldFish, which was under the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research based in Penang, Malaysia. He started his career as a scientist in Indian Council Agriculture Research in Kolkata. Having worked in Bangladesh, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos and the Philippines, Gupta perused belief in aqua technology with ability to offer food security besides improving livelyhoods of rural poor.

After receiving the award, Gupta told PTI that, "I believed throughout my career that all the advanced fish farming technology which we created in laboratories should be taken to people, then only it can make a difference to their lives.”

"There can be no peace without food security in the world. You cannot talk peace to a hungry man," he added.

The winner mostly worked with the UN and agriculture related international firms across different countries. His work in Bangladesh made fish farming as major source of livelihood for rural people in millions.

-Sumana