Carrying forward the legacy of his legendary father, Mahadeoshastri Joshi's son, Ashok Joshi has been compiling Encyclopedia of Agriculture since past 17 years

His father was a connoisseur who, other than his immense contribution to Marathi literature was associated with the compilation of 10 volumes of Bharatiya Sanskriti Kosh. Carrying forward the legacy of his legendary father Pandit Mahadeoshastri Joshi, city-based Ashok Mahadeo Joshi has been working on the compilation of Encyclopedia of Agriculture for the past 17 years.

Titled Krishijnanakosh, the interesting tale behind the name goes like this- "When I told my father, the idea of compiling such a book, he told me to name it- Jnanakosh- meaning encyclopedia instead of Vidnyanakosh- meaning scientific dictionary. The expanse of the word- knowledge is far beyond the word- science. And after all, science is a part of knowledge he said isn't it," says Joshi who has already finished compiling five out of the total 15 volumes that he plans to come up with.

Coming from a literary background, research and compilation of agriculture related terminology was something that came up accidentally in Joshi's life. "My mother was an active participant of the freedom struggle and after four years of imprisonment with the Portuguese government, when she returned to Pune, we purchased this three acres of plot in Dhayari near Pune. During those days, we planted as many as 75 coconut trees, 150 Custard apple plants in our garden. Gardening was very much a hobby and publication of our fathers books remained our prime source of income," says Joshi as he adds, "One day, when I went into the garden, I noticed that the size of coconuts grown in the garden had reduced drastically. We were putting regular fertiliser feeds, and there seemed no reason as to why the coconuts shrunk. After referring to some of the books regarding the issue, I realised that the way we were putting fertilizers was incorrect. While corrections followed instantaneously, I was swayed by the fascinating world of agriculture," smiles he.

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