Appreciation Prof. T. Jogaratnam – A teacher par excellence

I was deeply saddened to hear the news about the death of much-respected Professor T. Jogaratnam who passed away last week after a long illness. It was a shock to everyone who was near and dear to him. This was extremely sad news for me personally as I was under his tutelage ever since I joined the Faculty of Agriculture staff in 1970. 

Although I left Sri Lanka in 1990 to work in Australia, I had a close relationship with Prof. Jogaratnam for nearly 25 years both as a student and an academic staff member of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. He encouraged me even during my student days to explore the potential for me to pursue a career in agricultural economics. 

Those were the days when students were scared to even look at the face of a professor. My career and all successes I achieved are in large part thanks to the unstinted support he gave me in the early part of my career and I owe him a great debt of gratitude. He was a person of immense character and kindness and earned considerable respect from everyone who worked with him either in academia or in public life.

His contribution to the Faculty of Agriculture was enormous. He was the architect of the Department of Agricultural Economics and the first Professor of Agricultural Economics in the Faculty and in Sri Lanka. The development of the Department of Agricultural Economics was due to his untiring efforts over many years when university bureaucracy was well entrenched in academia. 

His vision heralded a turning point in agricultural economics teaching vital for societies with increasing poverty and inequality. This discipline has now risen to great heights in Sri Lanka and is taught in many universities. Most of the contemporary leaders of the subject are his own protégés. 

His contribution to agricultural education in Sri Lanka as Director of the Postgraduate Institute of Agriculture (PGIA) is much appreciated by plethora of students in Sri Lanka and the international diaspora of agriculture graduates from the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Peradeniya. 

The PGIA was the first such institution in Sri Lanka built to nurture the hopes of the community for post graduate studies in agriculture. The PGIA has unlocked and harnessed new knowledge and created an environment that promotes dialogue and debate. Prof. Jogaratnam had a large role to play in this endeavour.

During his career, he taught and mentored many generations of students and was a much-loved personality. I always remember the affable, bespectacled, soft-spoken gentleman and the many discussions we had on numerous topics. He ungrudgingly gave of his love and support to everyone around him and had no enemies. 

He will be missed by everyone who loved him. We offer our deepest sympathies to his wife and children.

May he attain Nibbana!

Prof. Gamini Herath 

Monash University, Malaysia