News Release
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan – February 27, 2026:
Genome Prairie announced today the passing of the remarkable Dr. Pete (Prabhat) Desai, former and founding Chair of Genome Prairie.
Dr. Desai grew up on his family farm in Belgaum, India. The farm produced many crops, including sugar, rice, maize, and wheat. Later, Dr. Desai began what could only be described as a remarkable academic and professional career. After studying agriculture at the University of Poona, Dr. Desai came to Canada in 1967, where he earned a master’s degree at the University of British Columbia and, in 1972, a PhD in environmental biology at the University of Guelph in Ontario.
Dr. Desai worked for 27 years at Dow Chemical, DowElanco and Dow AgroSciences before retirement in 2001. However, Dr. Desai’s retirement was in name only. Pete started a consulting company, Desai & Desai Inc., that assisted early-stage startup companies in bringing products to market. While providing consulting support, Dr. Desai served as president of Mustard 21 Canada, which supported Canadian mustard growers by developing higher-yielding mustard varieties.
Pete worked tirelessly for a wide variety of organizations, volunteering on over 15 boards, including Genome Prairie and Genome Canada. His time, kindness and incredible knowledge were invaluable and irreplaceable.
Dr. Desai is survived by his wife, Nancy and family.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS RELEASE PLEASE CONTACT
Tony Bassett
Director of Communications
Genome Prairie
text/voice: 306.881.0255
email: tbassett@genomeprairie.ca
