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Born on 25th August 1947 in an agriculturist family at Tegur village in Dharwad district of Karnataka state, he took his academic degrees with distinction viz., B.Sc. (Agri.) from University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore, (1972), MSc. (Agri.) in Agronomy from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore (1975) and Ph.D. in Agronomy from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, (1995) respectively. After serving for nearly two years as Instructor/Research Assistant and Junior Agronomist (Assistant Professor) at the UAS, College of Agriculture, Dharwad, he joined in the first batch of Agriculture Research Service (ARS) in 1976 under Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) system. After completing the management training at National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad, he worked continuously on Cardamom and Cardamom based Cropping systems at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Cardamom Research Centre, Appangala from 1st November, 1977 to 12th April, 2001 which is classified as category “E” Station (remote forest area). He as the Head of the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Regional Station (Cardamom Research Centre), Appangala, Madikeri, Coorg District, Karnataka from 1st August 1986 to 12th April 2001 was instrumental in building up of several infrastructural facilities by way of laboratories, administrative buildings, residential quarters and overall development of the research farm. As an agronomist he was closely associated with the field oriented research programmes right from the beginning. He has developed several agrotechniques on cardamom and cardamom based cropping systems which have been widely accepted and adopted by the spices growers at large. He lead the team of scientists in developing High Production Technology (HPT) package on cardamom based on the research findings emerging from various disciplines/research projects. He clearly demonstrated the High Production Technology on Cardamom in over 150 hectares of plantations in the actual growers fields and convinced the farmers to increase the production and productivity from the Indian national average of 120 kg (dry)/ha to 700 kg (dry)/ha. (average of 10 years). As a team leader along with team of other scientists, he won prestigious National award of the ICAR, HARI OM ASHRAM TRUST AWARD, during 1996 for over two decades contributions on Development of High Production Technology on Cardamom and Implementation of the same in the Farmers Fields. Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi considered his Ph.D. research thesis programmes ‘Agronomic investigations on cardamom (Elattaria cardamomum Maton) as outstanding and awarded him with prestigious National award – JAWAHARLAL NEHRU AWARD, during 1998. The research results and the findings of his Ph.D. thesis programmes are directly relevant to the farmers. Consequent to selection as the Head of the Division of Crop Production and Post Harvest Technology, he joined at the Indian Institute of Spices Research, Calicut, Kerala on 13 March, 2001. There he lead the team of Scientists working on six disciplines viz. Agronomy, Soil Science, Plant Physiology, Biochemistry, Organic Chemistry and Post Harvest Processing of various spices viz. Pepper, cardamom, tree spices (clove, nutmeg, cinnamon, allspice, garcinia etc), ginger, turmeric, vanilla etc. His work was directed towards development of agrotechniques on holistic view (basis) to increase the production and productivity of spices with better quality (value addition) and to bring down the cost of cultivation. He developed several location specific high production technologies on various spices, keeping farmers needs and efficient utilization of natural resources on topmost priorities. He has been instrumental in working out and perfecting several spices based cropping systems with coffee, arecanut and coconut. He also worked out several integrated farming system models involving spices. He has two and a half decades of experience on spices research and particularly on spices production and post harvest technology. He has published over 285 papers in reputed professional journals/ books/ chapters/ proceedings of the symposia of which more than 110 research papers are in referred professional journals. He has organized several group meetings/seminars etc. He has also served as the member of the high level committee on alternate cropping/farming systems involving spices. Besides being the elected Vice President of the Indian Society for Spices, Calicut, Kerala, he has been the life member of over a dozen professional societies dealing with the Crop Production and Post Harvest Technology. As a spices advisor he has also been associated with several spices developmental organizations like Spices Board, Coffee Board, State Departments of Horticulture, Agriculture, NGO’s etc. He has also been associated with the Post graduate research programmes of State Agricultural Universities. Consequent to his selection as the Director, ICAR Research Complex for Goa, he has taken over the charge of the said post on 25th January, 2002. This National Institute deals with Integrated Farming System Approaches involving crop science, horticulture, animal-husbandry, fisheries and transfer of technology. As the Chairman of the Organising Committee, he is organizing the National seminar on Coastal Agriculture Research scheduled on 6 - 7th April, 2002.
List of Selected Publications
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