Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 10: Dr Rajeev Varshney, highly cited Scientist of the country delivered 13th Benchmark Lecture Series, organized by Human Resource Development Centre of Jammu University and RUSA. He spoke on “Fast Forward Breeding and Rapid Delivery Systems for International Agriculture”.
In his power point presentation, Dr Rajeev Varshney, Research Program Director – Accelerated Crop Improvement, from The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad, explained the concept of Genomics Assisted Breeding and its relevance to scientists and farmers.
He expressed his work and ideas on using chickpea genomics to address global challenges for enhancing crop productivity. He discussed the need of understanding the genetic makeup of a crop for its improvement and how modern-day biotechnological tools are helping to study or look for desirable genes present in the wild crops.
Dr Varshney emphasized the idea of using genomic assisted breeding/gene-editing tools to remove undesirable genes from the crops by domestication or crop breeding. He also talked about Pan-Genome and Innovative Genomics Breeding to reveal the hidden genetic variations which are accessible to genetic studies and breeding. He elaborated how Rapid Delivery systems can be used to support the farmers using Digital Decision Support Tools.
It is pertinent to mention here that Dr Varshney, has published more than 450 high-quality research papers/articles and has an h-index of 100 with more than 47,000 citations. He is the most cited author from the country. His area of research is on the most resilient, climate-smart, and nutritious legume and cereal crops which are critical to the dry land tropics.
Prof Manoj K Dhar, Vice-Chancellor JU, who was the chief guest on the occasion, said that this is the era of collaborations and by doing so, the institutions are able to share their valued resources and give faculty, scholars, and students to enhance their potential and play a vital for the development of the nation.
Earlier, Prof S K Pandita, Director, HRDC delivered a formal welcome address whereas Ranjeet, Kalra, teaching faculty delivered a formal vote of thanks.
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