Aditya Pratap Author & Editor

Dr. Aditya Pratap, born on October 18, 1976, is currently working as Senior Scientist (Plant Breeding) in the Crop Improvement Division, Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He obtained his Master's and Ph.D. degrees in Plant Breeding and Genetics from CSK Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, INDIA in 1999 and 2003. Holding a brilliant academic and service record, he has been associated with crop research since last eight years. He has worked on genetic improvement of crop plants including wheat, triticale, rapeseed-mustard, chickpea and Vigna species and has been instrumental in development of haploidy breeding protocol in cereals through chromosome elimination technique. He has been associated with the development and release of five crop varieties including two in rapeseed-mustard (RSPT-2 and RSPR03), two in green gram (IPM 02-14 and IPM 02-3) and one in facultative winter wheat (DH 114) besides being instrumental in establishing prebreeding garden of rapeseed-mustard at SKUAST-Jammu and of pulses at IIPR, Kanpur. Presently, he is working on genetic improvement of green gram (Vigna radiata) through distant hybridization aided by conventional and biotechnological tools. His research interests include distant hybridization, doubled haploidy breeding, plant tissue culture, and molecular breeding. To his credit, he has about 60 publications which include research papers published in high impact Indian and foreign Journals as well as reviews/chapters for best international publishers including Springer, Academic Press and CRC. His Ph.D. thesis has been published in the form of a book entitled, "Haploidy breeding in Triticale and triticale x wheat hybrids: Comparison of Anther Culture and Chromosome Elimination Techniques" by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany. Recently, he has been awarded prestigious Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship, 2010. He is an acknowledged speaker and has several awards to his credit. Dr Jitendra Kumar is Principal Scientist in the Division of Crop Improvement at Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur. He has over 17 years of research experience in plant breeding using both conventional and molecular marker-assisted breeding approaches on various crops including sunflower, medicinal and aromatic, cereal and pulse crops. Seven high yielding varieties of lentil have been developed by him so far, with several other varieties in the pipeline. Dr. Kumar also studied the genetics of important traits of lentil and exploited wild species in lentil breeding, leading to the development of a number of prebreeding lines for genetic improvement. He has more than 120 publications including research and review articles in international journals, book chapters, meeting reports, popular articles, and bulletins. His current priorities include use of the molecular marker technology in conventional lentil breeding program for making genetic improvement towards biotic and abiotic stresses. Dr. Shiv Kumar has expertise including crop improvement through resistance breeding, widening the genetic base through pre-breeding, and development of genetic and genomic resources in food legumes. During the 30 years of his professional career, he has contributed to the development of 51 lentil, 5 mung bean, 2 urdbean, 1 rice, and 3 grass pea varieties and published 196 peer-reviewed journal articles, 77 book chapters, 11 books, 7 technical bulletins, and 2 training manuals. Presently, Dr. Kumar leads ICARDA's Food legumes program from Rabat, Morocco which aims to deliver improved germplasm of lentil, kabuli chickpea, faba bean and grass pea to national partners in South Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, West Asia, and North Africa. He works on developing short duration climate smart varieties of lentil and grass pea with high iron and zinc content for sustainable intensification of cereal based cropping systems.