Dr. Gowri Sankara Rao, Dean & Professor, Mohan Babu University, Tirupati

I Dr. Gowri Sankara Rao, am a self-motivated agricultural literate with a doctoral degree in Seed Science and Technology from the coveted Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI, also called Pusa Institute), New Delhi, and a master’s degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding from Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Hyderabad. My earlier education at Andhra Pradesh Residential Junior College has imbibed a deep sense of discipline, sincerity, responsibility, accountability, punctuality, courtesy, and attention to detail in me.

Before joining my Ph.D., I worked as a Research Associate in the Hybrid Rice project at the Directorate of Rice Research, Hyderabad. I was curious about developing superior rice hybrids with only limited male sterile lines (IR 58025A & IR 62829A). I have conceptualized a project for the diversification of restorer (male) parents for creating more superior hybrids. In this process, I have proposed to undertake intersubspecific (indica X japonica) wide hybridization for creating enormous variability. This concept was taken forward by my wife Dr. Prabhavathi Kona during her doctoral research work at DRR, Hyderabad.

Since I am from an urban background and my first wish was to become a doctor, I was reluctant and unprepared for agricultural sciences in the first 2 semesters. After meeting one of our seniors Dr. G.V. Ramanjaneyulu, my perception has got completely changed and I started traveling in rural areas during holidays/vacations for understanding the pain and gain of being a farmer. The rampant occurrence of farmer suicides instigated me to understand the ground realities and major concerns of farmers and rural communities. I found that non-availability of quality seeds and the prevalence of spurious seeds especially in commercial crops like cotton, tomato, chilies are one of the main reasons for excessive opex, and when the crop fails, farmers get low returns or no returns which may not suffice to repay the loans. Hence, socio-economic-cultural humiliations lead farmers to their extreme decisions.

Aforesaid observations compelled me to pursue my research acumen in Crop Improvement and Seed Science. Incidentally, I joined master’s and doctoral degrees in Seed Science and Technology. I have pursued my research “Effect of biochemical and physiological processes during seed maturation on the seed quality in Sunflower” for my masters; and “Use of biochemical and molecular markers for identification of the genetic identity of cotton hybrids, and use of markers for genetic purity testing”.

After obtaining my Ph.D. in 2000, I joined my first job at ICAR Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi. I actively participated in national seeds projects, breeder seed production unit, DUS testing, and various maintenance breeding and seed multiplication projects. In many conferences, I was making my take on seed systems being followed in India and various anomalies within them which had been hampering the availability of quality seeds to farmers. I was also very much vocal about the bulging of national gazette/registry with a rampant release of crop varieties year after year, and non-availability of their seeds to farmers. This is just because of an innate inability of public sector NARS and NSP.

Incidentally, I felt that there is a need for Public-Private Partnerships for promoting technologies developed by PSUs, and also helping them in resource generation. I resigned from my ICAR position in 2005, and joined the Indian Foundation Seed and Services Association (IFSSA) which was the brainchild of Dr. Wayne Freeman. In IFSSA, we created tripartite agreements between public and private sector players. In the history of Indian agriculture, we were successful in generating royalty/resource generation for IARI for their first basmati rice hybrid Pusa RH 10. Similarly, we developed associations with ICRISAT, JNKVV, VPKAS, CRRI etc.

I always had a love for becoming an entrepreneur, and so, I started my own research based seed company “Sabasta”. We invested a lot in hybrid development projects of rice, corn, chilies, tomato etc. Our model of having research based institute proved financially unsustainable as we could not find funding agencies, and seed marketing is an absolute unfair and unethical business. After surviving huge losses, I gave up my endeavors.

In order to recover from financial set back, I migrated to the Sultanate of Oman as an agricultural manager (agronomist), and I got exposed to highly sophisticated and mechanized farming systems wherein we produced various fodders and forages (silage, grasses) for feeding approximately 5000 HF cows; and grains like corn and soya for 7 lakh poultry birds.

Incidentally, I also provided consultancy for establishing agricultural farms at Conakry (Guniee) and Uganda.

Subsequently, I have got interesting work opportunities viz., production of safe vegetables (Srinivasa Hatcheries Group) and irrigation on hire (AgriRain SOAG).

To my surprise, one of the eminent deemed to be universities (Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, NMIMS) found my diverse experiences and management skills suitable for leading their school of agricultural sciences and technology, and so, I was offered the position of Dean. Thus, I became an academician from being a researcher to an entrepreneur to a business manager/leader. Currently, I working as Dean, School of Agriculture, Mohan Babu University, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh.

Educational background

Details of Post Graduate - M.Sc. (Ag.) Research Thesis Work

Title: Seed Maturation Studies in Sunflower (Helianthus annuus) L.

Details of Chairman & Members: Dr. M. Lawrence (Genetics & Plant Breeding), Dr. Padmaja (Plant Physiology), Dr. Nagraj (Biochemistry), Dr. R.S. Kulkarni (Agricultural Statistics)

Brief Abstract:

• Seeds in different whorls showed varying embryo to endosperm ratio, protein, amino acid, and fatty acid profile

• Our results showed that seeds of varying whorls and maturity stages show differential seed germination, early seed vigor, viability, and storability

Details of Doctoral Degree – Ph.D. Research Thesis Work

Title: Biochemical methods for identification and genetic purity testing of cotton (Gossypium spp.) hybrids

Details of Chairman & Members:

• Dr. Malavika Dadlani (Seed Science & Technology) - Chairperson

• Dr. S.P. Sharma (Seed Science & Technology) – Co-Chairman

• Dr. G.C. Srivastava (Plant Physiology) - Member 

• Dr. I. M. Shantha (Biochemistry) - Member

• Dr. Trilochan Mahapatra (Plant Biotechnology) - Member

Brief Abstract:

• Hybrids and their parental lines were differentiated based on the Electrophoresis of total soluble seed proteins, globulins, and seven isoenzymes i.e., ACP, EST, ADH, SOD, MDH, CAT, and POX etc

• Hybrids and their parental lines were differentiated based on the RAPD markers with 5-6 primers in each hybrid combination

• Our results of field grow-out tests and electrophoresis analysis for genetic purity testing of commercial hybrid seed lots were highly comparable (r= 0.85**)

• Our results showed a possibility to reduce the sample size for genetic purity testing from 400 to 200 plants in grow-out test and from 200 to 50 seeds for quick estimation following the electrophoresis technique

Details of Technical Training

• Seed Industry Program on Traits – Markets – Growth - Leadership, Cornell-in-India & Sathguru

• Fundamentals of Organic Farming, Center for Sustainable Agriculture, Hyderabad

• Training Program on Climate Smart Technologies for Improving Farm Productivity, MANAGE, Hyderabad 

• Statistical Techniques useful for DUS Testing, NBPGR, New Delhi

• Advances in Hybrid Seed Technology, Seed Invigoration, and DUS Testing for Plant Variety Protection, NATP, New Delhi

• Foundation Course for Agricultural Research Services (FOCARS), NAARM, Hyderabad

• RAPD marker analysis in Cotton Hybrids, BARC, Trombay

• Integrated Seed Improvement Training Programme, National Seeds Corporation, New Delhi

Details of Leadership Training