About The Chairperson

He started his professional career on 1st October 1986 as Scientist (Plant Breeding) in the ICAR at IARI Regional Station, Tutikandi (Shimla) where he worked on the genetics of rust resistance and breeding for rust resistance in wheat and barley. He joined the headquarters at New Delhi in 1992 to continue his work on wheat genetics along with Brassica breeding. During the year 1997 he was deputed to Canada to take up FAO Fellowship to help India to develop controlled environment research facility. After coming back to India, in February 1998 he was given the additional responsibility of Manager Biology in the National Phytotron Facility of the Institute where he managed all the experiments conducted by various scientists across the country keeping international standards. In 1998 he developed interest in basmati rice breeding and assisted the rice group in rice genetics/ breeding employing green house facilities. In January 2003, he was given the overall responsibility of National Phytotron Facility, which he managed till 2014. He headed the Division of Genetics, IARI from 11 July 2006 to 28 October, 2013 till he took over as the Joint Director (Research), IARI, New Delhi on 8 October, 2013.

He played an important role on the issue of redefining basmati rice in India to enable development of high yielding basmati rices so that farmers of India could compete effectively in the International markets. He persisted with the issue cutting across different departments and ministries of the Government of India for nearly three years till the definition was revised to the present one in 2008. He led wheat and barley improvement programme of IARI from 2007 till 2018. He has been an active contributor to the crop improvement activities which led to the release / notification of 35 crop varieties among which eight of Basmati Rice and Indian Mustard; seventeen of Wheat and two of Barley. These varieties cover over 75% of Basmati Rice area; 40% of Wheat and 45% of Mustard area, the most in one’s career. One of his wheat varieties is licensed to 202 seed companies in India, the maximum ever.

He is recognized for developing a team of plant breeders in the country many of whom are leaders now in their fields. During his professional career he has been conferred with awards like Jawaharlal Nehru Award, ICAR Recognition Award 2008, Platinum Jubilee Award of Indian Science Congress Association, B. P. Pal Award, V. S. Mathur Memorial Award, Norman Borlaug Award 2012, Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Award 2012 etc. He was elected Fellow of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences in 2005. His research expertise has enabled him to represent India in different assignments for institutions and organizations such as FAO of the United Nations to about 20 countries including four in Africa.

On the birth anniversary of former Prime Minister of India, Shri Atal Bihar Vajpayee, Dr Prabhu was awarded with the prestigious Atal Ratna Award 2019 by the Indian International Trade Development Organization (IITDO) recognizing his contribution in enabling India double its Basmati rice export by modifying the definition of Basmati rice as well as and rise to become global number one in rice export.

He has guided four M.Sc. and 20 Ph.D. students and published 105 research papers in standard journals of International impact in the subject of Genetics and Plant Breeding.

He has assumed charge as the Chairperson (equivalent to Secretary, Government of India) of Protection of Plant Varieties & Farmer’s Rights Authority, DoAC&FW, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmer’s Welfare, Government of India w.e.f Feb. 06, 2018.

Awards List

1. Jawaharlal Nehru Award during 1987
2. ICAR Recognition Award 2008
3. Fellow, National Academy of Agricultural Sciences
4. Platinum Jubilee Award of Indian Science Congress Association
5. B. P. Pal Award
6. V. S. Mathur Memorial Award
7. Borlaug Award 2012
8. Rafi Ahmad Kidwai Award 2012
9. Atal Ratna Award 2019

Specialization: Wheat, Brassica, and Rice Breeding

Email: [email protected], [email protected]