Phenomics in Crop Plants: Trends, Options and Limitations

technology in conventional lentil breeding programme for making genetic improvement towards biotic and abiotic stresses. Dr. Aditya Pratap, born on October 18, 1976, is currently working as a 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). He has developed two extra early mungbean genotypes (IPM 205-7 and IPM 409-4 (48 days maturity) 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 120 publications which include research papers published in high impact journals as well as reviews/chapters for best international publishers including Springer, Academic Press and CRC. He has published four books entitled, "Haploidy breeding in Triticale and triticale x wheat hybrids: Comparison of Anther Culture and Chromosome Elimination Techniques" by Lambert Academic Publishing, Germany, "Biology and Breeding of Food Legumes" published by CABI, Oxfordshire, "Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Innovations, Methods and Risk Assessment" and "Alien Gene Transfer in Crop Plants: Achievements and Impacts", both published by Springer, New York. He is also a recipient of the prestigious Norman E. Borlaug International Agricultural Science and Technology Fellowship. He is an acknowledged speaker and has several awards to his credit. Dr. Shiv Kumar is Food Legumes Coordinator and works as Lentil and Grasspea Breeder at the International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), Rabat platform, Morocco. Before joining the present position, he served the Indian Council of Agricultural Research as a Plant Breeder for 18 years. He also served the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics as Post Doctoral Fellow and worked on basic studies in chickpea breeding and genetics between 1991 and 1993. His post-doctoral work has led to identification of extra early photo-thermo insensitive genotypes in chickpea which have been used as donors across the globe. Dr. Kumar has over 25 years of research experience on basic and applied aspects of breeding rice and pulses including chickpea, grasspea, Vigna crops and lentil. He has been associated in the development of 28 varieties of pulse crops and one variety of rice. He also identified useful new germplasm for use in breeding program of rice, lentil, chickpea, grasspea, mungbean and urdbean. He has to his credit more than 300 articles including 110 research papers in refereed journals, 52 book chapters, six books, seven technical bulletins and two training manuals. He also received a number of academic distinctions and awards including Rockefeller Fellowship, Best Scientist Award from IIPR for the year 2005 and 2008, and Best Research Team Award from MULLaRP of ICAR in 2008. His research interests include pre-breeding activities, genetic enhancement through conventional and marker assisted breeding and biometrical genetics.