Dr. Jayaprakash Tamminana

Lead – Rice Breeding
Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd., India

Dr. Jayaprakash is a passionate seed professional with 22 years of experience in crop breeding, biotechnology, and seed production in delivering quality seed to the farmer across Asia especially in India. He has completed his Ph.D. in the Dept of Plant Breeding and Genetics from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. He started his career with SeedWorks International Pvt Ltd., as an Assistant Breeder in hybrid rice project and worked in a team involved in developing the popular notified hybrid US 312.  Later, he has successfully delivered the responsibility of Parent Seed Manager for vegetables and field crops. Since 2011, he is working with Rasi Seeds (P) Ltd. as a Lead Breeder, leading a vibrant and young team of scientists in breeding, biotechnology and plant protection with a clear vision and target of serving the farming community with quality seed and apt genetics. In the process, his team has commercialized high yielding hybrids with required biotic stress tolerance viz., RRX 113, RRX 336, RRX 138, RRX 5067 & RRX 4007 which are currently gaining the faith and confidence of the farmers. He has created a platform with people and infrastructure required for developing parental lines suitable to deliver climate resilient, biotic stress tolerant, high yielding rice varieties/hybrids with acceptable cooking and eating quality.  Since 2015, he has been coordinating research efforts to develop suitable hybrids for Philippines, Vietnam, Bangladesh, and Nigeria.

Coming from a farmer’s family and working in the field since childhood, Thippeswamy is passionate about agriculture research and always enthusiastic to bring better products to the farmers. Thippeswamy has completed his Ph. D. in Genetics and Plant breeding from University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad, Karnataka, India. As a passionate and remarkable breeder, he worked in many organizations such as University of Agricultural Sciences-Dharwad, Acharya NG Ranga Agricultural University, Indian Institute of Rice Research, Center for DNA fingerprinting and Diagnosis, Mahyco Research Foundation, Syngenta India Limited and Professor Jayashankar Telangana Agricultural University in crops like maize, sugarcane, sorghum, chickpea, cotton, castor and rice. He guided two M.Sc (Agri) students and trained several researchers. For more than 20 years working in rice, he developed and played important roles in developing many profitable, producible, and good quality products (both inbreds and hybrids) like JGL24423, NK6302, S1011, NK5251, S4003, S4001. Currently leading an enthusiastic and energetic team of 16 rice scientists at Syngenta across APAC, implementing recent advanced techniques like genomic selection and gene editing. Thippeswamy wish to continue to develop more products for farmers across the globe.

Venkatesh Hubli is a techno- commercial Professional with over 35 years’ experience in Strategic Planning, Commercial Research & Development, in Agricultural sector. He is currently working as Director of Research in Savannah seeds in India at Hyderabad. He started his career as the first employee of Cargill Seeds immediately after his education in 1989. He has contributed to the release of products in Corn, Sunflower, Sorghum and Hybrid Rice in the companies that he worked for, such as Cargill, Monsanto, Devgen Syngenta and Savannah.

In his career journey Venkatesh has released many block buster products like SH 3322 & SH 41 in Sunflower, C-633, C900M in Corn, while working Cargill. The hybrid rice products such as RH 1531 and RH664Plus were released while in Devgen. Recently two products released in Savannah, Sava 7301 and Sava 7501 are becoming popular among farmers.
As part of his technological journey, Venkatesh has worked on GM Corn and Cotton in Monsanto, and GM rice in Devgen. He started working on the 2-line technology of rice while in Devgen under the guidance of Dr Thierry Bogart and Dr Gurdev Kush . This technology is mastered continues in Savannah. Venkatesh has also worked on the recently released Full page Technology for sustainable cultivation of rice for India.

Dr. Tilak Raj Sharma, a well-known Agricultural Scientist, is presently leading the Indian agriculture sector as Deputy Director General (Crop Science), ICAR, New Delhi. Earlier he contributed in the establishment and development of the prominent DBT institutes like National Agri-Food Biotechnology Institute, Mohali (as Executive Director), Center of Innovative and Applied Bioprocessing (Chief Executive Officer), and ICAR institutes like National Institute for Plant Biotechnology, New Delhi (Director) and Indian Institute of Agricultural Biotechnology (OSD),Ranchi. He has varied experience of working at State Agricultural University, Palampur (1991-99), ICAR-IARI, New Delhi(1999-2017) and Department of Biotechnology, Govt of India (2017-2020), ICAR (2020-till date).

He obtained three Post Doctorate trainings in Plant Molecular Biology and Genome analysis, one at University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada and two from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, New York, USA. He is the fellow of all four national academies viz. Indian National Science Academy, Indian Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Agricultural Sciences. He has been awarded twice with the prestigious JC Bose Fellowship of the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India.

Dr. Sharma has been given with various awards for his outstanding research contributions, like University Gold Medal and Certificate of Honor in Ph.D (1990), Young Scientist Award, NAAS (1998), ICAR Young Scientist Award – Crop Sciences (1999), Prof. Umakant Sinha Memorial Award in Biochemistry, Biophysics and Biotechnology, Indian Science Congress Association (2001), International World Technology Award for Biotechnology (jointly with Int. Rice Genome Sequencing Team) in 2003,  DBT National Bioscience Award for Career Development (2007), NAAS Recognition Award (2008), VASVIK Award (2011), Rafi  Ahmed Kidwai Award-ICAR (2011), NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award (2013), JC Bose National Fellowship (2013 & 2018), Prof. MGK Menon Lecture Award (NASI) in 2017, Prof. Bishan Singh Samundari Memorial lecture award (Guru Nanak Dev University Amritsar) in 2017-2018, Prof. K.S. Bilgrami Memorial  Medal (INSA) in 2018, and Om Prakash Bhasin Award in Agricultural Sciences (2022).

Genomics and plant disease resistance are his major research interests. Dr. Sharma has contributed extensively to the improvement of rice for over 30 years and identified and cloned a new rice blast resistance gene Pi54, which has been deployed in more than 30 rice varieties within and outside India. He was involved with the decoding of complete genomes of rice, tomato, pigeon pea, jute, mango, tea, guar, lathyrus, and many plant pathogens.  Dr. Sharma has guided 30 Ph D students and published more than 200 research papers (two in the prestigious journal, Nature), obtained seven Indian patents, and associated in the development of three blast resistant rice varieties, i.e. Pusa 1637, HPR2880, and Pusa Samba1850. He has published more than 200 research papers: Citation Index: more than 16000; h index = 57; (Source:  Google Scholar & Scopus).

Dr. Y. Chandra Mohan is a Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding) working at the Institute of Rice Research, ARI, PJTAU, Hyderabad, Telangana, India. He completed his Ph.D in Genetics & Plant Breeding from PJTAU in 2002. He has about 20 years of experience in rice research from different organizations in Telangana. He has been involved in various research projects aiming to develop high yielding rice varieties and hybrids with multiple resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. He was successful in the development of high yielding rice varieties having resistance to gall midge, blast, and tolerance to BPH, cold, and salinity. His dedicated research efforts resulted in the development of 17 rice varieties. Among these are JGL 24423, JGL 18047, KNM 118, which are very popular occupying hundred thousand hectares. He also made his efforts to develop 11 new CMS lines in rice among which majority belong to super fine grain.

He has organized training courses on Hybrid Rice Seed Production to scientists and technical field staff. Delivered many guest lectures to scientists, extension personnel and farmers on best package of practices and seed production in rice.

Published 92 research articles in various peer reviewed journals, 25 abstracts at national and international conferences, 10 chapters in text books, 17 brochures and 65 popular articles.

He has delivered 102 TV programs, 9 radio talks, and 95 press notes for effective transfer of improved technologies to the farming community. Guided 19 M.Sc. (Ag) students in fulfilling their thesis research programmes.

He was recipient of prestigious awards viz., Janna Reddy Venkat Reddy Memorial award, Meritorious Research Scientist award, Seedsmen Association Award for his outstanding contribution in the field of rice research.

Dr. Eduardo Jimmy Quilang is a highly accomplished and visionary leader with an illustrious career in research and development, prominently funded by both national government agencies and esteemed international donors.  Currently serving as the Officer-in-Charge at the Office of the Deputy Executive Director for Research and holding the esteemed position of Chief Science Research Specialist at the DA-Philippine Rice Research Institute (DA-PhilRice), Quilang’s remarkable career spans various pivotal roles within DA-PhilRice. Notably, he has previously assumed the mantle of Deputy Executive Director for Development and effectively led the Agronomy, Soils, and Plant Physiology Division as its Division Head.

Quilang’s educational background is equally impressive, boasting a PhD in Agricultural Sciences from Kyushu University. His passion for research and development extends to the academic realm, as he has completed his Master of Science in Agricultural Meteorology with a minor in Agronomy at the University of the Philippines, Los Baños (UPLB), and holds a Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Engineering with a major in Land and Water Resources Engineering and Technology, also from the UPLB.

Furthermore, Quilang’s commitment to ongoing learning and staying at the forefront of emerging trends is underscored by his completion of the Executive Masterclass in Digital Transformation, a graduate program that equips leaders with the skills to navigate the complex landscape of the 4th Industrial Revolution. This exclusively-designed Executive MasterClass in Digital Transformation Program by the Asian Institute of Digital Transformation was developed under the educational partnership between Union Bank and Global Learning Solutions Singapore.

Additionally, Quilang is a Career Executive Service Eligible (CESE) conferred by the Career Executive Service Board (CESB) and a proud graduate of the Senior Executive Class of the Public Management Development Program at the Development Academy of the Philippines (DAP).

His dedication and contributions to the field have been consistently recognized, exemplified by the prestigious Digirati Distinction Award (2023) and the Scientific Productivity Award (2022), among numerous other accolades. Quilang’s impactful career is driven by the vision of enhancing rice-based farming systems and ensuring food security for all Filipinos, making him an influential figure in the field of agricultural research and development in the Philippines.