Dr. Ranjith Ellur

Dr. R.K.Ellur has made a noteworthy research contribution in molecular genetics and marker assisted breeding. His research focus is on marker assisted incorporation and pyramiding of Bacterial blight, blast, bakanae, sheath blight, BPH resistance and seedling stage salinity tolerance in popular Basmati rice varieties. He has been involved in development and release of 17 rice varieties including three bacterial blight and blast resistant varieties viz., PB1847, PB1885, PB1886, Pusa Samba 1853; three bacterial blight resistant varieties viz., PB1718, PB1728 and Pusa1592; four blast resistant varieties PB1609, Pusa 1612, PB1637 and Pusa Samba 1850; two herbicide tolerant varieties PB1979 and PB1985; high yielding basmati variety PB1692 and non-Basmati varieties Pusa 2090 and Pusa JRH56. He was also involved in development of NILs for seven different blast resistance genes in Basmati rice variety, Pusa Basmati 1. Dr. Ellur is associated with mapping QTLs governing resistance to bakanae and root knot nematodes in rice. He is currently optimizing the breeding pipeline for enhancing the rate of genetic gain in rice. He has research publications in peer-reviewed journals of repute. He is involved in teaching 3 PG courses and has been awarded with ICAR-Jawaharlal Nehru Award for P.G. Outstanding Doctoral Thesis Research in Agricultural and Allied Sciences and NAAS young scientist award. Recently, he has been inducted as a NAAS associate.