New Director of Sugarcane Breeding Institute assumes office
P. Govindaraj, a distinguished plant breeder, assumed office as the Director of ICAR-Sugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR-SBI), Coimbatore. He was serving as the head of Crop Improvement Division at the institute, prior to this assignment.
Dr. Govindaraj graduated from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and went on to obtain his post-graduation and doctorate from the same university, with gold medal. Belonging to the 1991 batch of Agricultural Research Service, he started his career as a scientist at ICAR-SBI, and subsequently served as scientist in-charge of the institute’s research centre in Motipur, Bihar.
P. Govindaraj, a distinguished plant breeder, assumed office as the Director of ICARSugarcane Breeding Institute (ICAR-SBI), Coimbatore. He was serving as the head of Crop
Improvement Division at the institute, prior to this assignment.
Dr. Govindaraj graduated from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and went on to obtain
his post-graduation and doctorate from the same university, with gold medal. Belonging to
the 1991 batch of Agricultural Research Service, he started his career as a scientist at ICARSBI, and subsequently served as scientist in-charge of the institute’s research centre in
With over 30 years of experience in plant breeding, Dr. Govindaraj has developed Co 0232 &
Co 0233 sugarcane varieties that had occupied over 70,000 ha during 2018-19 covering 20%
of the sugarcane area in Bihar, Co 09004 variety that occupies over 50,000 ha in
Karnataka and Gujarat and 12 more improved cane varieties.
He has developed over 13 genetic stocks of which six were climate resilient and are being
widely used by sugarcane breeders.
Dr. Govindaraj was deputed as ‘sugarcane expert’ to Fiji Islands by the Ministry of External
Affairs, where he had drafted and implemented Fiji National Sugarcane Breeding
Programme. He has published over 100 research papers and has won several national-level
awards, including the ‘Sir T.S. Venkataraman award for outstanding research in sugarcane
agriculture’.
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