Hyderabad: Senior agricultural scientist at the Hyderabad-based Indian Institute of Millets Research (IIMR) of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), Dr A V Umakanth has been awarded the annual Seed Scientist Award by Seedsmen Association here on Monday.
The honour recognises Dr Umakanth’s pioneering contributions in the area of sorghum crop breeding. Dr Umakanth has made significant contributions in genetic enhancement of different types of grain, dual-purpose, forage and brown midrib sorghums benefiting the farming community immensely and in particular the seed industry.
He has developed highly digestible brown midrib Sorghum variety CSV 43 BMR (Jaicar Nutrigraze) with low lignin content. Such forage Sorghum increases milk and meat production in ruminants.
Dr Umakanth is also leading the country’s research on sweet sorghum and high biomass Sorghum for bio-fuels as Principal Investigator under the All India Coordinated Research Project on Sorghum.
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