Chairperson

Dr. T. Mohapatra is currently holding the position of Chairperson, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Rights Authority (PPVFRA), New Delhi, a statutory body in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India in the rank of Secretary to Govt. of India. Prior to this assignment, he worked for more than six years as Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE), Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India as well as the Director General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). He also worked as Director and Vice Chancellor of IARI, New Delhi, as Director of CRRI, Cuttack and as a highly involved researcher for more than 20 years at the National Institute of Plant Biotechnology (NIPB), New Delhi. Dr. Mohapatra has more than 33 years of R&D experience including 10 years in research management.

During his tenure as DG, ICAR, the country witnessed significant jumps in the production of pulses and sugar (additional >10 million tons each). Under his visionary leadership, research program on Gene Editing was initiated and implemented in ICAR that has now yielded two rice varieties, one with higher yield potential and another with drought and salt tolerance. His focus on biofortification research led to development of more than 70 crop varieties genetically improved for higher levels of zinc, iron, protein, pro-vit A etc. by the National Agricultural Research System to address malnutrition in the country. His initiative on “Precision Agriculture” that utilized remote sensing, drones, AI, Machine Learning, IoT, Sensors, imaging platforms etc. has now started giving useful results. National program on in situ crop residue management planned, formulated and monitored under his leadership significantly reduced burning of rice straw. National Agricultural Higher Education Project, which was implemented under his overall guidance and leadership with financial support of World Bank strengthened more than 60 Agricultural Universities with significant outcomes, including better learning through smart class rooms and trained faculty, greater industry interface, and higher skills of students with international exposure at centres of excellence abroad. He brought several reforms in the DARE & ICAR including restructuring of Agricultural Scientists Recruitment Board (ASRB) for greater efficiency and transparency and modifications in the cadres of scientists and administrative staff. He supported and guided creation of modern infrastructure facilities in ICAR & the three Central Agricultural Universities (CAU), including the Bharat Ratna C. Subramanyam Auditorium & Convention Centre at the NASC Complex, New Delhi; Administrative & Academic Building of Rani Laxmi Bai CAU, Jhansi; six new colleges in the North-Eastern states under CAU, Imphal; new campus of Dr. Rajendra Prasad CAU at Motihari, Bihar; main buildings of IARI, Jharkhand; IARI, Assam; NIAB, Ranchi; NIBSM, Raipur; MGIFRI, Motihari etc. During his tenure of little more than two years as Chairperson of PPVFRA, Dr. Mohapatra has led a small team of dedicated staff to complete registration of about 40% of all varieties registered so far since its establishment in 2005.

Dr. Mohapatra has over 250 research publications in national and international journals of repute and several book chapters. His research contributions include decoding of rice and tomato genomes through international partnership, construction of the first molecular plant genome map in the country, development of the long-grained Basmati rice variety Pusa Basmati 1121 that earns more than Rs. 15000 crores annually by way of its export and development of the first high-yielding Basmati rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf blight disease through molecular breeding as well as the first rice variety with high grain protein content. He created a large pool of trained human resource in the area of molecular breeding that has enabled successful variety development following this precision approach in different crops.

He carries with him rich experience in the matters pertaining to international agricultural research and development. He served as the Vice-Chair of Governing Body/Executive Committee of the International Crops Research Institute for Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Hyderabad and Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institutions (APAARI), Bangkok, and as a member of Board of Trustees/Governing Board of Biovarsity International (BI), Rome; International Rice Research Institute (IRRI), Philippines. and the International Centre for Agricultural Research in Dry Areas (ICARDA), Morocco. In India, he was the elected President of the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi for three years (2020-2022) and significantly contributed to more than thirty policy papers/policy briefs/strategy documents covering many contemporary issues and challenges, for use in policy formulation by the government. He also guided three other reputed professional science societies as President: Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, New Delhi (2018-19); Indian Society of Agricultural Statistics, New Delhi (2017-22) and Indian Society of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad (2018-20). He served as Chairman or Member in several high level committees and participated in policy deliberations.

He has the distinction of receiving several honours and awards in recognition of his excellent academic and research contributions, which include INSA Young Scientist Award, NAAS-Tata Award, DBT Bio-science Award, NASI-Reliance Industries Platinum Jubilee Award, IARI Dr BP Pal Memorial Award, NAAS Recognition Award in Crop Sciences, Indian Genetics Congress Lifetime Achievement Award, and Shri Om Prakash Bhasin Award. He served as a member in the editorial board of three reputed journals: BMC Genetics, Journal Genetics and Journal of Plant Biochemistry and Biotechnology. In the 50th year of India’s independence, “The Week” magazine identified 50 emerging stars of India and Dr. Mohapatra was one of them.

Dr. Mohapatra is an elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy (INSA), New Delhi; National Academy of Sciences-India (NASI), Allahabad and the National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), New Delhi. He has been conferred doctoral degree (honoris causa) by 12 different universities.