Dr. M. Sivasamy, Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding) & Head at ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, Regional Station, Wellington is awarded Dr MV Rao Memorial Award 2018 for his outstanding contributions in wheat improvement.
Dr. Sivasamy obtained graduation, post graduation and Ph.D. in Agriculture from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore with University Gold medal for best Ph.D. thesis. His active involvement in wheat improvement and multiple disease resistance research for more than 25 years led to development of 34 varieties including twenty-six bread wheat, four durum wheat, two dicoccum wheat, one oat and one barley varieties, twelve wheat genetic stocks for various traits and 400 wheat stocks in the background of popular Indian wheat cultivars pyramided with multiple disease resistance genes. He played a key role in characterization and evaluation of >22,000 wheat accessions conserved at NBPGR, New Delhi, which entered in the Limca Book of Records, 2013. He played the lead role in popularizing wheat in non-traditional areas of South India, particularly with dicoccum wheat.
Dr. Sivasamy has published more than 100 research papers in the journals of national and international repute and attended many national and international symposia. He is instrumental in publishing quarterly online “Nilgiri wheat newsletter”. He has closely associated with the Borlaug Global Rust Initiative (BGRI) projects of DRRW-CSISA and visited, CIMMYT-Mexico, Cornell University (USA), CIMMYT international nurseries in Kenya, Ethiopia and Nepal as a trainee and visiting scientist. He is the recipient of the Gene Stewardship team award by BGRI, Cornell University, USA (2018) and is the Fellow of SAWBAR, and ISGPB.