Agrobiodiversity and Sustainable Rural Development

S. K. Soam belongs to 44th batch of Agricultural Research Service (ARS) of ICAR. He has more than 21 years of work experience in 'Agricultural Research Management' comprising Project Management, Intellectual Property Rights and Knowledge Management. He joined ICAR in April 1993 as Probationer Scientist in 44th Foundation Course for Agricultural Research Service (FOCARS) at NAARM, as FOCARS trainee completed six month on-job training at NBPGR. Posted as Scientist at Directorate on Sorghum Research (Now called Indian Institute of Millets Research), Hyderabad, and at Indian Grassland and Fodder Research Institute (IGFRI), Jhansi. In May 2000, joined NAARM as Senior Scientist, later promoted as Principal Scientist in May 2008. In August 2011 joined as Head, Information and Communication Management (ICM) division at NAARM. For about three and half years (From 19th November 2017 to 29th April 2021) he worked as Joint Director (I/c), NAARM.To sharpen his skills, he has attended several trainings abroad such as- International Agricultural Research at ICRA, The Netherlands; Senior Executive Development Programme on Leadership at Singapore, Australia and New Zealand. Had been 'Visiting Fellow' in International Trade and IPRs at World Trade Institute, Bern, Switzerland; in Technology Management at Washington State University, Pullman, USA. Worked as Member of 'Research Advisory Group' at University of Warwick, United Kingdom. During 2007-10 worked as Member of CGIAR-Central Advisory Service for Intellectual Property (CAS-IP), Rome, Italy, and as its member, attended several meetings in Italy, USA, Kenya, The Netherlands and Indonesia etc. Represented, Govt of India in Conference of Parties (COP-11) of Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) held in Hyderabad during 2013.Since 2013, working as Member, Consultative Group of Geographical Indication Registry, Govt of India, and till now around 70 agricultural products have been facilitated including 'Banglar Rasagolla' and 'Odhisha Rasagolla'. As Head, ICM, he has developed and copyrighted several software, out of which 'Research Concept Writer', 'Project Logframe Writer' and 'AHP Analyser' have around 2000 registered users in 70 countries, which are available at Google search as open access software.M. Balakrishnan started his career as Scientist at CARI, Port Blair, in 1999 and served there for one decade for various posts (as scientist Rescale and Sr. Scientist). Then he moved to NAARM and is working as Senior Scientist since July 2012 and was later promoted to the position of Principal Scientist.

• 1. Enhancing Public Private Partnerships for Agrobiodiversity Management in Seed and Planting Material Domain of Horticulture: Role of Technology Transfer and Incubation Facility 2. Commercial Exploitation of Wild Musa Biodiversity 3. Collection, Conservation and Evaluation of Niger Plant Genetic Resources for Specific Traits for Achieving Sustainability in Production 4. Utilization of Local Wheat Biodiversity for Sustainable Development 5. Genetic Diversity Among Rice Genotypes for Yield and Quality Components Cultivated in Integrated Fertilizer Management 6. Sorghum Germplasm Diversity in India 7. Monitoring for Adventitious Presence of Transgenes in Ex Situ Cotton Collections Conserved at National Gene Bank in India 8. Awareness of Farmers about Sustainable Farming Practices in Pigeonpea Cultivation 9. Conservation of Minor Millets For Sustaining Agricultural Biodiversity and Food Security 10. Strategies to Foster and Conserve Navara- A Wonder Medicinal Rice 11. Agri Bio-Diversity and Genetics of Fiber Characters, Yield and its Components in Intra and Inter Specific Hybrids of Allo-Tetraploid Cottons (Gossypium spp. Linn.) 12. Genetic Divergence Studies in Maize Germplasm (Zea mays L.) 13. Crop Diversity in Andhra Pradesh and Their Conservation Concerns 14. Indian Cattle Biodiversity Source of Sustainable Livelihood Security Under Rural India 15. Livestock Breeds for Livelihoods and Sustainable Inclusive Development 16. Profile of Village-Based Indigenous Chicken Production System in Kerala 17. Indian Hill Camel (Camelus dromedarius) and Sustainable Camel Dairying 18. Evolution, Status and Conservation of Camelids 19. Sustainability of Grazing Land Through Assessment of Carrying Capacity of Pasture Land in Western Zone of Tamil Nadu 20. Sustainable Rural Poultry Production through Conservation and Improvement of Native Chickens 21. Studies on Pollinator Fauna and Their Relative Abundance of Mustard (Brassica Juncea L.: Cruciferae) At Pantnagar 22. Biodiversity and Agro-Biodiversity in Restoration of Traditional Village Tank Systems with Community Participation in Southern India 23. Agrobiodiversity (Landraces) Conservation through Traditional Storage Practices 24. Traditional Knowledge of Tribal Farmers on Agrobiodiversity (Landraces) in Visakhapatnam District of Andhra Pradesh 25. Identification of Predominant Farming Systems in High Altitude and Tribal (HAT) Zone of Andhra Pradesh 26. Role of Women in Agrobiodiversity Conservation 27. Modern Tools and Techniques for Xenobiotic Monitoring 28. Open Source Seed Network 29. A Review on Strategies for Community-Based Biodiversity Conservation (CBC)