Dr. P. Parvatha Reddy obtained his doctorate degree jointly from the University of Florida, USA and the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore. He served as the Director of the prestigious Indian Institute of Horticultural Research (IIHR), Bangalore from 1999 to 2002 during which period the Institute was honored with “ICAR Best Institution Award”. Dr. Reddy also served as the Head, Division of Entomology and Nematology at IIHR and gave tremendous impetus and direction to research, extension and education in developing bio-Intensive integrated pest management strategies in horticultural crops. These technologies are being practiced widely by the farmers across the country since they are effective, economical, eco-friendly and residue-free. Dr. Reddy has about 34 years of experience working with horticultural crops and involved in developing an F1 tomato hybrid “Arka Varadan” resistant to root-knot nematodes. Dr. Reddy has over 250 scientific publications to his credit, whichalso include 30 books. He has also guided two Ph.D. students at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore.At present, Dr. Reddy is serving as Chairman, Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of the Indian Institute of Vegetable Research, Varanasi; Member of the RAC of the National Centre for Integrated Pest Management, New Delhi; Member of the Expert Panel for monitoring the research program of National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA) in the theme of Horticulture including Pest Dynamics and Pollinators; Member, QRT to review the progress of the Central Tuber Crops Research Institute, Trivandrum and AICRP on Tuber Crops.Dr. Reddy has been awarded with the prestigious “Association for Advancement Pest Management in Horticultural Ecosystems Award”, Dr. G.I. D’souza Memorial Lecture Award”, “Prof. H.M. Shah Memorial Award” and “ Hexamar Agricultural Research and Development Foundation Award” for his unstinted efforts in developing sustainable, bio-Intensive and eco-friendly integrated pest management strategies in horticultural crops.
