Chickpea Breeding and Management

is working as Senior Agronomist (Pulses) (equivalent to Professor) in the Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. He received his BSc Agri. (Hons.) and MSc Agronomy degrees from the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India and he was scholarship holder. He did his PhD from the University of Wales, Bangor, United Kingdom on Commonwealth Scholarship where he studied the effects of herbicides on biological nitrogen fixation in peas (Pisum sativum).

He has about 20 years experience of working on various grain legumes at the Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India. His main areas of research include conservation agriculture, planting method and planting time, weed management, nutrient management, plant population and planting geometry, water management, etc. He has given very useful recommendations to farmers for raising productivity of their grain legume crops and reducing the cost of cultivation. He is actively involved in teaching of Agronomy courses to students as well as extension education programmes for farmers. He also worked with the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) at its Regional Office for Central Asia and the Caucasus, Tashkent, Uzbekistan for one year (2005-2006) where he worked as Technical Coordinator of an Asian Development Bank funded project on 'Improving rural livelihoods through efficient water and soil fertility management in Central Asia'.