Editorial Board

Dr. M. Balram Professor
Agricultural College, Jagtial
Email Id: mbalaram@pjtsau.edu.in

Brief Profile: Dr. Balram Marathi,Professor, Institute of Biotechnology has 26 years of experience in the fields of Research, Teaching and Extension. He completed his doctoral degree from Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi and PostDoctoral Fellowship at International Rice Research Institute, Philippines.He has research experience of 21 years in the field of rice molecular genetics and breeding and hybrid cotton. He is involved in teaching of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology courses and guiding M.Sc and Ph.D students. He has experience in agricultural extension for more than 5 years by serving in Department of Agriculture, Govt. of Andhra Pradesh. He dealt projects on Molecular mapping, Association mapping, Molecular genetic analysis and Molecular breeding of various agronomic traits like yield and yield components, grain quality, BPH, Bacterial Blight and Sheath Blight resistance in rice. He published 16 research papers in various national and international journals and authored 6 book chapters. He presented 27 research papers at various national and international conferences.

He developed a medium staple cotton hybrid LAHH-4, and four rice varieties viz. Pelalavadlu (RDR8702) a rice variety suitable for popping purpose, Sheetal (WGL283) a cold tolerant rice variety, Siddhi (WGL44) and Somnath (WGL347) medium and short duration rice varieties possessing gall midge resistance.

He received Indian Council of Agricultural Research Jawaharlal Nehru National award for outstanding doctoral research work in Crop Improvement during the year 2010 and Assam Government Gold Medal for outstanding research work in rice at Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi during the year 2009. He has an International Patent for Developing Rice lines with high outcrossing for higher hybrid seed production in rice.

At present he is working on research projects on improving rice varieties for BPH and Blast resistance and improvement of aerobic rice through genomic selection.