Kumar Arvind 

Biography

"Arvind leads the rainfed lowland, South Asia plant breeding group at IRRI. He has expertise in trait development for drought, aerobic rice and dry direct seeded rice. Arvind has developed thirty rice varieties released in seven different countries, and published ninety-five peer reviewed manuscripts in high index international journals and more than ten book chapters. He identified seven genes for rice gall midge resistance, fourteen QTLs for grain yield under drought, three QTLs for grain yield under dry direct seeded situation, as well as QTLs for traits important to aerobic and dry direct seeded rice like early vigor, lodging resistance, root traits related to high nutrient uptake under dry direct seeded situation and nematode tolerance. Furthermore, Arvind successfully implemented marker assisted introgression and pyramiding of QTLs for grain yield under drought at IRRI. He also improved several popular rice varieties for drought tolerance following MAB, as well as developed drought plus submergence tolerant version of Swarna."

Research Interest

Crop and Environmental Sciences