P P ShastryDr. P.P. Shastry born on 4th June, 1955 in Madhya Pradesh, Dr. Shastry did his schooling at Jabalpur and obtained an Honours degree in Microbiology from the University of Bombay in 1975. He did his Post Graduation in Plant Pathology from J.N. Agriculural University, Jabalpur in 1979. He started his career in the Department of Plant Pathology, JNKVV, Jabalpur in June 1980. He initially worked on betelvine focusing his attention on identification of strains and pathogenesis of Xanthomonas campestris pv. betlicola. He joined the College of Agriculture at Khandwa in 1989 and as a part of his doctoral work began working on the New Wilt of Cotton completing his Ph.D.programme in Plant Pathology in 1993 from JNKVV, Jabalpur. His pioneering work on understanding the intricacies of New Wilt has been widely appreciated. It was for this work that he was honoured with the prestigious HEXAMAR Award in 1993 jointly by the Plant Protection Association of India and the Hexamar Agricultural Research Foundation. His research paper on New Wilt was adjudged as the best research paper of the year published in Indian Journal of Plant Protection in 1995 and was honoured with the Smt. Sarada Memorial Award. He has extensively worked on another emerging problem of cotton-Myrothecium leaf blight. It was under his leadership that the Cotton Group at Khandwa was honoured by the District Administration in 2006 for their exceptional contribution in boosting the Cotton production and productivity. He was elected as a Fellow of the Indian Psychopathological Society, New Delhi in 1987 and the Fellow of the Plant Protection Association of India, Hyderabadin 2001. He was the Councilor of the Plant Protection Association ofIndia (2000-03) and at present is the Councilor of the Cotton Research & Development Association, Hisar. Although Dr. Shastry is basically a Plant Pathologist, he has shown immense interest and has worked in close association of Plant breeders. Apart from assisting in developing several varieties of cotton, he has to his credit the development of anarboreum variety JK-5 with excellent fibre properties. Dr. Shastry was closely associated with the introduction of Bt Cotton in Madhya Pradesh and has been sensitizing all the stakeholders in Madhya Pradesh on various biosafety issues. He has recently (2009) visited the United States to study biosafety issues in genetically engineered crops. He has more than 50 research papers to his credit published in Journals of National and International repute and has authored several technical bulletins. He is a member of the Governing Body of the Madhya Pradesh Council of Science and Technology and is also amember of the State Biotechnology Coordination Committee of Madhya Pradesh. He is currently working as Dean, College ofAgriculture, Khandwa under RVSKVV, Gwalior and is also the Head, Main Cotton Research Station, Khandwa. Read More Read Less