ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) Archives

Ms. Simardeep Kaur is a doctoral candidate in the Division of Biochemistry, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Her doctoral thesis focuses on deciphering the microRNA related modulations in contrasting rice genotypes under drought stress. Global climate change and associated adverse effects such as drought greatly influence plant growth and development thus, affecting crop yield, quality and agricultural sustainability as well.

As a Fulbright-Nehru fellow she will be working with bioinformatics experts to further improve her understanding of bioinformatic tools and software for comprehensive analysis of the data generated from the molecular biology related work (mainly drought related) from wet-lab experiments. She will learn to handle large data sets like those for transcriptome, lncRNAs, miRNAs, validation techniques and their analysis so that she can integrate molecular biology with bioinformatics to develop drought tolerant agricultural crops. Therefore, work carried out during the Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research Fellowship will substantiate and help speed the progression of ongoing research projects towards developing a climate-smart cultivar for sustainable food production in the near future.

She went to Punjab Agricultural University (PAU), Ludhiana for her graduation in Biochemistry in 2017 and then attended the graduate school at PAU for her M.Sc. in Biochemistry in 2019. She worked on the Biochemical basis of leaf blight resistance in barley and published her results in a reputed journal. During her master’s, she received a gold medal for excellence in chemistry/biochemistry, a PAU merit Fellowship, the Pyara Singh Parmar award, and also represented PAU at the Indian Students Parliament held in Pune, Maharashtra. She is a recipient of the JRF and SRF from the CSIR in her Ph.D. and also cleared other national level examinations like GATE (Life Sciences), ICAR-NET, ARS-prelims, JNUEE etc.

When she is not working in her lab, Simardeep spends most of her time reading novels, cooking food for family, and exploring new places. A travel enthusiast and hodophile, she feeds her addiction by visiting as many places with her favourite Agronomist as she can.

Mr. Kiranmoy Patra is a Ph.D. student at the Division of Agronomy, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. His research interests include conservation agriculture (CA), nutrient and water management, and resource use optimization at the farm level. His current research focuses on application of dynamic crop simulation modeling to identify the drivers of long-term CA effect on nitrogen management in cereal systems, with a specific emphasis on maize-wheat.

Mr. Patra went to Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya (BCKV), West Bengal for his bachelor’s in agricultural science in 2018 and then attended the post-graduate school, ICAR-IARI for his M.Sc. in agronomy in 2020. During his master’s, he worked on subsurface drip fertigation in a conservation agriculture-based maize system and published his findings in prestigious journals. His master’s thesis was awarded the Best PG Thesis Award by Maize Technologists’ Association of India (MTAI), New Delhi. He has also received top rankings in several national level examinations, including AIR-7 in ICAR-AIEEA for PG (2018), AIR-1 in ICAR-AICE-JRF/SRF for PhD (2020), ASRB-NET, BHU-PET etc.

In addition to his academic pursuits, Mr. Patra enjoys cooking, reading novels and self-help books, watching movies, and traveling to new places. He is also an avid gardener with knowledge and hands-on experience in garden maintenance, nursery management, grafting, and mushroom production.

As a Fulbright-Nehru Doctoral Research fellow, Mr. Patra is working with leading mentors in dynamic crop simulation modeling to further enhance his knowledge of nitrogen dynamics and management under long-term CA based systems. He aims to familiarize himself with the state-of-the-art technologies and tools of the crop growth model DSSAT, and to apply it to a long-term CA dataset acquired and maintained in India through field experiments. This research has potential to open up new avenues for redesigning nitrogen management protocols in CA-based cropping systems.