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Joining of Dr BC Patra as Director ICAR-NRRI
Dr. Bhaskar Chandra Patra assumed the charge of Director, ICAR – National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack on Sep 1, 2022 succeeding Dr. Padmini Swain who retired as Director on August 31, 2022. Dr. Patra is the 26th Director in 76 years of establishment of ICAR- National Rice Research Institute. Prior to that he was serving as Principal Scientist & Head, Crop Improvement Division. He is recipient of Dr. M. Brahmam Memorial Award for outstanding contribution on plant diversity conservation by Orissa Botanical Society in 2015; Distinguished Fellow of Indian Society of Plant Genetic Resources (FISPGR) in 2018.
He has published more than 90 research papers in different national & international peer-reviewed journals, 15 popular articles, 19 technical bulletins and 18 book chapters. He has been working as Reviewer for different national and international journals.
He had received award for PhD work on Plant taxonomy (Floristic) for District Flora Scheme; the major works were plant collection, identification, morphological description, correct nomenclature and preservation of specimens as herbarium from erstwhile undivided Dhenkanal district.
Ever since joining at NRRI, Dr. Patra has been involved in the exploration and collection, characterization, documentation and conservation of rice genetic resources including weedy/wild rices enriching the rice gene pool for more than 30 years. So far, he has conducted more than 40 exploration programmes from different regions of the country for different traits and more than 4500 accessions of rice genetic resources have been added to the National Active Germplasm Site (NAGS) of NRRI Rice Gene Bank as well as the National Gene Bank of NBPGR. After exploration and collection of rice genetic resources, he has characterized all the germplasm as per DUS descriptors and evaluated for biotic and abiotic stresses.
He started the pioneering process for registering unique germplasm for the Institute and so far 37 unique rice germplasm lines have been registered by the Plant Germplasm Registration Committee of ICAR-NBPGR, New Delhi. He had received ‘Letter of appreciation’ from ICAR-NBPGR for compiling the Manual of passport data for the rice germplasm collected by CRRI, Cuttack since its inception in 1946.
Besides, he has been instrumental for facilitating the registration process of new/extant varieties at PPV&FRA, New Delhi and so far 33 varieties have been registered. He is also involved in the process of commercialisation for Institute’s technologies/patents.
He contributed as Co-developer for developing several high yielding/stress tolerant climate resilient/biofortified rice varieties. Dr. Patra is a distinguished scientist in the field of Economic Botany, under whose leadership the institute will touch new heights.
