Prof Ashok Kumar is farm varsity VC

Our Correspondent

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Palampur, August 12

Prof Ashok Kumar Sarial, a farm academician, has joined as twelfth Vice-Chancellor of CSK HP Agriculture University (CSKHPKV).

Having more than three decades experience in teaching and research, Prof Sarial has been working as Professor of Genetics and Plant Breeding at CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar. He is an alumnus of CSKHPKV and did his BSc. (Agriculture) in 1980 and MSc (Plant Breeding) in January 1983. Prof Sarial got PhD degree in Genetics from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi, in 1995. Being topper of the institute, he was awarded IARI Gold Medal.

He started his career as Assistant Seed Officer in 1983 and served at HAU as Assistant Professor and Associate Professor from 1986 to 1997, Fellow of Rock-Feller Foundation at Texas University, the USA, from 1997 to 1999, Officer-in-charge, Regional Research Station, National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, in 2001. Prof Sarial also worked as Expatriate Fellow in the World Bank/UNDP-sponsored programme of the Ministry of Education, FDR Ethiopia from 2004-2006. He became Professor in 2008 at HAU, Hisar, at its College of Agriculture, Kaul, in Kaithal district.

He has seven first-time research reports to his credit like the world’s longest grain Basmati variety Pusa 1121 developed in 2003 and the world’s first aromatic hybrid Basmati Pusa RH 10 parental lines.