PAU V-C conferred Padma Shri

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, March 13

PAU Vice-Chancellor Dr BS Dhillon has been conferred with the “Padma Shri”, fourth-highest civilian award by the Indian Government in the category of science and engineering.

Dr Dhillon received the award from Indian President Ram Nath Kovind at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi on March 11. As a great scientist and administrator par excellence, he has helped develop technologies for sustainable agriculture.

Major contributions of Dr Dhillon in agri research

He is an illustrous scientist in plant breeding and genetic resources and an able administrator. He has served the PAU as Director of research and maize breeder and the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, as Assistant Director General, and Director, ICAR-National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources (ICAR-NBPGR).

He was also Director of Research at Guru Nanak Dev University, Amritsar. Prior to joining PAU’s V-C, he was working at University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany. Earlier, he served at the University of Birmingham, UK, and at International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center, Mexico.

As the V-C since 2011 and Director of Research during 2005-07, Dr Dhillon took numerous initiatives, as a result of which, the PAU won the “Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Award – 2017”, and has been identified as a “Special Institution in Agriculture” having great potential to reach national and global prominence by the Empowered Expert Committee of the MHRD constituted for selection of Institutions of Eminence. The PAU also occupies top rank in research publications and citations among all the State, Central and Deemed Universities as per the CII-India Citation Index Report 2017.

Under Dr Dhillon’s guidance, the PAU has developed outstanding crop varieties. As a result, the state productivity has improved steadily, surpassing 12t/ha from parmal rice-wheat cropping system during 2017-18. Early maturing, high-yielding varieties of paddy developed by the PAU have been widely adopted and confer advantages of water and pesticide savings, besides facilitating residue management on account of their low biomass.

The PAU has led the nation in the development of zinc-biofortified wheat, bollworm resistant BT cotton and less-seeded Kinnow as steps towards nutritional security, diversification and value addition. Farm machinery developed at the PAU provides a complete solution for paddy-straw management, besides catering to improvement in spray technology and drying of produce.

Dr Dhillon led the joint inter-state campaign in Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan that successfully managed the cotton whitefly resulting in record productivity of 756 and 750 kg per ha of lint as compared to 197 kg per ha during 2015 and saving of pesticides worth Rs 2,589 and Rs 2,808 per ha during 2016 and 2017, respectively, in Punjab.

He developed 16 maize varieties and hybrids including “Paras”, the first single cross in India, 1995, and thereby, gave a new direction to maize breeding in the country.

Dr Dhillion has developed new plant-breeding methods and quantitative genetic analysis, which have become a part of plant breeding text books.