Dr Cherukumalli Srinivasa Rao did his B.Sc. and M.Sc. in Agriculture from Agricultural College, Bapatla (ANGRAU); Ph.D from IARI and Post-Doctoral Fellowship from Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
Dr Rao is currently serving as Director, ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad since 2017. Prior to joining as Director, NAARM, he worked as Director, ICAR-Central Research Institute for Dryland Agriculture (CRIDA) during 2014-17 and as Project Coordinator, All India Coordinated Research Project on Dryland Agriculture (AICRPDA), Hyderabad during 2013-14 and several other positions at Indian Institute of Soil Science, Bhopal; Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur; CRIDA, Hyderabad and at International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad.
Academic and Research Experience: During his 31 years of long scientific-career, Dr. Rao has made significant contribution in highlighting the challenges and defining operational-strategies for climate change-adaptation in Indian agriculture. He has developed soil-climate-socioeconomic indicators for Climate-Vulnerability Assessment of India, having wide acceptance in climate adaptation-strategies and programs. He has designed adequate methodologies for monitoring farm-village-level carbon-balance and computed critical-carbon inputs for arresting soil-organic-carbon depletion, essential for soil-health and sustainability of agriculture and food-systems in the rainfed-dryland-ecosystems, which accounts India’s 60% Agriculture. He has made noteworthy contribution in preparing the agriculture-contingency-plans for 637-districts, playing key role in implementation of action plan for climate change-adaptation, bringing stability in net-sowing area and food production during drought years across India. Similarly, his efforts in establishment of 151-climate resilient-model villages in 151 climatically-vulnerable districts have paved way for their replication in different Indian states.
His earlier studies focused on unraveling the potassium-dynamics in soil-plant-system for drought tolerance in rainfed-crops. He identified 127 high-priority-districts for potassium-application and efficient utilization of imported K-fertilizer in the country. He has published 328 research articles in national and international journals of repute with over 8000 citations and authored/edited 50 books, and is credited with 96 national and international book chapters, 65 bulletins, 29 policy papers, 38 popular articles and 55 conference papers and obtained 14 copyrights.
Other Contributions: As Director, ICAR-NAARM, Dr Rao made immense contribution in full-fledged transformation of ICAR-NAARM as Think Tank Policy Research Institute of ICAR/NAREES. He held key responsibilities in National Missions such as National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA) as its Technical Chairman and ICAR flagship programme – NICRA as National Coordinator. As Global Climate Change Negotiator, Dr Rao represented India as Member of Indian Delegation in UNFCCC CoP-21 Meetings held at Paris, France (2015); Global Climate Change Negotiations/Conference held at Bonn, Germany (2015 and 2019); UNFCCC COP-25/CMP-15/CMA-2, Madrid, Spain (2019). 49th Session of IPCC Meeting held at Japan (2019); 23rd Intergovernmental Meeting of Asia Pacific Network (APN) for Global Change Research held at Bangkok, Thailand (2018).
Dr Rao served as Member/Chairman of various National and International Committees; Executive Member of International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC), Cairo, Egypt; Member, Asian Long Term Experimental Network for Agriculture (ALTENA), Japan; Chairman, Expert Committee of National Biodiversity Authority and Capacity Building Unit of DARE/ICAR; Chief Editor, Indian Society of Dryland Agriculture (2010-11); Editor, Indian Society of Soil Science (2014-15). He is serving as Member of NASI Council (2023).
Awards and Honours
Dr Rao is the recipient of several National and International awards from ICAR, NAAS, ISCA, ICRISAT, IARI, DST, FAI including top ICAR Award of Rafi Ahmed Kidwai for Outstanding Research in Agricultural Sciences. He received prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Awards - one from Hon’ble Prime Minister for CRIDA (2015) and the other from Hon’ble Union Minister of Agriculture & Farmers’ Welfare for NAARM (2021) under his leadership. He is a Fellow of several reputed professional bodies such as INSA, NASI, NAAS, Indian Society of Soil Sciences, Indian Society of Pulses Research and Development; A.P. Academy of Sciences and Telangana Academy of Sciences.
