Plant Breeding and Genetics

Hari Har Ram, Ph. D. with major in Plant Breeding and Minor in Biochemistry is currently working as Consultant to a few commercial vegetable seed companies and Tata Trusts, Agriculture Development. He earned his Ph. D. in Plant Breeding from the first state agricultural university the then Uttar Pradesh Agricultural University (UPAU) and now the G. B. Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar in 1973. On the date of thesis submission itself, he joined as Assistant Professor (Vegetable Breeding) in the department of Plant Breeding and could get guidance of (late) Prof. V. L. Asnani (Maize Breeder), Prof. J. P. Srivastava (Wheat Breeder and my Ph. D. Guide), (late) Prof. Amarjeet Singh (Pearl Millet Breeder and Joint Director, Seed Production and my M. Sc. Ag. Guide), Prof. J. S. Nanda (Rice Breeder), Prof. C. M. Pattanaik (Sorghum Breeder), Prof. B. D. Agrawal (Maize Breeder), (late) Prof. B. Rai and Prof. S. S. Baghel, and others. In 1980, he got additional charge of Soybean Breeding after Dr. B. B. Singh, the then Soybean Breeder left Pantnagar to join as cowpea breeder at IITA, Ibadan, Nigeria. Dr. Hari Har Ram was appointed as regular soybean breeder in 1983 and continued on this position till 1992 when he was appointed as Professor (Vegetable Science) in the department of Horticulture and had to leave the department of Plant Breeding where he had spent the most precious moments of life both as a student (M. Sc. Ag. and Ph. D.) from 1967 to 1973 and as a vegetable and soybean breeder from 1973 to 1992. In the department of Plant Breeding, he regularly taught Plant Genetics to the post-graduate students.

Dr. Hari Har Ram established an independent department of Vegetable Science and became its founder Head and carried out his professional activities centric to vegetable breeding research and teaching of vegetable breeding and genetics courses with greater degree of freedom, engagement and zeal. In addition to his normal duties of Professor and Head, Vegetable Science from 1992 to 2006, he shouldered additional and significant responsibilities, like General Manager-Seed Production, University Farm from 1997 to 2000 and Nodal Officer of World Bank funded Project, Pantnagar Centre for Plant Genetic Resources from 1999 to 2006. During 33 years of eventful and hugely satisfying service at Pantnagar (1973 to 2006), Dr. Hari Har Ram developed and got released and notified 24 varieties of vegetable crops in cauliflower, French-bean, brinjal, pea, and cucurbits and 11 varieties of soybean. He registered two novel genotypes of vegetables with National Bureau of Plant Genetic Resources, New Delhi (PBOG-54, bottle gourd, segmented leaf, 1999 and PMR-21, leaf-less, powdery mildew resistant vegetable pea, 2003). He could make significant contributions in soybean breeding particularly for developing yellow mosaic virus resistant cultivars through transferring resistance both from cultivated donor (UPSM 534) and a wild type soybean (Glycine soja) which is crossable with soybean.

In 2006, Dr. Hari Har Ram was offered the position of Vice-President and Chief R & D by new emerging Vegetable Seed Company, Krishidhan Vegetable Seeds, Pune and he left university job prematurely to work with this company. His engagement with Krishidhan Vegetable Seeds, Pune from 2006 to 2014 for 8 years turned out to be another golden period of his professional career, first of course being at Pantnagar. At Pune he could make huge impact on vegetable seed business of Krishidhan Vegetable Seeds Company by way of developing and commercializing 39 varieties/hybrids of major vegetable crops.Teaching genetics and plant breeding to postgraduate students was always close to his heart and he enjoyed teaching Plant Genetics and Advanced Vegetable Breeding to postgraduate students at Pantnagar University. He authored 21 books but he is widely known in the students community in the state agricultural universities for his seven landmark books, namely, (i) Genetic Resources and Seed Enterprises-in 2 volumes, 2007, (ii) Vegetable Breeding: Principles and Practices, 2012, (iii) Vegetable Seed Production: Principles and Practices, 2017, (iv) Crop Breeding and Biotechnology, 2019, (v) Plant Breeding and Genetics, 2020, (vi) Commercial Plant Breeding Vol. 1-Vegetable Crops in two parts, 2021, and (vii) Commercial Plant Breeding Vol. 2-Field Crops in two parts, 2022. His research papers/abstracts/conference proceeding papers numbering 265 cover areas of conventional breeding in vegetable crops and breeding for resistance to yellow mosaic virus and better seed longevity in soybean and varietal identification through seed protein electrophoresis in vegetables and soybean.

His first visit abroad happened in 1977 when he was selected for German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) fellowship through which he spent 4 months at Goethe Institute, Lueneburg to learn German language and 1 year from 1977 to 1978 at Institute of Plant Breeding, University of Goettingen where he carried out extensive two-dimensional seed protein electrophoresis in aneuploid lines of wheat. This was followed by a short term re-invitation visit during October-November 1999 at the same institute and he got hands on training on molecular markers specially RAPD, SSR and AFLP. In April 1978, he participated in the Annual Meeting of EUCARPIA on Quantitative Genetics at Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge, UK and could get good exposure of plant breeding activities at the Plant Breeding Institute, Cambridge. He got opportunities to take extensive study tour of France, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg, Brussels, Denmark, and UK in April-May 1978 during his stay in Germany and could visit several research labs and seed companies in Europe. He participated in an International Conference on Sustainable Agriculture, held at University of Braunschweig, Germany in June 1997 and presented a paper on cucurbits breeding in India.

Dr. Hari Har Ram visited Asian Vegetable Research and Development Centre (AVRDC), Shanhua, Taiwan on short term visits twice in 2001 and 2003 to study plant genetic resources management and breeding programs of tomato, sweet pepper, and he undertook a short term study tour of Central Institute of Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), Cali, Colombia to study plant genetic resources management and breeding of dry beans for which this centre has global mandate. In recognition of his outstanding contributions in vegetable breeding, soybean breeding, and seed production, Dr. Hari Har Ram was appointed as FAO consultant in the area of plant breeding and seed production of vegetable and field crops for a dozen times and visited Myanmar, Libya and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea. Further, he was sponsored by University Grants Commission to undertake a short visit of Mongolian State Agricultural University, Ulaan Baatar (Mongolia) in 2002 as an agriculture expert to review the courses and research programmes of the university. He visited Chia Tai Seed Company-R&D facilities, Chiang Mai (Thailand) and Cairo (Egypt) on short term professional assignments in the year 2010 and 2018, respectively. Further, he has been nominated to several Research Advisory Committees and Quinquennial Review Teams of ICAR Institutes from time to time.

He has won several honors and awards such as I rank in UP in Intermediate Exam, I rank and gold medal in Gorakhpur Univ. in B. Sc. Ag. Exam, I rank in the department in M. Sc. Ag. and Ph. D. in Pantnagar Univ., I rank in the list of ICAR Senior Fellowship Awardees on all India basis, award of Horticultural Science of India Gold Medal for contribution and leadership in Vegetable Science for the year, 2005, best Performer Employee of Krishidhan Vegetable Seeds, India Pvt. Ltd., Pune on the occasion of Foundation Day Celebration of Krishidhan Group of Companies, 2011, awarded recognition certificate for developing landmark cultivars of soybean during Platinum Jubilee Celebration by Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding, 2017 and Best Teacher Award-2014 for outstanding contribution in the field of vegetable breeding teaching by Indian Society of Horticulture Research and Development, Uttarakhand in 2019. He is Fellow of Indian Society of Vegetable Science and Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding. From 2014 to 2016, Dr. Hari Har Ram has worked as consultant to UP Council of Agricultural Research, Lucknow and National Horticulture Board, Gurgaon. He continues to serve as consultant to Dayal Seeds, Meerut, DCM Shriram Ltd., New Delhi, Jain Irrigation Systems Ltd, Jalgaon and Tata Trusts, Lucknow from time to time.