A Ashok Kumar

Ashok Kumar is a Principal Scientist (Plant Breeding) at International Crops Research Institute for the Semiarid Tropics (ICRISAT), India heading the sorghum breeding research. With Ph D from Division of Genetics, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, he has 19 years of research experience in the area of genetics, plant breeding for improved products development in various crops particularly sorghum and castor. Since 2006, his major focus is on developing innovative approaches that enhance breeding efficiency for higher genetic gain in sorghum for various end-uses- food, feed, fodder and fuel. Besides improving sorghum for food, feed and forage, he is currently leading the projects on genetic diversification of hybrid parents, biofortifying sorghum with higher grain Zn and Fe concentration and developing sorghums amenable for first (1G) and second generation (2G) bioenergy production. He was instrumental in release of first biofortified sorghum variety ‘Parbhani Shakti’ and worked extensively in seed systems development for increased adoption of cultivars. He has published 82 journal articles, 40 book chapters, 50 conference papers and co-authored six books. He has >40 international partnerships in various projects. He is currently guiding five Ph D students.