Dr. Ch. Srinivasa Rao Director

Dr Cherukumalli Srinivasa Rao is currently serving as Director, ICAR- Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI) since 26th December, 2024.

Dr Rao, born in Village Anigandlapadu, Krishna District of Andhra Pradesh; 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.

Prior to joining as Director, ICAR-IARI, he worked as Director, ICAR-National Academy of Agricultural Research Management (NAARM), Hyderabad since April 28, 2017 to December 26, 2024; 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 (IISS), Bhopal; Indian Institute of Pulses Research, Kanpur (IIPR); CRIDA, Hyderabad and at International Crop Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), Patancheru, Hyderabad. In all, he had 33 years of rich experience in research management.

He is the recipient of 48 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.

Dr Rao received twice prestigious Sardar Patel Outstanding ICAR Institution Awards from Hon’ble Prime Minister for CRIDA (2015) and from Hon’ble Union Agriculture Minister for NAARM (2021) under his leadership.

Dr Rao was invited recently by the Royal Society of London for the workshop and made presentation on biodiversity-water nexus with Food Security. Recently he was awarded Coromandel Plant Nutrition Award by the FAI and was selected Dr NS. Randhawa Memorial of NAAS, which will be received in next Agricultural Science Congress during Feb 2025

He is a Fellow of several reputed professional bodies such as INSA, NASI, NAAS, Indian Society of Soil Science, A.P. Academy of Sciences and Telangana Academy of Sciences etc, which speaks of his calibre and achievements in the field of agricultural sciences, climate change etc. He is the president of Biology Section of NASI for 2024.

Dr Rao is credited with 361 Research papers, authored/edited 56 books, 109 national and international book chapters, 69 bulletins, 37 policy papers, 38 popular articles and obtained 18 copyrights.

He served as Member/Chairman of various National and International Committees - International Dryland Development Commission (IDDC), Cairo, Egypt; Asian Long Term Experimental Network for Agriculture (ALTENA), Japan; Expert Committee of National Biodiversity Authority; Chairman of Capacity Building Unit of DARE/ICAR. He visited about 20 countries for various scientific meetings.

Dr Rao also 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.

Dr Rao represented India in UNFCCC CoP Meetings held at France, Germany and Spain as Global Climate Change Negotiator and IPCC Meeting at Japan and APN Meeting at Bangkok, Thailand.

His major research interests are: Climate Change, Soil Carbon Sequestration, Integrated Genetic Natural Resource Management (IGNRM), Water Stressed Agro Ecosystems, Contingency Crop Planning, Agriculture Research Management, Human Resource Development, Building Agri Startups, Agri Business Management and Research Policy Development in Agriculture and Allied Sectors.