The four Co-Founders are highly experienced agricultural research-for-development (R4D) experts of international repute, who came together in 2015 to continue to serve the needs of agricultural research and development institutions and individuals.
Dr MJ Vasudeva Rao
(Indian, Plant Breeding/Biotechnology)
has over four decades of work experience in ICAR (Indian Council of Agricultural Research), ICRISAT, and Indian and international seed companies. He was President-Agriculture Technology at Metahelix Life Sciences Limited, a leading Agri-Biotechnology company at Bangalore, India. His expertise include using conventional and transgenic plant breeding, organization building and development, Technology and Techno-commercial Management, Systems Development, TQM & ISO certification, Intellectual Property Management and GMO management.
Dr SV Raghuram Shetty
(Indian, Agronomy)
is trained in natural resources management, and institution building. He is the former Chief of Party of the West African Seed Alliance, and has earlier worked at ICRISAT, ICARDA (International Centre for Agriculture Research in Dry Areas), IRRI (International Rice Research Institute) and USAID (United States Agency for International Development). He is one of the pioneers of watershed-based farming systems at ICRISAT and extending those technologies in India and Africa. He played major role in building strong alliances and partnerships towards agricultural development and sustainable economic growth in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Dr V Ramanatha Rao
(Indian, Biodiversity)
worked on agricultural biodiversity, initially at ICRISAT and later at Bioversity International (known earlier as IPBPGR and later as IPGRI). He has contributed vastly to the knowledge base on genetic diversity, conservation and use of crop and forest genetic resources, ex situ and in situ conservation for improved livelihoods of rural poor; and in training human resources needed for efficient conservation. He has contributed to the establishment of national plant genetic resources programs in many countries of Asia.
Dr CL Laxmipathi Gowda
(Indian, Plant Breeding/Research Management)
was formerly Deputy Director General-Research at ICRISAT (International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics), Hyderabad, India. He earlier worked as Director, Grain Legumes and Crop Improvement Programs; and also as Coordinator of the Cereals and Legumes Asia Network (CLAN). He was one of the pioneers who initiated the Public-Private Partnership for Hybrid Parents Research Consortium (HPRC) at ICRISAT.