Vegetable Improvement
Dr. Nagendra Rai
Principal Scientist & Head
Division of Vegetable Improvement
The Division of Vegetable Improvement houses a multidisciplinary team of scientists working on genetic enhancement of major crops including cucurbits, solanaceous vegetables, okra, legumes, cole crops, and carrots as well as underutilized minor vegetables.
Research Focus
Currently, the Division is executing 9 Institute projects and 22 externally funded projects spanning crop improvement, biotechnology, molecular breeding, and germplasm management. Scientists are actively engaged in developing high-yielding, climate-resilient varieties and hybrids with enhanced nutritional quality, disease resistance, and stress tolerance using conventional breeding, marker-assisted selection, and CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing technologies.
Biotechnology & Omics-led Research
The Division is at the forefront of biotechnological interventions, developing genome-edited lines for ToLCV resistance in tomato (targeting Pelota gene), ChiLCV resistance in chilli, Fusarium wilt resistance, and delayed fruit ripening in muskmelon through CmNAC-NOR and CmACO-1 gene manipulation.
Omics-led research including proteomics, metabolomics, and transcriptomics is being carried out to decipher stress response mechanisms in vegetable plants and to identify metabolites, genes and protein biomarkers associated with biotic and abiotic stress responses in plants.
Efforts are being made to explore microbial technology methods for developing microbial inoculant biofertilizers including bacterial consortia formulations and metabolite biomarker-based biostimulants for improving plant health and stress resilience.
Impact & Stakeholders
For researchers, the Division provides characterized germplasm with molecular markers, validated breeding protocols, omics datasets, and genomic resources.
Farmers are being benefitted from stress-tolerant, high-yielding varieties, ready-to-use biofertilizer consortia, and biostimulants for sustainable cultivation.
Seed industries gain access to CMS-based hybrids and parental lines through technology licensing while policy makers can leverage the germplasm conservation, variety registration framework, and bio-input technologies for strengthening India's vegetable seed sovereignty, natural farming mission, and export competitiveness under ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’.
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