Division of Fruit Crops

He has got 18 years of experience in grape research with specialization in screening and evaluation of rootstocks for drought and salinity tolerance, canopy management of wine grapes etc. Long term evaluation of rootstocks for Thompson Seedless grapes resulted in identifying Dogridge rootstock for increased bunch and berry size,  drought tolerance in spite of its higher vigor inducing capacity to scions. And  symptom of inverted bottleneck at graft joint does as not a symptom of graft incompatibility.

• Associated in establishment of field gene bank of underutilized fruits like mangosteen, durian, rambutan, avocado, passion fruit, jamun, karonda, longan, Garcinia , Macadamia nut, Malayan apple, velvet apple, carambola and pummelo etc.
• Associated in identification of hermaphrodite and free stone rambutan clones for commercial cultivation
• Identified high yielding disease free Coorg mandarin clones for production of quality planting material of Coorg mandarin

From long term experiments of 5 to 10 years, important cost effective technologies were developed such as organic farming through waste recycling as vermicompost, arecanut + livestock mixed farming models for different holdings, nutrient recommendations for HYV's and cropping system models, water harvesting structures, drip irrigation and fertigation and sustainable cropping system models involving arecanut and valued added intercrops like pepper, banana, cocoa, coffee, medicinal and aromatic crops, and vanilla.

(During the Period of 2019-2023)