Dr KBRS Visarada and HS Gawali
Indian Institute of Millets Research,
Rajendranagar,
Hyderabad-500030, India
On the occasion of International women’s day 2015, it is a great honor to recall the services of Dr Pankaja Reddy R. towards Indian dry-land agriculture system.
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| Dr. R. Pankaja Reddy |
Dr Reddy was born to Shri R Jagannath Reddy and Smt Tara in a small village of Telangana State on 13 May 1935. She was a brilliant student from the beginning and studied with the support of scholarships. She was interested in Botany from childhood and did graduation in Botany in 1952 from the then Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University, Hyderabad and later switched over to agriculture as a plant breeder. She did her M Sc (Agricutlure) at Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi and received prestigious Rockefeller fellowship during the course. She was the first women in India to bag the Rockefeller fellowship. She considers her MSc thesis “Heterosis in Sorghum” as one of the best contributions. After completion of Ph.D. she moved to horticulture for a postdoctoral fellowship at Ohio, where she worked on ornamental plants. She was very keen in returning to India and serve Indian agriculture.
