Periyasamy Panneerselvam

Dr. P. Panneerselvam, graduated in agricultural science and earned his Master’s and Doctoral degrees with Gold medal in the field of Agricultural Microbiology from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. Starting his career at Central Coffee Research Institute, Chikmagalur, as Research Assistant, in 1998, subsequently as Field Scientist until 2006, he joined ICAR on 8th Jan 2007, as Scientist at the Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru. Then, he has joined as Senior Scientist at ICAR-National Rice Research Institute, Cuttack, India on 24th Sep 2015, on Sep 2018, he has been promoted as Principal Scientist and continuing his service with the same post. He is awarded as "Fellow" of Confederation of Horticulture Associations of India in 2015 and FSASS in 2021. He has received the Best NRRI worker (Senior Scientist) award at ICAR-NRRI, Cuttack in 2019 and Dr. B. Vasantharaj David Award in 2018 for his achievements in the field of Agricultural Microbiology. He has developed Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) for on-farm processing of coffee for the minimization of mould/mycotoxin contamination and a novel microbial consortium and AM fungal package for nursery seedling production, root lesion nematode and leaf rust management. He has developed Soilless Arbuscular Mycorrhizal Fungal Inoculum production and patent (3817/CHE/2014) has been granted for this invention. The Arka Microbial Consortium (AMC) developed by him is popular for horticultural crop production, its application saves 25% of NPK fertilizers, besides enhancing yields by 10-16% in different horticultural crops. This AMC technology has been licensed to thirty five entrepreneurs, including KVKs and the Department of Horticulture, Government of Karnataka, India. Another technology, i.e. Actinobacterial consortium (Arka Actino Plus) developed by him is playing pivotal role in improving plant health in different horticultural and plantation crops, this technology also licensed to private entrprenuer for the benefit of farming community. Recently, he developed formulation "Microbial consortium (MC) for pest and disease management in rice-horticulture based cropping system in Sikkim, Bio-fertilizer consortium (BC) for nutrient management in rice-horticulture based cropping system in Sikkim" and NRRI decomposing microbial consortium for paddy straw residues management. As one of the co-investigators, he has developed following technologies Arka fermented Cocopeat, Azolla sporocarp formulation for nitrogen management in low land rice and liquid bioinoculant of endophytic (Azotobacter chroococcum) and Rhizospheric (Azotobacter vinelandi) nitrogen-fixing bacteria for rice crop. He had been overseas training on Bioremediation to Universityrsity of South Australia, under NAIP programme, in which he has identified novel bacterial consortium for remediation of chromium contamination in soil and water. Dr. Panneerselvam has published 119 research and review papers in peer-reviewed journal and has authored twenty proceedings papers, 3 books, 40 popular articles, 08 research/ technology bulletins. He has guided 15 post graduate and 02 PhD students.