ICARDA/FLRP’s Dr Reena Mehra wins Research Wizard Young Scientist Award
ICARDA is thrilled to announce that Dr Reena Mehra, National Associate Scientist (Lentil Breeding) at ICARDA’s Food Legume Research Platform (FLRP), Amlaha, India has won the Research Wizard Young Scientist Award.
Dr Mehra presented her research paper during the International Conference on Plant Science in Post-Genomics Era (AgriVision-2021) under the theme “Genetic Resources & Germplasm Conservation: Strategies & Future Challenges”. Her presentation was on “Environmental effect on global lentil collection (Lens culinaris Medikus subsp. culinaris) accessions in India”, a piece of research carried out at FLRP under a global partnership led by the University of Saskatchewan, Canada.
Among various presenters, Dr Mehra was selected for “Research Wizard” award (for young scientist) conferred by Chief Guest the Honourable Union Minister of Government of India for Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries and Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, Shri Pratap Sarangi, and Guest of Honour the Honourable Vice Chancellor of OUAT (Odisha University of Agriculture and Technology), Prof. P. K. Agarwal. The conference (AgriVision-2021) was held during 14-16th March at Bhubaneshwar, Odisha, India.
The main objective of Dr Mehra’s project was to observe phenological adaptation of 324 lentil varieties based on photo-thermal regimes in diverse agro-climatic conditions. In other words, how the studied plants adapted their seasonal actions (such as flowering or natural resistance) under different climatic conditions.The study is aimed to understand the effect of intensifying climate change on staple crops like lentil.
Among the 324 lentil accessions, some genotypes like; ILL 5888(Bangladesh), ILL 7663(ICARDA), ILL 6002(USDA), ILL 7716(India), ILL 8009(Bangladesh), IPL 220(India),LIRL-22-46 (ICARDA),PI472569-LSP (Egypt),PI472561-LSP (India) showed excellent adaptation under India conditions with respect to multiple economic traits like high yield, extra early, high biomass, and resistance to wilt disease. The selected promising lines have great potential to use in lentil breeding programs at FLRP targeted to South Asia due to their traits of resistance. Dr Mehra is now successfully utilizing the identified precious genetic resources to construct new genotypes to strengthen the lentil breeding program at ICARDA-FLRP, Amlaha, India.
ICARDA is extremely proud that Dr. Mehra’s work has been recognised as well as her contribution towards food security in the region through ongoing research on improved pulses.
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Funded by AGILE, Saskatchewan University, Canada, Dr Mehra’s ICARDA-AGILE collaborated project has 8 partners: (UNIBAS) in Italy, (IAS) in Spain, (ICARDA) in Morocco, India and Bangladesh, (LI‐BIRD) in Nepal, (USDA) in the USA, and University of Saskatchewan, Canada.