BHUBANESWAR: Eminent scientist Trilochan Mohapatra took over as Secretary, Department of Agricultural Research Education (DARE) and Director General, Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) on Monday.
Mohapatra was holding the position of Director-cum-Vice-Chancellor of Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi prior to the new assignment. Earlier, he worked as Director of National Rice Research Institute (formerly CRRI), Cuttack. He served National Research Centre on Plant Biotechnology, IARI, New Delhi as researcher and teacher for about 20 years.
Mohapatra has over 145 research papers in national and international journals and several books to his credit. His research accomplishments include development of the first high yielding ‘Basmati’ rice variety resistant to bacterial leaf blight through molecular marker assisted selection and physical mapping and genome sequencing of rice and tomato.