The Department of Genetics and Plant breeding, S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati is one of the prestigious Departments in the S.V. Agricultural College, Tirupati established in 1978 with a history of significant contributions since its inception in teaching and research. The M.Sc (Ag) and Ph.D programmes were started in 1982 and1994, respectively, and 157 M.Sc (Ag) students and 44 Ph.D students awarded their degrees as of now. This department offers 8 courses at UG level, and 19 courses for M.Sc (Ag) and Ph.D programmes as per the ICAR guidelines (Annexure I). The major areas of research include understanding of the genetics and breeding of important traits in rice, blackgram, greengram, redgram, groundnut, sugarcane and millets. The Dept. also employing the advanced tools such as molecular markers, marker-assisted breeding and mapping and marker-assisted introgression of QTLs for economically important traits to unravel long standing problems in major crops located in the drought prone Rayalaseema region of Andhra Pradesh. Besides, the Dept. also exploits bioinformatics databases for understanding the functions of key genes controlling important traits in crops. The student’s research work is also carried out with the collaboration of scientists of other institutions like IIRR, Hyderabad, IISER, Tirupati and ICRISAT, Hyderabad etc. The department has initiated a “Society of Plant Breeders Association” in 1996 and has been organizing guest lectures by eminent personalities, like Dr.M.V.Rao, Dr.E.A.Siddiqui, Dr.S.L.Mehta, Dr.M.V.Reddy and Dr.P.S.Reddy, for the benefit of students and staff.

Succession list of Heads of Dept.of Genetics and Plant Breeding

Staff position

The sanctioned strength of the teaching staff comprises of one Professor, one Associate Professor and five Assistant Professors. The following are the staff working at present.