Two agriculture students from Karnataka are among the six winners of Monsanto Beachell-Borlaug International Scholars (MBBISP) programme research fellowships for 2011.

MBBISP aims to develop highly educated rice and wheat plant breeders who can serve as future agriculture leaders. The programme honours the accomplishments of Dr Henry Beachell and Dr Norman Borlaug, who pioneered plant breeding and research in rice and wheat, respectively.

Mr Prakash Gangashetti of University of Agricultural Sciences-Dharwad has been selected for his study ‘fine mapping of candidate genes in upland rice for adaptation to drought prone environment'. Mr Gangashetti is currently pursuing PhD at UAS-Dharwad and through MBBISP will receive additional exposure in collaboration with Bangor University, UK.

Whereas Mr H.B. Mahesh of University of Agricultural Sciences-Bangalore has been selected for ‘Genome wide association analysis of blast resistance QTLs/genes in land-races of rice'. He will pursue his further studies in collaboration with Ohio State University, as part of MBBISP.

The other winners of MBBISP are Mr Dharminder Bhatia, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana; Mr Chetan Patokar, GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Uttarakhand; Ms Nitika Sandhu, C Charan Singh Agricultural University, Hissar, Haryana; and Mr Anuj Kumar from SVP University of Agriculture and Technology, Meerut.

Commenting on the selection students for fellowships, Ms Jyotsna Bhatnagar, Director-sustainable development, Monsanto India, said “through Monsanto's Beachell-Borlaug scholarship we are encouraging and exchange of ideas, research as well as cutting edge training that may start in India but aims to address the basic issue of hunger and food security facing mankind around the world.”

“India has great academic talent and our six young researchers have reinforced this belief. I encourage more students to participate in the next round of this fellowship program beginning November 1,” she added.

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