Port Blair, Dec 06: Dr. B. A. Jerard, Head, Division of Horticulture and Forestry has taken over the charges of Director (Acting) of ICAR-Central Island Agricultural Research Institute, Port Blair on 6th December 2019 as per the directions of Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi. Dr. Jerard has completed his masters and doctoral degree from Tamil Nadu Agricultural University and has more than 22 years of experience in coconut genetic resources and breeding and involved in the establishment of national and international coconut gene banks. He has contributed in collection of over 140 diverse coconut accessions from various parts of the country and conserved which included over 100 collections from Andaman and Nicobar Islands. He has extensively explored across the Islands of Andaman & Nicobar and Lakshadweep and documented the rich biodiversity of cultivated and wild crop relatives and the horticultural initiatives.
He has served as International Coconut Expert for Ministry of Agriculture, Republic of Fiji through the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation programme of Ministry of External Affairs, Govt of India and also visited Cambridge, United Kingdom and University of Guelph, Canada as part of Indian delegation for programmes on DUS testing and for expert training on Marker Assisted Selection. He has developed DUS testing guidelines for Coconut. He has over 220 publications in his credit on various aspects of Horticulture and has been awarded Dr. C.S. Venkatram award twice for best paper publication in plantation crops. He is a Fellow of Indian society for Plantation Crops and currently the Vice President of the society.
His major contribution is development and release of 20 coconut varieties and hybrids out of which ten are notified in the gazette of India suitable for Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, West Bengal, Assam and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
His vision is to carry forward the R&D activities in horticulture sector complemented with fisheries, animal husbandry, field crops through KVKs and A& N administration for the betterment of the stakeholders of the Island ecosystem.
