Dr R.K. Arora, India — Potato Expert Panel
Potato Expert Panel by Potatoes.News
Biography
Dr R.K. Arora, a plant pathologist, worked at the ICAR-Central Potato Research Institute (ICAR-CPRI) for 37 years and retired as Principal Scientist. He worked mostly as a field scientist and carried out research on late blight, black scurf, russet scab, bacterial wilt and hi-tech seed potato production, reflected in over 175 scientific publications in national and international journals, bulletins and books.
He was elected Fellow of the Indian Phytopathological Society and Fellow of the Indian Potato Association in 2009, and served two terms as Vice President of the Indian Potato Association. In 2018 he received the Nanaji Deshmukh ICAR Award for Outstanding Interdisciplinary Team Research for developing a late blight disease forecasting system. His other honours include the S. Ramanujam Merit Award from ICAR-CPRI and the K.C. Mehta & Manoranjan Mitra award from the Indian Phytopathological Society.
The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe invited him to meetings on the standardization of seed potato held in Switzerland, Indonesia, the Czech Republic, Finland, the Netherlands and Belgium, where he contributed to the development of a common Seed Potato Standard intended as a universal reference for international seed potato trade.
After retirement, he guides potato growers and private seed companies on the production of high-quality seed potato, including Egyptian French Company in Egypt, Merino India Pvt. Ltd and UniAgri Biosciences Pvt Ltd, and earlier Technico Agri Science Ltd. (ITC), Mohindra HZPC and PepsiCo India Ltd. He has also set up his own farm facility, including aeroponics, to produce G0 potato minitubers at Jalandhar, Punjab, India.
Areas of expertise
Seed potato production and plant protection; late blight, black scurf, russet scab and bacterial wilt; late blight forecasting; hi-tech seed potato production and aeroponic G0 minitubers; seed potato standards.
