Dr. Raman Babu is the Global Research Program Director for Accelerated Crop Improvement (ACI) at ICRISAT. With over two decades of experience across ICAR (India), NIAS (Japan) CIMMYT (Mexico), and Corteva Agriscience (APAC), he brings a unique blend of public-sector purpose and industry-scale execution to crop improvement.
Dr. Babu has been at the forefront of integrating modern breeding technologies, including genomics, doubled haploids, predictive breeding, and data-driven decision systems into product-oriented pipelines. His work has contributed to the development of nutritionally enhanced and climate-resilient crop varieties across diverse geographies.
At ICRISAT, he leads efforts to transform crop improvement from fragmented excellence to an integrated impact engine, leveraging next-generation platforms such as Doubled Haploids, AI-enabled prediction, gene editing, and precision phenotyping to accelerate genetic gain in dryland crops.
He is deeply committed to translating science into scalable impact, ensuring that innovations reach farmers and contribute to improved livelihoods, resilience, and nutritional security.
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Agribusiness and Innovation Platform
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Crop Protection and Seed Health
Cell, Molecular Biology and Genetic Engineering
Climate Adaptation and Mitigation
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Enabling Systems Transformation
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Genomics, Pre-Breeding and Bioinformatics
GeoSpatial and Big Data Sciences
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Knowledge and Capacity Development
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Landscapes, Soil Fertility and Water Management
Legal and Intellectual Property
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Markets, Institutions and Policies
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