Room 004, School of Arts and Sciences
Central Campus
Bhabha Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai, has been actively rendering services towards the nation and society through the peaceful use of nuclear energy. Food and agriculture are the areas of concern. Indian foodgrain production has increased from 51mt in 1950-51 to 328mt in 2023-24; however, 111th position of India out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) is the subject of serious apprehension. Developing climate resilient high-yielding varieties with enhanced nutrition and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses could only pave the way to overcome the prevailing situation. Mutation breeding is one of the laser techniques used to rectify the genetic bottleneck of widely cultivated varieties. Variability suitable to changing climate, tailoring plant types, biofortification, physiological and biochemical traits, biotic and abiotic stress tolerance and quality traits could easily be tailored through induced mutagenesis with various characters. So far, induced mutagenesis has resulted in the development of 3450 high yielding varieties worldwide. India has contributed more than 350 varieties. Bhabha Atomic Research Centre has been actively working on mutation breeding since the 1960s and developed 70 high yielding varieties in various crop plants. Some of the oilseeds and pulse crop varieties have directly contributed to elevate the financial condition of the farmers and contributed in Indian GDP. Newer and promising technologies in the field of mutagenesis like TILLING and CRISPR could immensely help to modify crop plants with desirable traits. The harvested farm products, including spices, get spoiled in storage due to infestation by insect pests and microorganisms. It hampers quality in storage and export potential. Radiation technology is also used to extend the shelf life of perishable food and spice items. An overview of the above aspects shall be presented.
Professor S. J. Jambhulkar obtained his M.Sc. and PhD degrees in the subject ‘Genetics’ from Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi. He joined the Nuclear Agriculture & Biotechnology Division (NA&BTD) of Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Mumbai in 1991 as ‘Scientific Officer’/C and retired as Scientific Officer/ ‘H’ on superannuation. He was Head of Mutation Breeding Section and Professor in Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI). His area of specialization is mutation breeding for the genetic improvement of crop plants
The mutation breeding programme in Indian mustard (Brassica juncea L.) has isolated a large spectrum of variability for morphological, biochemical, yield attributes and biotic and abiotic stress tolerance. Genetic analysis of these mutants has deciphered novel phenomena in nuclear and cytoplasmic inheritance. The phenomenon of uncontrolled variability showed a newer path in the evolution of crop plants. He has developed 8 high yielding varieties in mustard, namely TPM1 for and TAM108-1 for Maharashtra, TBM204 and TBM143 for West Bengal, THPM1 for Himachal Pradesh, BBM1 for Jharkhand, and TJM1 and TJM2 for the state of Rajasthan. He has also worked on a mutation breeding programme of sunflower and isolated a large spectrum of mutations for morphological characters and developed one high yielding variety TAS82 for Maharashtra.
He taught genetics, cytogenetics and plant breeding for 17 yrs in Training School of Homi Bhabha National Institute (HBNI). He was a member secretary of the Food and Agriculture committee in the Board of Research in Nuclear Science (BRNS). He has delivered more than100 lectures all over India on the “peaceful use of nuclear energy in the field of Agriculture”
He worked on three international projects associated with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)/IAEA. He has been awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award 2024 of ICAR SRMR. He worked as an expert in International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) Vienna, Austria and visited USA, Austria, China, Sri-Lanka, Malaysia, Vietnam, Indonesia and Cameroon. He is the recipient of the prestigious NAFA-IAEA International Award 2014 and 2021. He was awarded the DAE Group Achievement Award (As Group Leader) in 2014, 2009, and 2007. He is a Gold medalist of the Society of Rapeseed Mustard Research (SRMR) 2019 and a Fellow of SRMR, India.
His wide publication in journals and books has acknowledged his strength in crop mutational research.
