Suresh Pande provided a summary of his 40-year career journey in plant pathology from his childhood passion for nature to his current role leading disease research efforts. He began with a focus on wheat and barley diseases in the Himalayas before moving to tropical legume diseases in Africa and Asia at ICRISAT. Key accomplishments included developing screening techniques for sorghum downy mildew resistance and expanding adoption of groundnut varieties resistant to rosette disease. More recently, he has established genomic and transcriptomic resources for fungal pathogens and a Center of Excellence for Climate Change, Crop Production and Protection. Throughout, nature first ignited his curiosity and passion has driven his career advancing disease management for smallholder farmers.

1. Romance to Remember:
A Journey of 4 Decades
Suresh Pande
Principal Scientist (Pathology)
Event: Seminar
Venue: CF Bentley Conference Center
Date: 12 April 2013

2. • Passion for nature
• Passion to profession
• Return to mountains
• Mountains to tropics
• Stint in the desert
• Ahead of time
• Acknowledgement
In this Journey:

3. Roots: Village Totarani, Dharmsala, Himachal Pradesh

4. Home: Where it all began ?
In the lap of nature

5. In the lap of nature
Harcourt Butler
Shimla
Walking to school

6. The First Lesson
From the first time that I can remember, I was passionately
fond of Nature.
Oh ! It used to make me mad with joy when I saw the clouds
come up in the sky one by one.
I felt, even in those early days, that I was surrounded with a
companionship very intense and very intimate, though I did
not know how to name it.
I had such an exceeding love for Nature that I can not think
in what way to describe it; but she was with me, and always
revealing to me some fresh beauty.
That’s how perhaps I learnt my first lesson of science.

7. The Three Questions
Why it is happening ?
How it is happening ?
What makes it happen ?

8. Mushrooms:
• Spawn
• Compost
• Casing
• Edible
• Poisonous
The first opportunity

9. Passion to Profession: Apple scab

10. Raw Recruit Researcher

11. Capping the Wheat Stem Rust before Ug 99

12. Return to mountains
ARS 1977: IARI Delhi- VPKS Almora

13. ARS 1977-80: IARI, Delhi- VPKS, Almora
Rust, Bunt, Smut: Wheat, Barley, Oats, and Triticales
Blasts: Rice, Finger millet and other minor millets
Foliar diseases: Vegetables and legumes

14. Mountains to Tropics: ICRISAT 1980-2013
Focus: HPR, On-farm, Capacity building
Crop Period Disease Region
Sorghum 1980-1990 SDM, Charcoal rot,
Anthracnose
Asia, Western Africa
Southern Africa
Millet 1980-1990 Downy mildew Western, Southern Africa
Finger millet 1980-1990 Blast Eastern, Southern Africa
Groundnut 1990-2000 Rosette, Foliar Western Africa
Chickpea 1990-2013 Wilt, Root rots, Foliar Asia
Pigeonpea 2000-2013 Wilt, Sterility mosaic,
Phytophthora blight
Asia

15. Sorghum Pathology 1980

16. Sorghum Downy Mildew: Dharwad

17. Innovation
SDM Resistance Screening Technique- ToT- Zambia, Zimbabwe 1980’s
Field Incubator
Sandwich inoculation
News paper and Gunny bags
Infector row Donor: SIDA

18. SDM: Panmure, Zimbabwe
SDM: Matopos, Zimbabwe
SDM: Golden valley, Zambia

19. Demonstrated the effect of: 1. Drought alone 2. Pathogen alone
3. Drought + Pathogen together
Epidemiology of Charcoal rot of Sorghum

20. Evaluation and Identification of Charcoal rot Resistance
Non-senescence sorghums, ICRISAT

21. Evaluating severity of Charcoal rot in breeding material

22. Leaf spots, Smut and cooperators /ICRISAT Scientists at Mali
Sorghum Smut
Sorghum: Africa + Asia Collaboration

23. West Africa: Millet and Finger millet Downy mildew

24. Foliar diseases, Rosette, On-farm and ICGV 91114
Groundnut Pathology: 1990’s

25. Fungicides+Host plant resistance

26. On-Farm +
Capacity Building

27. Farmers Participatory Identification of ICGV 91114

28. Expansion of ICGV 91114

29. Rosette of Groundnut
Nigeria:

30. Stint in the Desert

31. Wheat Cultivation in the Desert

32. Potato Cultivation in the Desert

33. After Graduation in Desert, Return to ICRISAT

34. Golden Era: Opportunities
• Chickpea and pigeonpea diseases
• Changing scenario of diseases / pathogens
• Climate change and emerging diseases
• New science tools and plant pathogens
• Legumes in RWCS: IGP & RRFL
• Succession and mentoring

35. Chickpea Diseases and Their Management: HPR

36. Normal scenario
(1970-2000)
Changed scenario
(2001-2010)
Less frequent
More frequent
Changing Scenario of Chickpea Diseases

37. Pigeonpea Diseases and Their Management: HPR

39. Constraints to Chickpea Production
The 6 Bs:
• Boron deficiency
• Bhilt (Wilt)
• Botrytis gray mold (BGM)
• Borer (Pod borer)
• Bruchids (storage pests)
• Blue Bull/Boar

40. ICM
IPM
INM
IDM
Approach
Farmers Participatory Integrated Disease Management

41. On-Farm IDM of BGM in Chickpea, Nepal

42. 0
5000
10000
15000
20000
1997-98
1998-99
1999-00
2000-01
2001-02
2002-03
2003-04
2004-05
Year
No.offarmers
Adoption
On-farm ICM in Chickpea in Nepal

43. On-Farm IDM of BGM in Chickpea, Bangladesh

44. Chickpea area expansion in Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh from 2008-09 to 2011-12.
State
329.28
803.03
728.00
1520.62
Area(ha)
RRFL: IPPPT– On-Farm
IPPPT expansion at targeted village/ district/state : 2008-09 to 2011-12
Before IPPPT
After IPPPT

45. Chickpea area expansion at individual house hold
RRFL: IPPPT– On-Farm
Rajesh Dixit (farmer) Bahuribandh (village), Rewa (District), MP
Example: JAKI 315 (30kg seed = 10t)

46. I Chickpea in RRFL of Chhattisgarh and Madhya Pradesh: IPPPT

47. Looking Ahead
• Fungal Genomics
• Climate Change

48. Isolate : Most virulent
Platform: Illumuna Hi Seq200
Seq. Coverage 378.6x
Assembly size (Mb) 64.3
Total contig length (Mb) 61.9
Scaffolds 1241
Contigs 3899
Contig N50 (kb) 69
GC (%) 47.97
Predicted protein-coding
genes
18104
tRNAs 302
SSR 1464
Transposable elements 4.48%
Gene Statistics of Foc
F. oxysporum f sp. ciceris
Whole genome sequencing

49. 0 h 2 h 24 h
Total Gene expressed in each event during conidial morphogenesis
12679 12387 1291712888
F. oxysporum f sp. ciceris:
Transcriptome analysis
6 h
Comparative gene expression between events

50. Establishment of CoE- CCRPP

51. CoE- CCRPP: Infrastructure
Establishment of new facilities
Open Top Chamber (OTC)

52. CoE- CCRPP: Infrastructure
Establishment of new facilities
Open Top Chamber (OTC)
Ventilation controlled chamber
Plant Growth Chambers with RH, Temp, CO2 Facility

53. Acknowledging encouragements
Dave

54. Acknowledging the Adventures

55. Acknowledging Mentors, Colleagues

56. Acknowledging Colleagues in Legumes Pathology

58. ICRISAT is a member of the CGIAR Consortium
Thank you!