Top horticulturist of India Dr. SK Malhotra has been appointed as the vice chancellor of Maharana Pratap Horticultural University, Karnal for a period of three years.
The Governor of Haryana and chancellor of the university Bandaru Dattatreya has appointed Dr Suresh Malhotra after a stringent selection process.
Dr. Malhotra is currently serving as the project director in India's apex agriculture research organisation ICAR's Directorate of Knowledge Management in Agriculture.
Son of soil, Malhotra is a native of Rohtak district. With more than 34 years of rich experience in research and administration, Malhotra has got an opportunity to serve his home state as vice chancellor. He has an opportunity to give back to the society in form of quality education.
“Haryana government has done justice by roping in expert horticulturist like S K Malhotra for the horticulture university. He is best suited for the job and with his global experience, he will take this university to new heights,” said Dr S K Mishra, director, Indian Society of Agricultural Scientist.
SK Malhotra served at top leadership positions
Over last 11 years, S K Malhotra has served at top leadership positions as agriculture and horticulture commissioner and assistant director general (Horticulture) in the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, with responsibilities for policy planning, administration of R&D activities in Agriculture Universities and ICAR.
During his tenure as Agriculture and Horticulture Commissioner, he successfully implemented National Food Security Mission, National Horticulture Mission programs and succeeded in achieving the ever-highest record food grains (323 million ton) and horticulture production (351million tonnes) during 2022-23. His concerted efforts made India self-sufficient in pulses production (26 million ton). He has performed at management and operational level with governing bodies, centre and state governments, Agriculture Universities & partner organizations to secure support for proposals.
Millet Man of India
Sobriquet as the Millet Man of India, Dr S K Malhotra has contributed a lot in the promotion of millet at international level. It was his efforts that the entire world celebrated the year 2023 as the year of Millet.
It was Dr S K Malhotra who introduced the goodness of millets to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), a specialised agency of United Nations, which leads global efforts to defeat hunger. In 2018, FAO invited India to participate in 26th session of FAO Committee of Agriculture meeting at Rome. Malhotra being agriculture commissioner then led the Indian delegation and presented paper on the nutritional values of Millets and pushed the agenda to promote cultivation of long forgotten coarse grain.
Through regular deliberation and aggressive push from Indian government over last five years, finally the United Nation decided to earmark 2023 as the International Year of Millet.
Awards and recognitions
Dr S K Malhotra is an accomplished agriculture scientist with specialisation in horticulture. He has published over 324 papers including 78 research papers in international (12) and national journals (64). He has also authored and edited 22 books, 53 books chapters, 59 popular articles, one monograph, two training modules, 16 manuals/technical bulletins.
Apart from that he has presented 26 papers in International conferences and 68 in national conferences. In addition to it delivered 52 Keynote lectures.
As Chairman, he has organised five international and 28 national level seminars and conferences.
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