Directorate of Research

About the Directorate

The Directorate of Research was established in November 2013. There are seven research stations encompassing three agro-climatic zones under the administrative control of Directorate of Research, SKNAU, Jobner. These include Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute (RARI) at Durgapura, Jaipur, two Agricultural Research Stations located at Navgaon (Alwar) and Fatehpur-Shekhawati (Sikar) and four Agricultural Research Sub-Stations at Tabiji (Ajmer), Kumher (Bharatpur), Gonera - Kotputli (Jaipur) and Diggi (Tonk). Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, Durgapura is the main Agriculture research station of the University. There are 17 short and long term AICRP and AINP projects operating in Directorate of Research. The research grant mainly comes from ICAR & matching grant from the state govt. in proportion of 75:25. Out of these 17 projects, twelve are operating at Rajasthan Agricultural Research Institute, four at SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner and one at ARS Fatehpur-Shekhawati. The research is being conducted on most of the crops, fruits, vegetables and other crops suitable for this region. About 879.43 ha land is available in different units of the University to conduct research and for seed production.

Mandates

• Basic, strategic and anticipatory research in field and horticultural crops for enhanced productivity and quality.

• Research in frontier areas to develop resource use efficient integrated crop management technologies for sustainable agricultural production system.

• Breeding and evaluation of new crop varieties and hybrids in wheat, barley, pearlmillet, groundnut, pulses, and seed spices for the zones of SKNAUSA.

• Development of low cost agro-technologies for agricultural and horticultural crops and cropping systems.

Objectives

• To plan, coordinate and monitor the Agroclimatic zones need oriented agricultural research

• To develop appropriate production technologies for sustainable production

• To develop linkages with national and international organizations for research and various current aspects

• To extend consultancy services.

Research setup

The territorial jurisdiction and responsibility of this University extend to the districts of Jaipur, Sikar, Alwar, Dausa, Tonk, Ajmer, Bhartpur and Dholpur which comprises about 16 percent geographical area of the state. Agricultural research needs time bound solutions of emerging challenges, while re-orient strategy as multidisciplinary approach to develop the technology which is climate resilient, acceleration of technology development with use of modern biotechnological tools, to minimize the post –harvest losses, provide balanced nutrition through accelerated green fodder production to live stocks, use of modern agro-meteorological and remote sensing tools, and integrating conservation/organic farming. University jurisdiction covers three agro-climatic zones of the Rajasthan.

• Plain of inland drainage (IIA)

• Semi-arid eastern plain zone (IIIA)

• Flood prone eastern plains (IIIB)

Land Resources

The land area is available at different research units of SKNAU, Jobner for research experiments and production of quality seed is as follows:

The major crops of the state, viz, Wheat, Barley, Pearl Millet, Chickpea, Mungbean, Moth bean, Cowpea, Groundnut, Cluster bean, Mustard, Taramira, Seed Spices and majority of vegetable crops are grown in the regions under jurisdiction of the university. Thus, the three agro climatic zones under the jurisdiction of the university have potential to address the needs of the state with respect to food crops, vegetables and seed spices.

At present 17 ICAR funded All India Coordinated Research  Projects (AICRPs ) and the State Government  funded long term projects  are  already  in  vogue  and  dedicated   to the  needs  of  the three zones along with several ad-hoc  projects sponsored  by  various prestigious funding agencies . Besides the basic mandates, the Directorate is on its way to finalize newer mandates in light of the State Agricultural Policy of the Dept of Agriculture, GOR and new frontier areas of R & D in agriculture covering various aspects of Precision Agriculture, Conservation Agriculture, Secondary Agriculture and Specialty Agriculture etc.

Profile of Director with Picture

Dr. M.L. Jakhar is serving as an agricultural scientist and researcher in SKNAU, Jobner. He was born on 15th June, 1969 in Jobner. Dr. Jakhar obtained his B.Sc. (Ag) in 1990, M.Sc. in 1992 and Ph.D. in 2000 in Plant Breeding and Genetics from RAU, Bikaner. He was awarded with gold medal in M.Sc.

Dr. Jakhar started his service as Assistant Professor from 8th May, 1996 at SKRAU, Bikaner and worked at Mechanized Agriculture Farm, Khara, for 2 years where, he was actively engaged in seed production programme of various Kharif and Rabi crops. Dr. Jakhar was transferred to SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner on 20th July. 1998 and provided his services at this campus till date 22.08.2019. Afterwards Dr. Jakhar was assigned the responsibility of Director Education of SKN Agriculture University, Jobner and worked there 22.08.2019 to 04.07.2020. On 04.07.2020 joined as Director Research, SKNAU, Jobner Till June 06,2023 and Now he is Director HRD at SKNAU Jobner.
 

He has been associated in teaching for last 23 years and taught almost all the courses at of Plant Breeding & Genetics at UG, PG and Ph.D. levels. He has specialization in Plant Biotechnology. He guided 30 M.Sc. and 5 Ph.D. students as Major Advisor and acted as a member in the Advisory Committee of four dozen students of M.Sc. and Ph.D. of other department including PBG.

During his service tenures, Dr. Jakhar worked as Principal Investigator and Co-Principal Investigator of ten research projects related to variability in cumin through in vitro techniques, medicinal and aromatic plants, Aloe vera, modernization and mechanization of ARSS farm, Diggi, infrastructure facilities for breeder seed production, establishment of herbal park. Establishment of tissue culture set up and laboratory under RKVY was a great task of his service career with a budget provision of Rs. 1.38 Crores. Now this laboratory is an integral part of Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics. Under this project he developed regeneration protocol and micro propagation techniques of arid zone crops. He standardized and developed regeneration protocol of cumin, coriander, fenugreek, fennel, bael, guggal, pomegranate etc.

He was also the Officer Incharge of All India Coordinated Research Project on Oil Seeds (Taramira Unit). This project is being operated in SKN College of Agriculture, Jobner since 1987. Under this project Dr. Jakhar developed several varieties of Taramira viz. RTM -314, RTM-2002, RTM-1355 and RTM-1351. About 650 germplasm of Taramira is being maintained in the project.

He has published 83 research papers in international and national journals, wrote 5 books, several articles, and book chapters. He has participated in 38 national seminar/workshop/conference/symposium and 3 international conferences. He also organized one workshop, one seminar and two trainings of national level and attended five summer/ winter schools.

Dr. Jakhar is serving as secretary Sports Board, SKNAU, Jobner since 2013 and organized 7 inter collegiate tournaments. During his student life he participated four times in Inter University Kabaddi tournaments.

From administrative point of view, Dr. Jakhar served as University Head and Campus Head of the Departmentof Plant Breeding &Genetics. He also served as convener and member of various committees viz. tender enquiry, student election, spot purchase etc.

Dr. Jakhar got best teacher award (2002-2003). Best performer Award (2016) by ICAR for development of taramira varieties, Appreciation certificate by the Hon’ble Vice Chancellor for outstanding contribution in the development of college and university on the occasion of Republic Day in 2016, 2018 and 2019. He is also acting as Joint Secretary in the executive board Rapeseed-Mustard Research, Sewar Bharatpur. He is also awarded with SRMR Fellow Award, 2017. He also got best oral presentation award in International Conference on Food Security through Agriculture and Allied Science (FAAS-2019) held at Tribhuvan University, Kathmandu (Nepal). He is the life member of farming system Research and Development Association, Society of Rapeseed-Mustard Research and the Indian Society of Genetics and Plant Breeding and also acting as scientific referee for several prestigious journals.

E-mail: director.hrd@sknau.ac.in

Details of former Directors 

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Seed Productions:

Breeder seed Production (q)