Prof. P.V. Vara Prasad

Dr. P.V. Vara Prasad is a Distinguished Professor, R.O. Kruse Endowed Professor, and Director of Feed the Future Sustainable Intensification Innovation Lab at Kansas State University. He obtained his BS and MS degrees from Andhra Pradesh Agricultural University in India, and Ph.D. from the University of Reading in the United Kingdom.

His research focuses on understanding the responses of crops to changing environments and developing best management strategies to improve and protect yields. He has active research, education, and outreach activities around the world. He is enthusiastic about human and institutional capacity building, and empowering producers and consumers to improve their lives and livelihood. He has published >390 peer-reviewed journal articles and book chapters.

He is among the top 1% of highly cited and influential scholars around the world. His research has been cited >24,000 times with an h-index 81. He is a fellow of the American Society of Agronomy; the Crop Science Society of America; and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He is a former member of the International Commission on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification, and former President of the Crop Science Society of America.

• Understanding responses of food grain crop to changing environments (temperature, water and climate change factors)
• Screening germplasm collections for tolerance to abiotic stresses
• Determining physiological basis of tolerance
• Developing crop, soil, water and nutrient management strategies for efficient use of resources
• Improve livelihood of smallholder farmers by providing food and nutritional security.