Vimalkumar: A promising future Indian plant epidemiologist!

A "bio" of a common man with uncommon dreams who cleared the agricultural research service examination!

Indian Research Scholar Mr. Vimal Kumar C. has been recently selected as Scientist (Agricultural Research Service) in ICAR, an autonomous organization under the Department of Agricultural Research and Education, Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Govt. of India. He was born in Chamarajanagar city on 29/11/1993 to Mrs. Manjula and Mr. Chandru. He was looked after by his mother's family members in early childhood and given the best of the best education available at his native place. He completed lower primary schooling at St. Joseph Primary School, Chamarajanagar City (1999-2004). Joined Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalaya (JNV), Hondarabalu, Chamarajanagar, one of the top JNVs of the Hyderabad region, and passed matriculation in 2009. Completed his Pre-University education at Seva Bharati P. U. College, Chamarajanagar in 2011 with 3rd Topper at the same college 

He went on to finish his undergraduate degree in Agricultural Sciences at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad in 2015. He was passionate about plant pathology during 3rd Year B. Sc. Agri. and his friends funnily called him the father of pathology by looking into his acumen in the subject domain. The famous Professor of plant pathology Dr. Naragund at UAS Dharwad has appreciated him in an open class about his deeper understanding of the subject.

In 2015 he moved to the University of Agricultural Sciences, GKVK, Bengaluru to study master's after passing a state entrance exam with a 17 Rank. He obtained a post-graduate degree with high distinction in plant pathology in 2017 with a research entitled "Management of collar rot of groundnut" under his advisor Prof. Saifulla. He enrolled in a Ph. D. degree programme at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi in 2017-18 with an all-India rank 5 in IARI Ph.D. Entrance Examination. His balanced approach to studying both agricultural research service and civil service examination inspired us. He is a polyglot having the proficiency in Kannada, English, Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and French (learning) languages and respects all religious faith and culture.

His focused research area is interesting and away from classical plant pathology. He says "Nowadays everyone concentrates on molecular work, rarely scholars touch on the analytical aspects of plant diseases/epidemiology". His doctoral research focuses on the "Assessment of critical epidemic parameters influencing the establishment of the sheath rot of rice (Sarocladium oryzae)" under Dr. Parimal Sinha. Helps in the prediction of disease risk in current and future climates (hindcast and forecast). He is an expert in handling advanced software like ArcGIS, R software, Remote Sensing etc to integrate data with climate change scenarios. He has a plan to develop a rice expert system with critical climatic parameters that helps in the identification of epidemic hotspots, for the management of major diseases of rice which boost precision agriculture with reduced pesticide usage and costs. Having faced hardships during his childhood, he derived motivation primarily from Dr. B. R. Ambedkar's thoughts to achieve his goals. Apart from his family and teachers, he wishes to give credit to his well-wisher feminist who helped in his difficult times and also to the critics received for his success. He is actively involved in various student organizations like Dr. Ambedkar Students Association, GKVK, UAS Bengaluru, BABSA, IARI, New Delhi, Agritoppers, etc. 

Mr. Vimalkumar's passion for plant pathology/epidemiology will be benefiting the country in general and the farming community in particular. Let us wish him the very best in agricultural research service and future endeavors including civil service examination.

~Manu Sundavalu