Equipped with four decades of experience and expertise in building and leading highly successful commercial plant breeding programs globally, Dr. Hans Bhardwaj assumed the leadership of the RICE CRP Flagship Project 5 – New rice varieties in March 2019.
A plant breeding and research management leader, Dr. Bhardwaj was previously the senior research director at Corteva Agriscience. In this capacity, he led the establishment of a global network of plant breeding programs and technology hubs to develop competitive hybrid seed products.
According to RICE CRP Director Bas Bouman, “Dr. Bhardwaj’s knowledge and experience with global breeding standards will be of great value to RICE Flagship Project 5 as we further strengthen and modernize our breeding activities”.
Tasked with optimizing the rate of genetic gain and developing improved and climate-resilient rice varieties for food and nutritional security, Hans is committed to making the FP5 program and the Rice Breeding Platform at IRRI as a global center of excellence in rice breeding. “There is a need for us to understand and remember that rice breeding is not a competition but a cooperation among different CGIAR centers in order to develop and work together for a shared vision”, says Dr. Bhardwaj.
Having joined IRRI in January 2019 as head of the Rice Breeding Platform, he is in charge of ensuring that IRRI’s rice breeding strategy and efforts are consistent with the needs and demands of stakeholders along the rice value chain. Efforts must be targeted to accelerate the rate of genetic gain to at least 1% annually from its current level of around 0.5% and increasing the rate of varietal turnover to speed up the realization of impact.
“I am excited at the opportunity to further modernize our CG Rice breeding programs through the deployment of new breeding approaches and new technologies that can help us use our resources more efficiently while being able to speed up the breeding process. This will help us become more responsive to the need for new varieties that can increase farmers’ income and overcome climate change challenges”, Dr. Bhardwaj says.