Professor (Dr.) Pritam Kalia, PhD, is an internationally acclaimed expert in Vegetable Genetic Research and Breeding, who served as Head & Professor of Vegetable Science Division, and Coordinator of School of Horticulture Sciences at IARI, New Delhi, India. Prof. Kalia was engaged in both basic and applied research for the improvement of vegetable crops for more than 37 years; first at Himachal Pradesh Agricultural University, Palampur, Himachal Pradesh, India for 19 years and later for 18 years at Indian Agricultural Research Institute (IARI), New Delhi, India. His main fields of research were resistance breeding, exotic vegetables, molecular breeding, biofortification, transgenesis and quality (external & internal) improvement of vegetable crops for development of new and novel varieties, promotion and popularization of Indianized exotic vegetables.
He contributed in improvement of garden pea, broccolis, leek, bunching onion, cauliflower, carrot, radish etc. Prof. Kalia has published more than 124 research papers in national and international journals of repute on vegetable crops improvement. He has published 14 books and compendium, 30 each of book chapters and popular articles, 2 e-manuals, 1 each of training & practical manual, 57 conference papers/abstracts and delivered 50 invited lectures. As ICAR-Emeritus Scientist at IARI, New Delhi from February 2017 to January 2020, Prof. Kalia did extensive work on a very important futuristic topic entitled, "Advances in biotic stress resistance breeding and β carotene biofortification in Indian cauliflower and nutraceutical mapping in carrot", and contributed significantly on improvement of Indian cauliflower in areas, such as introgression of β-carotene enhancing Or gene, diversification of cytoplasmic male sterility, development of β-carotene rich CMS hybrids and insect resistant transgenic development besides developing nutraceutical rich recombinant inbred lines(RILs).
Prof. Kalia was awarded Himachal Pradesh University Gold Medal and certificate of Honour and N. N. Mohan Memorial Gold Medal for first position in M.Sc at the then College of Agriculture, Solan (HP). He was awarded Commonwealth Scholarship by the Commonwealth Commission in UK for Post Doctorate in United Kingdom in 1985.
For his contribution to improvement of vegetable crops & academic, he was awarded Dr. Kirti Singh IAHS Gold Medal, Dr. Bishwajit Choudhary ISVS Memorial Award, Himotkarsh Himachal Shree and Himachal Gaurav awards. Prof. Kalia's outstanding contribution to Vegetable Science earned him VASVIK Award, IAHS Shivshkthi lifetime achievement Award and Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Award of ICAR.
During his career spanning over nearly 37 years, Prof. Kalia contributed significantly in the area of vegetable crops improvement having 33 varieties of different vegetable crops to his credit. Registered genetic stocks; 2 of CMS cauliflower, 4 of CMS tropical carrot, 1 resistant to each of black rot and downy mildew diseases of cauliflower and 1 resistant to powdery mildew disease in garden pea with NBPGR, New Delhi. His major contributions are in exotic vegetables, nutraceutical and resistance breeding and genetic mechanisms facilitating hybrid breeding in cauliflower and carrot. Prof. Kalia is credited with introduction of new vegetable crops in India such as broccoli, leek developing their indigenous varieties and popularized them.
Prof. Kalia contributed significantly in disease resistance breeding developing powdery mildew resistant garden pea variety Palam Priya, black rot and downy mildew resistant cauliflower varieties Pusa Paushja and Pusa Shukti. He established genetic mechanism cytoplasmic male sterility in tropical carrot and Indian cauliflower paving the way for hybrid development. He identified genes (Xca1bo & Xca1bc) which impart resistance to black rot disease in cauliflower which are being bred into commercial varieties through marker assisted breeding. Prof. Kalia has introgressed betacarotene enhancing Or gene in Indian cauliflower which will go a long way in tackling beta-carotene malnutrition problem in India.
Prof. Kalia has guided 5 M. Sc. and 6 Ph.D. students. Three of his PhD students were awarded Jawaharlal Nehru national award for best thesis. He is Fellow of National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS), Indian Society of Vegetable Science (ISVS), Indian Academy of Horticulture Sciences (IAHS) and International Society of Noni Science (ISNS).
Prof. Kalia represented India in APO sponsored meet on Quality and Safety Standards for Fruit and Vegetables in Taiwan during 2007. He also served as IAEA sponsored training expert on vegetable breeding to scientific staff in Mauritius during 2016. He has been elected as Vice-chairperson of the International Society for Horticulture Science (ISHS) for the Division of Horticulture for Development (DDEV) from August 2018. Prof. Kalia is serving consulting editor for the International Journal of Vegetable Science (IJVS) published by Tailor & Francis, USA since 1999 and also now from 2024 serving as editor of Agricultural Research Springer. He served as Editor- in-Chief of Indian Journal of Horticulture published by Indian Academy of Horticultural Sciences for three year (2018-2020). He has been serving as reviewer of international reputed journals, such as Frontiers in Plant Science, PLOS One, Heliyon, Food Chemistry Advances, Agriculture Research Springer, Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, International Journal of Vegetable Science, Indian Journal of Horticulture etc.
Prof. Kalia visited United Kingdom, Japan, Belgium, Netherland, Portugal, Taiwan, Australia, Mauritius New Zealand and France in connection with post doctorate studies, presenting research papers in congresses/symposiums, international collaborative research project meetings and for imparting training to scientists.
