Dr Ashok Kumar Dhakad, a tree breeder from PAU Ludhiana was felicitated by Horticulture College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University
Dr Ashok Kumar Dhakad, Tree Breeder, Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, PAU, Ludhiana has bagged the first prize in the ‘International Conference on Moringa ’The Super Food’ Research Status, Scope and Way Forward’, organised by Horticulture College and Research Institute, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Tamil Nadu at Periyakulam. Dr Dhakad was awarded for his oral presentation entitled ‘Performance of Moringaoleifera Lam. accessions for nutritional and fodder values under Punjab conditions.
Dr Dhakad is working on the popularisation of Moringa oleifera and its genetic improvement. He has been engaged in this work since 2017 and has introduced commercial cultivars and geographical ecotypes from different parts of India. He has evaluated Moringa for biomass, nutritional values, forage values and bioactive molecules. He has assessed the effect of different phenophases and stages of maturity of leaves on nutritional values and mineral concentrations. He analysed the physiological causes of the varying level of these values. He is now working on the changes in reproductive biology and breeding behaviour under subtropical climatic conditions of Punjab.
