Senior Scientist (Entomology)

Born on 1st July 1970 at Ramachandrapuram, East Godavari District, Andhra Pradesh, Dr. C.N. Rao completed B.Sc. (Agril.) and M.Sc. (Agril.) from Agricultural college, Bapatla, ANGRAU, Andhra Pradesh. As a part of M.Sc. (Agril.) thesis, he worked on “Life table and intrinsic rate of natural increase of Helicoverpa armigera (Hub.) on certain cultivars of Gossypium hirsutum L.” and completed his post graduation in 1993. He obtained his Doctorate from IARI, New Delhi. During Ph.D., he worked on “Factors affecting resistance in maize to Chilo partellus (Swinhoe) and Atherigona spp.” and completed his Doctorate programme in 1998. He secured first division throughout his career with excellent ranking.

He secured second position during post graduation and received Dr. Pradhan Gold Medal awarded by Division of Entomology, IARI, New Delhi for his excellence in Doctoral programme. He stood second in ARS Examination-1996, conducted by ASRB in the discipline of Agricultural Entomology and subsequently joined in ARS as Research Scientist at National Research Centre for Citrus, Nagpur on 18th May, 1998. At present he is working on Citrus Insect Pests and their Management. His area of work includes Biological control of Citrus Insect Pests, Citrus IPM and Evaluation of Bio-pesticides against Citrus Insect Pests.

Dr. Rao has published (as author and Co-author) 27 research papers in reputed journals, 5 review articles, 2 books, 9 book chapters, 3 popular articles, 1 manual, 1 technical bulletin and 2 on line publications. He has secured three best poster awards for his research papers on ‘Citrus leaf miner and its Bio-control’ in various National symposia held at IARI, New Delhi (5-7 November, 2003), OUAT, Bhubaneswar (14-16, Feb. 2005) and ICAR-RC-NEH, Shillong (22-24 Feb., 2006). He has also secured best poster award for his paper on ‘Incidence of citrus aphids Toxoptera spp.:  vectors of citrus tristeza virus in central India in a National Symposium held at Nagpur (23-24, November, 2006). He is a life member of Indian Society of Citriculture, Nagpur, Society of Plant Protection Sciences, New Delhi, Society of Pesticide Science, New Delhi, Indian Society of Agricultural Sciences, New Delhi and Journal of Agriculture Reviews, Haryana.