Idupulapati M. Rao

Dr. Idupulapati Rao is an International Consultant to the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe), Nairobi, Kenya. He is also an Emeritus Scientist (Plant Nutritionist and Physiologist) at the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT). He worked as a Visiting International Scientist at the National Center for Agricultural Utilization Research (NCAUR), United States Department of Agriculture - Agricultural Research Service (USDA-ARS), Peoria, Illinois, USA for about 3 years. He worked at CIAT, based in Cali, Colombia for 27 years. He has experience across a wide range of agricultural research areas including plant physiology; plant nutrition; agronomy; plant-soil-livestock-climate interactions; and climate variability and change, mostly related to the sustainable intensification of crop-livestock systems, especially for smallholders in marginalized environments. He has extensive scientific background with more than 38 years of experience in the implementation of agricultural research and research for development. He worked for about 10 years at the University of Illinois and the University of California before joining CIAT in 1989. His work at CIAT has contributed to the development of abiotic stress (soils and climate)-adapted tropical forage and common bean cultivars for sustainable intensification of crop-livestock systems in the tropics. He worked as a principal investigator or co-investigator on more than 40 international research projects. As part of multidisciplinary teams, he has gained extensive knowledge and experience to impact on smallholder agriculture through improved food and nutritional security and natural resource management to fulfill United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end extreme poverty and for tackling the climate change. He has published 235 journal articles, 69 book chapters and 73 papers in conference proceedings (>15,000 citations; h-index of 65; i10-index of 207; 16 articles over 200 citations and 5 articles over 400 citations). He won the outstanding principal staff award from CIAT in 2000 and outstanding research publication awards in 1999, 2003, 2009 and 2011. He was also part of the CIAT team that won the excellence in science award from the CGIAR for outstanding partnership in 2001.