Director
Designation
Director
Qualification
Ph.D (Soil Science)
Specialisation
Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry
Phone Number
0471-2598553
Intercom
101
Email
byju.g@icar.org.in
Location
Head Quarters
C. Any Other Information

Technologies Developed

  1. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for cassava in India
  2. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for sweet potato in India
  3. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for elephant foot yam in India
  4. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for yams in India
  5. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for taro in India
  6. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for Chinese potato in India
  7. Site specific nutrient management recommendations for potato in India
  8. Zone-specific secondary and micronutrient inclusive customised fertilizer formulations were developed for cassava.
  9. Zone-specific secondary and micronutrient inclusive customised fertilizer formulations were developed for elephant foot yam.
  10. Zone-specific secondary and micronutrient inclusive customised fertilizer formulations were developed for sweet potato.
  11. Zone-specific secondary and micronutrient inclusive customised fertilizer formulations were developed for yams.
  12. Zone-specific secondary and micronutrient inclusive customised fertilizer formulations were developed for taro.
  13. Foliar liquid micronutrient formulations for cassava in acidic soils was developed and commercialised to M/S Linga Chemicals, Madurai through Agrinnovate, ICAR, New Delhi.
  14. Foliar liquid micronutrient formulations for cassava in neutral and alkali soils was developed and commercialised to M/S Linga Chemicals, Madurai through Agrinnovate, ICAR, New Delhi.
  15. Foliar liquid micronutrient formulation for sweet potato was developed and commercialised to M/S Linga Chemicals, Madurai through Agrinnovate, ICAR, New Delhi.
  16. Foliar liquid micronutrient formulation for elephant foot yam was developed and commercialised to M/S Linga Chemicals, Madurai through Agrinnovate, ICAR, New Delhi.
  17. Foliar liquid micronutrient formulation for yams was developed and commercialised to M/S Linga Chemicals, Madurai through Agrinnovate, ICAR, New Delhi.
  18. Ten online decision support tools were developed:
    1. CASSNUM – Nutrient decision support system for SSNM of cassava, developed and hosted at ICAR-CTCRI. Receives more than 2000 hits per month.
    2. CASSNUM 1.1 – A later version of CASSNUM, available as a stand-alone system in CD format.
    3. Sree Poshini – A mobile app for SSNM of tuber crops, available on the Google Play Store.
    4. FERTCALC_CTCRI – A decision support tool developed for SSNM of individual farms of ICAR-CTCRI.
    5. NRRPUP – Nutrient Recommendation for Raising Potato in Uttar Pradesh.
    6. NRPPP – Nutrient Recommendation for Potato Production in Punjab.
    7. NRTP-MP – Nutrient Recommendation Tool for Potato in Madhya Pradesh.
    8. Cassava Expert System – A web-based expert system that offers solutions to farmers, industrialists, and traders on cassava and its derived products.
    9. Variety Identifier – An online tool hosted at ICAR-CTCRI for identifying cassava varieties.
    10. Tuber Information Café – A comprehensive information platform for tuber crops, hosted at ICAR-CTCRI. Receives more than 2000 hits per month.
    11. Conducted 275 on-farm experiments / frontline demonstrations in major tuber crop growing zones. Yield increase through SSNM:
      • Cassava: 22% (+5 t/ha)
      • Elephant foot yam: 27.5% (+8 t/ha)
      • Sweet potato: 15% (+3 t/ha)
      • Yams: 18% (+4 t/ha)
      • Taro: 13% (+1 t/ha)
    12. SSNM could save 5-10% NPK. A 10% saving could reduce fertilizer use by 95 lakh kg, saving Rs. 32 crores annually and aiding climate change mitigation.
    13. Technology developed for real-time N management in cassava using LCC and SPAD-502 meter.
    14. Estimated boron uptake requirements and developed boron recommendations for sweet potato cultivation.
    15. Involved in the development and validation of two sweet potato growth simulation models: Madhuram and SPOTCOMS.
    16. Calibrated ECOCROP model of FAO for climate change studies of tropical tuber crops (cassava, sweet potato, elephant foot yam, yams) in India using geoinformatics tools.
    17. Developed optimal irrigation schedules and crop water production functions for cassava using CROPWAT model of FAO.
    18. Methodology for cassava acreage estimation using remote sensing and kernel-based fuzzy classification with Landsat 8 (in collaboration with IIRS, Dehradun).
    19. Methodology for cassava acreage and yield estimation using support vector machine (SVM) and Sentinel-2B multispectral imagery.
Research Experience
33 years

Soil Science & Agricultural Chemistry

Research Projects Implemented

  1. Institute Research Projects: 51

    As Principal Investigator (PI): 13; As Co-PI: 38

  2. External Grants Received: Rs. 24.82 crores (21 Projects)

    As Principal Investigator / Project Team Leader: Rs. 13.37 crores (10 Projects)

    As Co- Principal Investigator: Rs. 11.45 crores (11 Projects)

Publications

1. Books authored: 3
2. Webinar proceedings edited: 1
3. Journal edited as guest editor: 1
4. Chapters in multiauthored books: 17
5. Refereed Journal Articles: 140
6. Presentations in conferences etc.: 125
7.  Policy brief    : 5
8. Technical bulletins: 16
9. Technical folders: 30
10. Technical leaflets: 38
11. Scientific popular articles: 200
12. TV Talks: 6
13. Radio Talks: 11
14. Talks in FB Live programmes: 2
15. Videos in YouTube channel: 17

  1. Lifetime Achievement Award, International Society for Tropical Root Crops (ISTRC), conferred during the 20th symposium of the society held at Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala during 17-21 November 2025. This is the second time after a gap of 19 years that India hosted this global event held once in three years in different parts of the world.

  2. Fellow, Indian Society for Root Crops (ISRC), ICAR-CTCRI, Thiruvananthapuram, India.

  3. Fellow, Society for Horticulture Research and Development (SHRD), New Delhi, India.

  4. Fellow, Confederation of Horticulture Associations of India (CHAI), New Delhi, India.

  5. CHAI Achievers Award 2023 by Confederation of Horticulture Association of India, New Delhi. 

  6. Team Research Award for Best Centre of All India Network Programme on Organic Farming (AI-NPOF), ICAR during 2019-20.

  7. Dhiru Morarji Memorial Award, 2012 of Fertilizer Association of India (FAI), New Delhi for the best research paper published in Indian Journal of Fertilizers during the year 2011.

  8. Dr. A. Abraham award for best research paper published in Journal of Root Crops in 2022. Jinimol Raju, R. Shiny and G. Byju. 2022 Journal of Root Crops 48 (1&2): 47-56.

  9. Best Research Paper Award by ICAR-CTCRI for the best paper published in 2021, ‘Raji P., R. Shiny and G. Byju. 2021. Impact of climate change on potential geographical suitability of cassava and sweet potato vs rice and potato in India. Theoretical and Applied Climatology 146: 941-960’ (NAAS score 8.88). 

  10. Best Research Paper Award for the paper published in Current Horticulture in 2017.

  11. Best research paper award, Poster for the paper presented at the International Conference on Tropical Root and Tuber Crops, ICTRT 2013 during 09-12 July 2013 organised at Thiruvananthapuram, India.

  12. Best research paper award, Poster (Runner up), ISTRC 4 NARES, 17-21 November 2025, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Veena, S.S., Linet K Joseph, Chithra Vinod, M.L. Jeeva, G. Byju, J. Sreekumar and S. Karthikeyan. 2025, ISTRC4NARES, Book of Abstracts, pp.211.

  13. Best research paper award, Poster (Runner up), ISTRC 4 NARES, 17-21 November 2025, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Parida, S.K., A. Sree Vidya, R. Padhi, M. Nedunchezhiyan, P.S. Sivakumar, K.H. Gowda, S.K. Jata and G. Byju. 2025, ISTRC4NARES, Book of Abstracts, pp.278.

  14. Best research paper award, Poster (Runner up), ISTRC 4 NARES, 17-21 November 2025, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala. Jaganathan, D., R. Muthuraj, Sheela Immanuel, P. Prakash and G. Byju. 2025, ISTRC4NARES, Book of Abstracts, pp.288.

  15. National Merit Scholarship during 1980-81.

  16. ICAR Junior Research Fellowship in Soil Science during 1987-1989.

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