Research Interests

• Agroecology
• Plant-microbe interactions
• Sustainable agriculture and land use
• Plant health management

Project

Climate change and increasing events of drought are limiting the yield and production of crops in semi-arid tropics. One low input strategy made into practise in dry land areas is intercropping to maximise the production. In such a system, the deep-rooted plant act as bioirrigators for the shallow rooted plants. Recent studies have shown that the bioirrigation can be enhanced by the presence of common mycorrhizal network (CMN). The aim of my study is to understand the basics of CMN facilitated bioirrigation in an intercropping system and thereby help to establish a system to stabilize and increase the yields of crops in dryland agriculture.

Education

2020- ongoing PhD student, Physiological Plant Ecology Group, University of Basel, Switzerland

2017-2020 M.Sc in Crop protection, Georg- August- University Göttingen, Germany   Thesis: “ Virus-mediated effects on tri-trophic interactions between Myzus persicae, Aphidius ervi and sugar beet”

2013-2017 B.Sc (Hons.) Horticulture, Telangana state horticulture university, Hyderabad, India