August 1, 2017
Agronomy graduate student receives grant to study heat and drought tolerance in wheat
Nithin Jayaram Shetty, doctoral student working with Krishna Jagadish, associate professor of agronomy, was awarded a North Central Region Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education Graduate Student Grant.
His project is "Unlocking wild wheat potential for enhancing water use efficiency and to sustain yield gains under extreme water-deficit and heat stress." The program's committee reviewed 57 graduate student grant proposals and approved 18 proposals for funding.
In this research project, Jayaram Shetty will be working closely with the K-State wheat breeding program of Allan Fritz, utilizing segregating populations coming out of the wild wheat crossing program. The overall goal of this collaborative effort is to develop next generation winter wheat varieties with a quantum leap forward in heat and drought stress resilience.