Biotic stresses cause yield loss of 31-42% in crops in addition to 6-20% during post-harvest stage. Understanding interaction of crop plants to the biotic stresses caused by insects, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and oomycetes, etc. is important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in oilseed crops is imperative for addressing FPNEE (food, health, nutrition. energy and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing have facilitated precise information about the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to biotic stresses.

Prof. Chittaranjan Kole is an internationally reputed scientist with an illustrious professional career spanning over thirty-seven years and original contributions in the fields of plant genomics and biotechnology leading to the publication of more than 150 research articles in globally leading journals. He has edited over 150 books for the leading publishers of the world including Springer Nature, Wiley-Blackwell and Taylor & Francis Group. His works and editing acumen have been appreciated by seven Nobel Laureates including Profs. Norman Borlaug, Arthur Kornberg, Werner Arber, Phillip Sharp, Günter Blobel, Lee Hartwell and Roger Kornberg. Previously he was a Visiting Professor in The Pennsylvania State University and Clemson University. He also served as the Vice-Chancellor of the BC Agricultural University in India. He is also the President and Founding Principal Coordinator of the International Climate-Resilient Crop Genomics Consortium (ICRCGC) and International Phytomedomics and Nutriomics Consortium (IPNC).