Vijaya Raju

Vijaya Raju has worked at Plantix since 2017, first as a Regional Business Manager and then as an Area Manager. From 2009 to 2017, they worked at ICRISAT as a Research Scholar, Senior Research Fellow, and Field Investigator. As a Research Scholar, their responsibilities included aflatoxin management and its strategies in groundnut seeds, aflatoxin estimation in groundnut, maize, sorghum and chilies samples and its by products using indirect competitive ELISA, screening of different cultivars and germplasms to their reaction in pre-harvest aflatoxin contamination, groundnut seed germination and moisture count, conducting demonstrations with apply certain farmers affordable Good Agricultural Practices (GAP’s) in reducing aflatoxin contamination in groundnut, in-vitro seed colonization and pre-harvest seed infection, enumeration and isolation of beneficial microbes from plant rhizosphere soils and day to day pure culture maintenance, conducting glass house and field experiments as assigned, and organizing on-farm field demonstrations and multi-location field trails to generate the data and give up feedback. As a Field Investigator, their responsibilities included disseminating technical information literature among the farmers and farmer groups, data collection and conducting need assessment studies in the villages, interaction with farmers and finding out what information they need, drought assessment and its impact studies, conducting village profiling exercise using PRA methods, conducting interviews with farmers on production and utilization, providing answers to the queries asked by the farmers during audio, video conferences and field visits, preparation of weekly reports (all crops), plant protection exposures (diseases, pests and weeds), and daily and weekly reports to the same and feedback about the partner organization reporting to the scientist.

Vijaya Raju attended ZPH School, Vissannapeta from 2009 to 2011, where they obtained a degree in Botany, Zoology and Chemistry with a focus in Information and Communication Technology. Vijaya also completed their 10th class at ZPH School, Vissannapeta.