The Department of Agricultural Botany at the University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore is one of the oldest in the country started at Hebbal in 1965 by the then Government of Mysore to engage teaching, research and extension activities in field crop improvement. Later on the department was renamed as Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding and shifted to the new campus GKVK, Bangalore.

The major mandate of the Department is teaching of Under Graduate and Post Graduate students of Agriculture. Three courses are being offered to B.Sc. (Agri.) viz. GPB 101-Principles of Genetics and Cytogenetics, GPB 201- Principles of Plant Breeding, GPB-301- Breeding of Field Crops. One course is offered to B.Sc. (Marketing and Cooperation) viz., GPB 305 – Fundamentals of Genetics, Cytogenetics and Plant Breeding, in addition to Rural Work Experience Programme (RWEP).

Post Graduate programs include M.Sc. (Agri.) and Ph.D. Over 315 students have completed Masters and 90 Ph.D. as of 2006. Many students have been ICAR fellowships for M.Sc. and Jawaharlal Award for excellent Ph.D. thesis work

The Department has been in the forefront in the area of initiating research activities and led to the Development of many varieties viz., Hebbal Aware-3 (Field bean), TTB 7 (Red gram), KRH-2 (Rice hybrid), Vaibhava, Sankranthi and Nandi (Tomato), PKB-5 (Cowpea), and KM-5 (Cowpea), MAS-946-1 (Aerobic Rice)

Department is well equipped with excellent lab facilities for carrying out Marker Assisted Selection. Provision is made for training students for short term and long term project work in Molecular Biology Application.

Dr. J. Shanthala.
Professor and Head
Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding,
University of Agricultural sciences,
GKVK, Bangalore 560 065.
Conventional breeding of Black gram and Green gram and finger millet