Famous Plant Breeders

BB Singh

BB Singh, alumnus of the University of Illinois Plant Breeding program, has been instrumental in the creation of improved legume crops for use in developing countries.

After receiving his undergraduate degree in India, Dr. Singh came to the Department of Agronomy (now Crop Sciences) at the University of Illinois to study soybean breeding and genetics in the mid-1960s. After graduation, he returned to India as a professor and began his career improving soybean varieties for disease resistance, high yield, and good seed viability. His newly developed soybeans helped Indian soybean production skyrocket from virtually none to 1 million tons in 1979 as part of the Green Revolution.

Moving from India to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Tanzania and Nigeria in the early 1980s, Dr. Singh began working on early-developing grain legumes to help producers overcome the problem of frequent droughts at the end of the life cycle of slower-developing crops. His breeding program began with the creation of “60 day cowpeas,” and later expanded to include pigeon peas and additional soybean varieties.  Dr. Singh’s improvements to these crops includes not only a shorter growing cycle, but also resistance to major diseases, insects, and parasitic weeds.

Dr Singh’s efforts to improve grain legumes continues to positively impact the production and quality of harvests around the world, especially in developing countries. He has been showered with many well-deserved accolades for his amazing contribution to global food production, including the 2009 ACES Alumni Association Award of Merit.

Now retired from IITA, Dr. Singh continues his work as a visiting professor at Pant University in India and at Texas A&M University in the US.