Our Founders
Dr.C.A. Barber
Dr. C.A. Barber

- He was the first Government Sugarcane Expert
- He was the Botanist and Breeder at the Institute during 1912-1918
- He was instrumental in identifying the first interspecific hybrid Co 205, released for commercial cultivation
- He was the architect of the first successful inter-generic hybrid in 1916 between S. officinarum clone 'Vellai' and Narenga porphyiocana
- He initiated sugarcane breeding in India and brought international recognition to the station by using the wild species (kans) as parent of Co Varieties
- He conducted monumental work on the morphology and classification of Indian canes
- The species Saccharum barberi is named after him
Sir. T.S. Venkatraman
Sir. T.S.Venkatraman

- He was instrumental in evolving the first inter-specific sugarcane hybrid Co 205 released for commercial cultivation. It proved a remarkable success in North India, particularly in Punjab where it recorded 50% more yield then indigenous varieties.
- He started for the first time, a three species combination involving the tropical sugarcane S.officinarum, the sub-tropical S. barberi and the wild species S.spontaneum and thus helped in evolving Co 213, Co 244, Co 312 and Co 313
- The variety evolved by him, Co 281 became a success in South Africa for which he was made an Honorary Fellow of South African Sugar Technologist Association.
- He was instrumental in evolving the world's wonder variety Co 419 which saturated the entire tropical belt for about 4 decades and popular in several other countries.
- He did pioneering work in inter-generic hybridization
- He introduced a mosaic of varieties to siut the varied agro-climatic conditions of the country.
- He was honored by the British Government with titles like 'Rao Saheb', 'Rao Bahadur', CIE and 'Sir' . The Government of India honoured with 'Padhma Bushan. Click here for the historical notes published in Current Science:Vol 106(8), April 2014.