About

Dr. Chandish Ballal was the former Director of ICARNational Bureau of Agricultural Insect Resources (NBAIR), Bangalore, India, and the former Project Coordinator of the All India Coordinated Project on Biological Control. Her research focus has been on the conservation of biodiversity and biological control. She has standardized continuous and effective production technologies for beneficial insects, which are being widely adopted by commercial units, researchers, and students. She held the largest live insect repository in Asia, with 130 different insect cultures maintained continuously. The prompt and continuous supply of quality live insect cultures made and production protocols developed by her continue to be valuable services to the student community, bio-control researchers, and commercial insectaries. By interacting with farmers and conducting demonstration trials in farmers’ fields, she could create confidence in farmers on the non-chemical mode of pest management.