Navneet Aggarwal

Biography

Navneet Aggarwal joined SARDI in 2016, and has over 24 years of experience working in Australia and India in agricultural research and teaching, extension, and conducting research trials under field and controlled environmental conditions in a range of crop types, including pulses, cereals, forage crops, sugarcane and cotton.

He has research expertise in the fields of weed management, crop nutrition, tillage systems and irrigation management. In his current role, he is working as Senior Research Officer (Weed Ecology) with SARDI based at the Clare Research Centre. He is responsible for the management of research projects funded by GRDC, SAGIT, SA Drought Hub and SARDI, developing improved weed management strategies for grass and broadleaf weeds in pulses and cereals for South Australian growers.

He is also a member of the Southern Pulse Agronomy team, with his involvement in addressing the challenges of managing herbicide resistant weeds and new emerging problematic weeds. He is actively involved in the extension of improved weed management strategies developed through various agronomy trials in Mid-North, Yorke Peninsula, Eyre-Peninsula, and Adelaide plains regions in a diverse range of pulse species for sustainable and profitable agriculture in our region.

The research outputs from these projects have been widely acknowledged and adopted by the consultants, agronomists, and growers of the state. He has published more than 50 research papers in highly ranked peer review journals, four review papers, 45 extension articles, and two book chapters with the top publishers including Springer and CAB International, UK.

Research interests

• Developing integrated weed management strategies for improving control of herbicide resistant grass and broadleaf weeds
• Newly emerging problematic weeds in different cropping systems of South Australia
• Getting best out of new chemistries for improved weed control in different Agro-climatic regions
• Soil types of our state for sustainable production of pulse crops
• Value addition to the pulse grains by reducing contamination with the weed seeds
• Extending improved weed management strategies to end-users to achieve enhanced productivity of our region

Qualifications

• Ph.D. Agronomy (2012). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India (University topper with OCPA 8.7/10.0)
• M.Sc. Agronomy and Weed Science (2000). Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India (Second rank in the University with OCPA 8.2/10.0). University merit scholarship holder throughout the master’s degree
• B.Sc. Agriculture (Hons.) 1998. Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India

Professional affiliations

• Affiliate Lecturer, The University of Adelaide
• Research Scientist, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana, India (2000-2015)
• Fellow, Indian Society of Pulses Research and Development
• Life member of seven scientific societies

Publications

• Merriam et al. (2024). Control of common sowthistle (Sonchus oleraceus) and prickly lettuce (Lactuca serriola) with PSII-inhibiting herbicides in a novel breeding line of metribuzin-tolerant lentil (Lens culinaris). Accepted for publication in Weed Technology (2024).
• Mansotra et al (2022). Ecological performance of multifunctional pesticide tolerant strains  of Mesorhizobium sp. in chickpea with recommended pendimethalin, ready‑mix of pendimethalin and imazethpyr, carbendazim  and chlorpyrifos application. Archives of Microbiology (204): 117.
• Singh et al (2016). Irrigation of chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) increases yield but not water productivity. Experimental Agriculture 52: 1-13.
• Zorawar et al (2022). Symbiotic efficiency vis-à-vis chickpea performance as affected by seed inoculation with Mesorhizobium, phosphorus-solubilizing bacteria, and phosphorus application, Journal of Plant Nutrition 45: 246-258.
• Aggarwal et al (2015). Crop performance, nutrient uptake vis-à-vis weed suppressive ability of mechanically transplanted rice (Oryza sativa) as influenced by age of seedlings and planting density. Indian Journal of Agronomy 60: 255-60.