Although she grew up in a massive city in India known for its information technology industry, Babitha Jampala’s mind was never far from the family farm and agriculture.
Jampala’s father worked at a nuclear fuel complex in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana, but at home he constantly talked of his childhood on a rice farm a few hours away.
“He had never left that side of him,” Jampala said. “So, those everyday conversations at home were about agriculture and how we can improve. That got my interest into agriculture.”
That interest in agriculture led her to study molecular genetics in the United States, and in 2018 she joined the LSU AgCenter. Today she is leading the AgCenter industrial hemp team and working to develop the nascent Louisiana industrial hemp industry.
“We have a big group working on it and a lot of people putting their time and energy into it,” she said.
Jampala’s “keen interest in agriculture” developed through regular visits to see her aunts and uncles at the family’s 70-acre farm to help with harvest or other chores cultivated. Her family held a progressive mindset and sought to be part of tests for new varieties and crop treatments, she said.
Jampala is an expert in molecular breeding. In conventional breeding, hundreds or thousands of plants are grown in the field, and those with wanted traits are selected and bred to improve upon these traits. Molecular breeding specialists, like Jampala, can examine plants’ DNA in a lab and select for traits before beginning the breeding process. It can help reduce the time spent growing plants to narrow down traits.
“Molecular breeding, combined with conventional breeding, you can see new varieties come out in four to five years, which reduces the time gap and also increases the chances of success,” she said.
Jampala earned her bachelor’s degree at Acharya N. G. Ranga Agricultural University. There she met the man who would become her husband, Naveen Adusumilli, who is now an agriculture economist for the LSU AgCenter and College of Agriculture. Together they immigrated to Texas to continue their studies.
While India places a high importance on education, opportunities for research were more available in the United States, she said.
“Research was my main interest, and that pushed me to come here,” she said.
Jampala and Adusumilli both earned master’s degrees at West Texas A&M University in Canyon, Texas, and doctorates at Texas A&M University. Along with their scholarly work, they are raising two boys, Dhruv, 13, and Daksh, 9.
While at Texas A&M, Jampala focused on grains, and she completed her dissertation on breeding a sorghum variety that contains more digestible protein for animals and the bioethanol industry. She found a mutant sorghum line that contained more protein and crossed it with high-yielding sorghum cultivars.
“The sorghum grain, when it is added to the animal feed, the protein is more available right now than it was with the with the old varieties,” she said.
When Jampala toured Texas A&M University while searching for the right place to complete her doctorate, she met Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Prize-winning agronomist who helped increase crop production throughout the world and is credited with quadrupling the production in India along with scientist M.S. Swaminathan.
“That is my interest in breeding, to accomplish that,” Jampala said.
Jampala joined the AgCenter in 2018 as a research associate and became an assistant professor for research in 2021.
Breeding new plants to feed people and animals can change the world the way Borlaug and Swaminathan did. Jampala sees the possibilities in hemp. It can provide fibers that use fewer farming inputs than cotton, she said, and the fiber from hemp can be used to make bricks for green construction.
Long ago, Jampala’s love of science led her to consider careers in either medicine or agriculture. She wanted to do the most good.
“I think I can accomplish more in agriculture, and that’s what pushed me,” she said. “I could see the impact of it on the farmers. And this is quick. I can see it with my eyes.”
Kyle Peveto is the editor of Louisiana Agriculture.
This article appears in the fall 2023 issue of Louisiana Agriculture magazine.
Babitha Jampala leads the LSU AgCenter Industrial Hemp Working Group, a team of specialists working to investigate the best practices for growing hemp in Louisiana. Photo by Randy LaBauve