Chandrakant T. Patel

Chandrakant T. Patel, (11 July 1917 – 25 December 1990) was a cotton scientist, who developed the first commercial cotton hybrid, known as Hybrid-4 (Sankar-4), in 1970, which was later cultivated commercially in the states of Gujarat and Maharashtra.

Biography Chandrakant T. Patel was born in Sarsa in the Kaira District of Gujarat and obtained his MSc degree in Plant Breeding and Genetics from Bombay University in 1954. He is known as Father of Hybrid cotton. He worked at Surat Agricultural University and after two decades of continuous research efforts, successfully developed an intraspecific hybrid by crossing Gujarat-67 X American Nectariless variety, known as Hybrid-4 (H-4), which produced about 80 to 100 qt of Kapas/ha. Earlier research practices.carried out for nearly two decades helped to procure 213–304 kg.lint/ha. But the Hybrid-4 variety produced a record high of 6,918 kg kapas/ha (i.e.:2,352 kg lint/h] H-4 became highly successful in Central India, giving more than twice the yield compared to the parent varieties Gujarath-67. Posthumous NAU Lifetime Achievement Award May 2024