Dr Gowda completed his BSc (Agriculture) from the University of Agriculture Sciences, Bengaluru; his MSc (Agriculture) from the GB Pant University of Agriculture and Technology, Pantnagar; and his PhD from the Indian Agriculture Research Institute, New Delhi. He joined ICRISAT in 1975 as a chickpea breeder.

He has published more than 270 journal articles and conference papers, and over 80 books and book chapters; and serves the editorial board of the International Journal of Plant Protection, Journal of Food Security, and Journal of Crop Science and Biotechnology.

CSSA is an international scientific society comprised of more than 6,000 members with its headquarters in Madison, US. It advances the discipline of crop science and fosters the transfer of knowledge on breeding and genetics, crop physiology, crop ecology, seed physiology, genomics, molecular genetics, biotechnology, and biomedical plants, among others.