Krishna Lal Chadha was born to a
Punjabi Khatri family on 15 November 1936 in Bhopalwala,
Sialkot, in
British India, presently in Pakistan. His schooling was at the Government High School, Jalandhar from 1948 to 1951 after which he joined
Panjab University, Chandigarh from where he secured a BSc (Agriculture) in 1955 and an MSc (Horticulture) in 1960. Chadha started his career as an Assistant Horticulturist at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute in 1963 and worked only for a year to move to
Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana as a Fruit Specialist in 1964. In 1987, he was promoted as the Deputy Director General of the
Indian Council of Agricultural Research from where he retired in 1996. a post he held till 2001 and was an adjunct professor of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute ever afterwards. Chadha was a Fellow of the
International Society for Horticultural Science, a US based forum of the scientific and technical professionals in the field of horticulture and was a member of several workgroups within the organization. He also held fellowships of the
National Academy of Agricultural Sciences, the Horticultural Society of India He was the chairman of such government and professional agencies as
National Planning Commission of India working group for Horticulture Development in India, National Committee for oilpalm cultivation, Registration Committee for Pesticides, High Power Committee on Restructuring of Department of Agriculture, High Power Committee for Horticulture in the states of West Bengal, Haryana and Gujarat. ==Legacy==