Summary Research Report 2003-04
During
the year 2003-04, the institute released five varieties of different crops (VL
Gehun 832, Vivek Dhan 84, Vivek Dhan 154, VL Mandua 315 and VL Garlic 1), of
which two were released by Central Sub-Committee on Crop Standards, Notification
and Release of Varieties (CSCSNRV) and three were by Uttaranchal State Variety
Release Committee (UASVRC).
A high yielding disease resistant wheat variety VL Gehun 832 having an average yield potential of 2410 kg/ha over four years was released by CSCSNRV for high altitude (>about 5500’) areas of northern hill. Besides high yield, it has high degree of resistance to brown and yellow rust, loose smut and hill bunt diseases. It possesses Lr 13+34+ and Yr 18+ genes conferring resistance against leaf and yellow rust, respectively. Vivek Dhan 84, an early duration (110-115 days) irrigated transplanted rice variety, with an average yield of 5000-5500 kg/ha was released by UASVRC. It has yield advantage of 18.3 per cent, 20.2 per cent and 15.6 per cent over Pant Dhan 6, Vivek Dhan 81 and Vivek Dhan 82, respectively. This variety possesses resistance against leaf blast, neck blast, brown leaf spot and tolerance against leaf scald, leaf folder and cold/low temperature stress. An early duration (100-110 days), direct seeded June sown rice variety, Vivek Dhan 154 with an average yield of 2500-2700 kg/ha, was released by Uttaranchal State Variety Release Committee. Vivek Dhan 154 has yield advantage of 33.0 per cent, over VL Dhan 163 and 17.9 per cent over VL Dhan 221. It has better cooking quality, resistance to leaf and neck blast, leaf scald, leaf folder and drought. The plant stature is of semi-dwarf type (95-110 cm). State Varietal Release Committee released finger millet variety VL Mandua 315 for cultivation in hills of Uttaranchal. In multilocational trials, VL Mandua 315 (2324 kg/ha) out yielded best check VL Ragi 146 and PES 400 by a margin of 10.61% and 38.58%, respectively. VL Garlic 1, a clonal selection from EC 158250 was released by CVRC for cultivation in Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Punjab. It has an average yield potential of 14000 to 15000 kg/ha in hills and 9000 to 10000 kg/ha in plains.
Three normal maize inbreds with CM 212, V 23 and CM 145 were converted into Quality Protein Maize (QPM) through molecular breeding. The tryptophan content in converted lines varied from 0.88 to 1.10% while the native recipient lines contained 0.38 to 0.41% tryptophan.
2.
Natural Resource Management for Sustainable Productivity
The productivity potentials of three distinctly different rainfed agro-ecosystems of hills were evaluated. The site having aspect 1400 east-south direction (receiving 72% sunshine) showed higher productivity of upland rice (2,866 kg/ha) and wheat (1,330 kg/ha), whereas the site having aspect 900 east (receiving 48% of the sunshine) showed relative lower productivity of upland rice (2,005 kg/ha) and wheat (763 kg/ha). Integrated use of crop residue (5 t/ha), zinc (5 kg/ha) and FYM (5 t/ha) showed highest mean yield of soybean (3,001 kg/ha) and wheat (4,548 kg/ha). Among the advance lines of rice, IET 17212 (upland rice), IET 16863 (short duration transplanted) and RP 2421 (medium duration transplanted) were identified as superior lines in terms of yield and response to N applications. Additional yield of tomato (41,200 kg/ha) and Frenchbean (11,866 kg/ha) was obtained along with 67,333 green cobs when they were grown under relay cropping system.
Four years of experimentations showed that conventional tillage recorded highest soybean equivalent yield followed by minimum tillage and zero tillage. Minimum tillage showed highest steady state infiltration rate (1.15 cm/hr). Thirty years old soybean-wheat long-term experiment showed 49, 44 and 40% reduction in wheat yield and 87, 76, 86% in soybean yield due to application of no fertilizer, N+P and N+K, respectively as compared to NPK+FYM treatment. Integrated use of FYM and recommended NPK over the years not only improved the secondary nutrient status (Ca, Mg, S) in the soil profile but also improved the soil biological health. The carbon balance study revealed that root biomass contributed about 8.74, 3.50, 7.83, 9.35 and 8.25 q C/ha to the soil under ragi, rice, soybean, maize and barnyard millet whereas about 8.13, 0.84, 8.78,1.15 and 0.56 q C/ha was contributed through root biomass under barley, toria, wheat, pea and lentil, respectively. Under organic farming condition maximum yield of garden pea (8,500 kg/ha), French bean (6,140 kg/ha), babycorn (560 kg/ha) and broccoli (2,330 kg/ha) was obtained with the application of 40 t FYM or 10 t poultry manure/ha to each of the crops.
For maximum forage yield, sowing of dual purpose wheat (VL Gehun 616) on 10th October was found optimum. In deodar forest Pennisetum purpureum gave maximum forage yield (69,971 kg/ha). In Quercus leucotrichophora energy plantation, lopping leaves in August and December gave the higher green forage yield (6.63 kg/tree). Under silvi-horti system, the highest rhizome yield (12,490 kg/ha) of turmeric variety Swarna was obtained under Quercus leucotrichophora.
3.
Integrated Pest Management
Promising genotypes showing resistant to major diseases were identified in rice (VL 95-6394, VL 95-6502 for blast) maize (FH 3186, 4-15-1 and inbreds V 334, 363 for turcicum blight), wheat (VL 804, VL 824 for yellow and brown rust and E 8684 for rust and loose smut), barley (VLB 80, VL 84 for rust), finger millet (VR 169, IE 3643 for blast), barnyard millet (VB 292, VB 323 for grain smut), lentil (VL Masoor 120 for wilt) and garden pea (VP 106, VP 8901, DARL 403 for powdery mildew). The lines VL 97-3741, VL 3831 and OR 5241-2 were identified as promising against stem borer and leaf folder in rice.
IRL-010 @1.5 ml/l was found effective in controlling blast of rice, whereas Nurulle D 505 for stem borer management showed better efficacy. Trichoderma viride was better than other bio-agent in controlling wilt in pea. Azadirachtin and Batain Seed Kernal Extract were better option for safer management of insect pests in pea. T. harzianum was found better in controlling damping-off tomato nursery. About 50 isolates of Trichoderma spp. and 30 isolates of Pseudomonas fluorescens were collected as antagonists against major soil borne pathogens. Out of the isolates screened, two isolates of Trichoderma spp. were found promising.
Two microbial isolates (WGSB-4 and WGPSB-2) were found effective for biological control of white grub (Anomala dimidiata). Walnut, Utis and Quaral were identified as most preferred hosts for A. dimidiata, M. indica and Xylotrupes gideon, respectively. One user-friendly low cost light trap was developed trapping of beetles.
Forty-eight isolates of Pyricularia grisea were analyzed using RAPD, ISSR and pot element based markers, and nine lineages were identified.
4.
Socio-economic Studies and Transfer of Technology
User-friendly interface for paddy germplasm database have been developed. The interface was developed using MS Visual Studio 6.0 as front end tools. Six hundred one records were added to finger millet database and two hundred records were added to the N-W Himalayan Database of Himachal Pradesh. About 800 photographs have been digitized to develop the Digital Photo Library of the institute.
The survey on marketing channels of vegetables in hills revealed that producer – commission agent – wholesaler – retailer – consumer and producer – contractor – wholesaler – retailer – consumer are the major channels adopted by the farmers for marketing 82 to 90% of the total vegetable produced.
During rabi 2003-04, 150 FLDs on wheat (VL Gehun 616) and lentil (VL Masoor 103) were carried out and average yield of both the crops were 2,250 and 850 kg/ha, respectively. A total of 120 demonstrations were carried out during kharif 2003 on soybean (VL Soya 47) and ragi (VL Mandua 146) and the averages yields were 2,420 and 2,200 kg/ha, respectively. Three hundred sixty four front line demonstrations were carried out on maize during kharif 2003. The average yield of the improved hybrids and composites in FLDs was significantly (36-173%) higher than the average productivity of Uttaranchal State (1,474 kg/ha). Demonstrations on transplanted rice Vivek Dhan 82 were laid out in six farmers fields in Someshwar area. The average yield obtained was 3,800 kg/ha (21% higher over local).
Aiming at a
holistic development of agriculture and other off-farm activities, Technology
Assessment and Refinement through Institute-Village Linkage Programme was
carried out in Tallihat, Purura and Phulwari-Gunth villages of district
Bageshwar. Improved varieties of all the selected crops performed better than
the local ones. Under transplanted conditions highest rice grain yield was
obtained with Pant Dhan 10 followed by Vivek Dhan 62 and Vivek Dhan 82 providing
50, 26 and 17 percent more yield, respectively over local (4250 kg/ha). Improved
varieties VL Mandua 149 and VL Mandua 146 recorded about 38 percent higher grain
yield over local variety (1600 kg/ha). Recently introduced pigeonpea line UPAS
120 gave highest grain yield (2190 kg/ha) followed by Manak (2070 kg/ha) and
ICPL 840 31 (1960 kg/ha). Wheat varieties VL Gehun 829 and VL Gehun 616 gave 40
and 33 per cent more grain yield, respectively than local (3029 kg/ha). Improved
varieties VL Masoor 103 and VL Masoor 4 gave 53 and 46 per cent higher grain
yield over local variety (720 kg/ha). Seed
drill sowing of spring and Jun. seeded rice by double line seed drill (CRRI,
Cuttack make) was found very useful. In irrigated wheat, spraying of Isoproturon
@ 1.0 kg a.i./ha at 30-35 DAS proved more effective in controlling Ranunculus
and other weeds providing 42 percent more grain yield over manual weeding (2860
kg/ha). Dual purpose wheat
varieties VL Gehun 616 and VL Gehun 829 gave 8250 and 7917 kg/ha green fodder,
respectively, with one cut at 70-80 DAS and was found helpful in reducing acute
shortfall of green fodder during winter months.
5. All India Coordinated Research Projects
Under the studies on Use of Plastics in Agriculture, Environmental Controls and Agricultural Processing, economic analysis of three structurally different types of polyhouses were carried out, which showed that the average annual cost was minimum (Rs.540.00) for bamboo made naturally ventilated polyhouse. Constraint analysis on application of plastic in agriculture in North Western Himalayan region of Uttaranchal State indicated that the material availability, skilled labour and technical know-how were the major problems. The cost of construction of LDPE film lined tank (2.8 m3) study showed that stone pitched, khas-khas and tar-felt pitched LDPE film lined tank gave net storage capacity of 1.69, 1.82 and 2.18 m3, respectively with a total cost of Rs.751/-, Rs.689/- and Rs.516/-, respectively.
A brief survey on
area and production status of vegetable and fruits was conducted under AICRP on
Post Harvest Technology and indicated 30-37% losses in vegetables and 20% in
apple at different stages of marketing. Mother dairy was found as a major
marketing agency and on an average transporting 2000 to 2500 medium truckload of
fruits and vegetables to Delhi market per annum. Plastic crates of 10 and 20 kg
are used for transportation of fruits and vegetables.
Improvement and modifications based on extensive field-testing, were
undertaken to increase operational efficiencies of Vivek Thresher 1 for
threshing and pearling of mandua and madira.
During the year a lightweight, two row seed cum fertilizer drill was
designed and developed which was found suitable hill farming situation. The
modification and improvement work in Modular Power Tiller supplied by CIMMYT
Delhi was carried out and modifications were incorporated to make it suitable
for hills. The demonstration on use of improve farm machinery and technologies
(Mini Dal Mil, IIPR Design and CIAE Cleaner/Grader) were given to 2000 farmers
of 35 villages around Daulaghat, Kakrighat, Tadikhet and Someshwar areas.