Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat

Assam Agricultural University is the first institution of its kind in the whole of North-Eastern Region of India. The main goal of this institution is to produce globally competitive human resources in farm sectorand to carry out research in both conventional and frontier areas for production optimization as well as to disseminate the generated technologies as public good for benefitting the food growers/produces and traders involved in the sector while emphasizing on sustainability, equity and overall food security at household level. Genesis of AAU - The embryo of the agricultural research in the state of Assam was formed as early as 1897 with the establishment of the Upper Shillong Experimental Farm (now in Meghalaya) just after about a decade of creation of the agricultural department in 1882. However, the seeds of agricultural research in today’s Assam were sown in the dawn of the twentieth century with the establishment of two Rice Experimental Stations, one at Karimganj in Barak valley in 1913 and the other at Titabor in Brahmaputra valley in 1923. Subsequent to these research stations, a number of research stations were established to conduct research on important crops, more specifically, jute, pulses, oilseeds etc. The Assam Agricultural University was established on April 1, 1969 under The Assam Agricultural University Act, 1968’ with the mandate of imparting farm education, conduct research in agriculture and allied sciences and to effectively disseminate technologies so generated. Before establishment of the University, there were altogether 17 research schemes/projects in the state under the Department of Agriculture. By July 1973, all the research projects and 10 experimental farms were transferred by the Government of Assam to the AAU which already inherited the College of Agriculture and its farm at Barbheta, Jorhat and College of Veterinary Sciences at Khanapara, Guwahati. Subsequently, College of Community Science at Jorhat (1969), College of Fisheries at Raha (1988), Biswanath College of Agriculture at Biswanath Chariali (1988) and Lakhimpur College of Veterinary Science at Joyhing, North Lakhimpur (1988) were established. Presently, the University has three more colleges under its jurisdiction, viz., Sarat Chandra Singha College of Agriculture, Chapar, College of Horticulture, Nalbari & College of Sericulture, Titabar. Similarly, few more regional research stations at Shillongani, Diphu, Gossaigaon, Lakhimpur; and commodity research stations at Kahikuchi, Buralikson, Tinsukia, Kharua, Burnihat and Mandira were added to generate location and crop specific agricultural production packages.

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Bio-ethanol production from sweet Sorghum varieties under different Establishment methods
(2022) Rao, Guntamukkala Babu; Goswami, Jogesh
Sweet sorghum (Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench) is a biofuel crop which can be grown year round without sacrificing food and fodder security. A field experiment entitled “Bio-ethanol production from sweet sorghum varieties under different establishment methods” was conducted at the Instructional-cum-Research Farm of Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during two consecutive rabi seasons of 2018-19 and 2019-2020 with a view to evaluate the performance of different sweet sorghum varieties under different methods of establishments for ethanol production . The treatments consisted of four levels of sweet sorghum varieties viz., V1 - SSV 84, V2 - ICSV 93046, V3 - Madhura and V4 - CSH 22SS and three levels of establishment methods viz., M1- Direct sowing, M2 - Transplanting, M3 – System of Sorghum Intensification (SSI), laid out in a factorial randomised block design and were replicated thrice. The soil of the experimental site was sandy loam in texture, acidic in reaction (pH 5.25), medium in organic carbon (0.65%), available N (228.14 kg/ha), available P2O5 (21.20 kg/ha) and available K2O (125.75 kg/ha). The results from two year trial indicated that out of four sweet sorghum varieties evaluated, sweet sorghum variety CSH 22SS outperformed well in terms of growth attributes (plant height, no. of leaves plant-1, stem weight, stem girth, millable cane yield, total biomass) during both the years of experimentation. In case of ethanol attributes viz. brix, sucrose, reducing and total sugars were significantly higher in CSH 22SS for both the year 2018-19 and 2019-20, respectively. The CSH 22SS has also shown its superiority in achieving higher yield attributing parameters such as length and weight of earhead. The CSH 22SS had resulted significantly highest grain yield of 1.97 t ha-1 and stover yield of 4.48 t ha-1 when pooled for two years. Pooled analysis of juice yield (9262.66 l ha-1) and ethanol yield (646.89 l ha-1) were found to be significantly affected by the CSH 22SS. In case of nutrient content and uptake by grain and stover of sweet sorghum, highest values were recorded in CSH 22SS for both the years. Different establishment methods brought about significant differences in growth parameters, ethanol attributing parameters, yield attributing characters, yield, N, P and K uptake in sweet sorghum. The highest values in all such aspects as well total return and B: C ratio was recorded in SSI followed by transplanting method. Among the methods of establishment, the SSI resulted in significantly higher growth characters, ethanol attributes, yield attributing characters. The SSI recorded the highest pooled juice yield, ethanol yield, grain yield and straw yield of 8698.16 l ha-1, 614.50 l ha-1, 2.04 t ha-1 and 4.48 t ha-1 of sweet sorghum respectively. Also NPK uptake by grain and stover were significantly higher in SSI for both the years. In terms of economics, maximum mean gross return of Rs. 111088.50 ha-1, net return of Rs. 77482.53 ha-1 and B:C ratio of 3.29 was recorded in the CSH 22SS among the different variety treatments. The SSI method of establishment recorded maximum mean gross return of Rs. 112045.40 ha-1, net return of Rs. 77705.36 ha-1 and B:C ratio of 3.26 in sweet sorghum. The interaction effect of sweet sorghum varieties and methods of establishment were found to be significant in case of pooled juice yield (10879.33 l ha- 1) and ethanol yield (784.11 l ha-1) by V4M3 i.e. CSH 22SS in combination with SSI method of establishment. The economic returns viz. the maximum mean gross returns (Rs. 121611.40 ha-1), net returns (87221.37 ha-1) and B:C ratio (3.53) were also recorded in the V4M3. It could be concluded that for obtaining the highest millable cane yield and ethanol yield and thereby maximum economic returns, sweet sorghum hybrid, viz. CSH 22SS should be grown using SSI as the method of establishment.