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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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  • ThesisItemOpen Access
    FACTORS AFFECTING RICE-TORIA DOUBLE CROPPING IN UPPER BRAHMAPUTRA VALLEY ZONE OF ASSAM – AN ANALYSIS THROUGH AGRICULTURAL KNOWLEDGE INFORMATION SYSTEM
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2018-01) Saikia, Shyamolima; Barman, U.
    The Northeast region of India including Assam is considered as original home of the world’s hottest chilli, Bhut Jolokia (Capsicum chinense). In recent years several varietal types of Bhut Jolokia exhibiting considerable variation in plant, fruit and pungency traits has been observed in the farmers’ field. Therefore, an attempt was made to characterise a few accessions of Bhut Jolokia at morphological, biochemical and DNA level to elucidate the extent and nature of genetic variation. Expression profile of few pungency related genes in Bhut Jolokia was also attempted to detect their possible allelic variation in the Bhut Jolokia accessions. A set of 20 Bhut Jolokia (C. chinense) accessions, three Capsicum annum accessions (Krishna Jolokia, bell pepper and Cherry type) and one C. frutescens accession (Mem Jolokia) were analysed using 35 morphological and biochemical characters. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) for quantitative characters revealed considerable genetic variation among the genotypes. Variability and path analysis identified fruits/ plant, fresh fruit weight and photosynthetic rate as important parameters for improvement. Principal component analysis (PCA) isolated eight principal components each comprising of several characters and accounting for 78.36% of the total variability among the accessions. Several seedling, fruit and physiological characters contributed towards total variability of the population. The PCA plots failed to distinguish Bhut Jolokia accessions into distinct clusters despite sufficient diversity among them. Sixteen characters were identified based on their contribution to PCA, as minimum morphological descriptors for preliminary characterization of Bhut Jolokia genotypes. Population structure analysis separated the accessions into Bhut Jolokia and non Bhut Jolokia populations. Majority of the genotypes had > 80% membership coefficients for each specific group. Only Acc-21 (Cherry type) showed genomic admixture indicating gene flow between Bhut Jolokia and non Bhut Jolokia populations. The genetic diversity studies conducted with the use of 51 SSR markers and 40 gene specific markers exhibited a low inbreeding coefficient (FIS=0.147), thereby indicating high heterozygosity among the genotypes. The overall FST value of 0.432 indicated large genetic differentiation between the populations. AMOVA performed between all lines grouped according to structure indicated 43% variation between populations, 20% variation among individuals within populations and 37% variation was due to variation within individuals. Gene expression analysis of 6 genes of the capsaicinoid biosynthetic pathway exhibited that the Capsaicinoid pathway genes studied showed significantly higher expression in Bhut Jolokia (C. chinense) genotypes while very low expression levels were observed in Bell pepper genotype (low-pungent). Amongst these candidate genes, AMT, Pun1, PAL from Phenylpropanoid pathway and BCAT, KAS and ACL from Fatty acid biosynthetic pathway were found to be up-regulated in pungent genotypes especially in the breaker stage (25-35 DAF) of the fruit development. The variations in the pungency level were found to be associated with changes in the expression level of the genes of the biosynthetic pathway.