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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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Subject: Horticulture × Author: Baruah, Sudeshna × End date: 2018 × Start date: 2018 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: Ph.D ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    GENETIC DIVERSITY IN BANANA (Musa spp.) GERMPLASM OF ASSAM
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2018) Baruah, Sudeshna; Kotoky, U.
    An experiment was conducted at the Experimental Farm, Department of Horticulture, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat to evaluate the huge diversity among the banana germplasm commonly available in the state of Assam. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Block Design with five replications the evaluation was done based on agro-biochemical parameters as well as the genetic diversity present within the genotypes using SSR markers. Based on growth, yield and fruit biochemical characters, the genotypes were clustered with respect to Euclidean distance and also by Trocher’s method. These clusters showed significant differences as compared to the genomic classification of banana. The genotypes were found to show significant diversity based on all the characters and considering all the variations, there were four major clusters found within the 24 genotypes under this investigation. The diploid balbisiana genotypes (Bhimkal and Athiakal) were found to occur in two different solitary clusters, whereas both the culinary genotypes (Kachkal green and white types) consisted a single cluster. The characters like pseudostem height, leaf area, planting to shooting interval, shooting to harvesting interval, crop duration, number of fingers per bunch, fruit weight, fruit volume, number of seeds, pulp: peel ratio, sugar content were found to show high GCV, PCV added with very high heritability and high genetic advance and therefore, these characters were identified to be subjected to improvement by direct selection. After the molecular study using 52 primers, a total of 32 primers were found to produce reproducible bands and 197 alleles were detected by them, of which 170 were polymorphic bands. Percent polymorphism thus obtained was 84.95%. The average polymorphism information content of the primers was 0.437, which was the highest for primer 41(0.913). In the study, a few molecular identities for different genotypes could be identified. A single band sized 400bp, specific to ‘Digjowa’ genotype was found with the SSR27. For both the red bananas considered in the study (Agnisagar and Gobin Tulsi), another specific band sized 250bp was identified with SSR22. The Jaccard’s similarity index was calculated using the molecular marker data and the average similarity index was found to be 0.552, which suggested sufficient diversity present within the genotypes. The maximum similarity based on this was found between ‘Manjahaji, and ‘Barjahaji’. Based on this similarity index, another clustering was done which found two major clusters within the 24 genotypes. In cluster 1, there were two subclusters and in cluster 2, there were three sub-clusters followed by a single genotype (‘Fesa Manohar’). This study had revealed that even among the genotypes belonging to same genomic group, there is sufficient differences based on agro-biochemical parameters and genetic information they carry. Moreover, from this study, the promising genotypes for different characters could be identified on the basis of growth, yield and fruit biochemical characters. Further, on the basis of the present study, efforts can be made for inclusion of more number of primers for even better characterization of the genotypic variability, detailed study for pest and disease resistance and more specifically by including gene specific primers.