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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: Sericulture × Author: PEGU, KARPUNPULI × End date: 2019 × Start date: 2018 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE AND CULTURAL PRACTICES IN MUGA SILK PRODUCTION IN NORTH LAKHIMPUR DISTRICT OF ASSAM
    (AAU, Jorhat, 2018) PEGU, KARPUNPULI; Dutta, L. C.
    Sericulture, or silk farming, is the rearing of silkworms for the production of raw silk. It is an agro based labour intensive industry providing gainful employment mostly for rural people. Sericulture includes cultivation of 4 varieties of silkworm mainly mulberry, eri, muga and tasar. The golden silk muga is the gift of nature to the state and it is the pride of Assam. Muga rearers of Assam have been practicing this culture with traditional indigenous practices. Traditional knowledge is generated by the local people with their own experience and experimentation to meet their needs and these are sustainable in nature. Considering this, the present study was conducted to identify and document various Indigenous Traditional Knowledge in muga silk production, to study the extent of use of Indigenous Traditional Knowledge in relation to the socio-economic profile of the respondents and to find out the problems perceived by the muga rearers in North Lakhimpur district of Assam. A random sampling design was followed to obtain a sample size of 120 respondents. Ten independent and one dependent variable was selected for the study. The statistical techniques used for the analysis of data were frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, spearman’s correlation co-efficient and weighted mean score (WMS). The findings revealed that 50 per cent of the muga rearers belonged to age group of 36-50 yrs and 55.80 per cent had their education up to middle school. Moreover, 41.70 per cent of the rearers belonged to Other Backward Class, 52.50 per cent of the respondent had medium family size, 40 per cent of the members had income ranging from Rs.75001-100000 and 40 per cent of the members have small size land holding, whereas 68.40 per cent, 70.83 per cent and 58.40 per cent of the respondents had medium level of extension contact, risk bearing ability and decision making ability and on the other hand 40.80 per cent of the respondents have received training exposure. The study further revealed that 64.17 per cent of the respondent had medium level of extent of use of ITK in the district. It was affirmed from the findings that age, family size and size of operational land holding were found to be positive and significant whereas education, extension contact and training exposure were negative and significantly correlated with the extent of use of ITK. On the other hand caste, annual family income, risk bearing ability and decision making ability were found to be positive and non significant with the extent of use of ITK. Major problems reported by muga rearers included lack of capital, glamour, people are not interested to lease their land for muga rearing, impact of environmental pollution, lack of availability of machinery, inadequate marketing facilities, unaffordable cost of hiring vehicles and lack of need based training.