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Kerala Agricultural University, Thrissur

The history of agricultural education in Kerala can be traced back to the year 1896 when a scheme was evolved in the erstwhile Travancore State to train a few young men in scientific agriculture at the Demonstration Farm, Karamana, Thiruvananthapuram, presently, the Cropping Systems Research Centre under Kerala Agricultural University. Agriculture was introduced as an optional subject in the middle school classes in the State in 1922 when an Agricultural Middle School was started at Aluva, Ernakulam District. The popularity and usefulness of this school led to the starting of similar institutions at Kottarakkara and Konni in 1928 and 1931 respectively. Agriculture was later introduced as an optional subject for Intermediate Course in 1953. In 1955, the erstwhile Government of Travancore-Cochin started the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at Mannuthy, Thrissur for imparting higher education in agricultural and veterinary sciences, respectively. These institutions were brought under the direct administrative control of the Department of Agriculture and the Department of Animal Husbandry, respectively. With the formation of Kerala State in 1956, these two colleges were affiliated to the University of Kerala. The post-graduate programmes leading to M.Sc. (Ag), M.V.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees were started in 1961, 1962 and 1965 respectively. On the recommendation of the Second National Education Commission (1964-66) headed by Dr. D.S. Kothari, the then Chairman of the University Grants Commission, one Agricultural University in each State was established. The State Agricultural Universities (SAUs) were established in India as an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System to give the much needed impetus to Agriculture Education and Research in the Country. As a result the Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) was established on 24th February 1971 by virtue of the Act 33 of 1971 and started functioning on 1st February 1972. The Kerala Agricultural University is the 15th in the series of the SAUs. In accordance with the provisions of KAU Act of 1971, the Agricultural College and Research Institute at Vellayani, and the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Mannuthy, were brought under the Kerala Agricultural University. In addition, twenty one agricultural and animal husbandry research stations were also transferred to the KAU for taking up research and extension programmes on various crops, animals, birds, etc. During 2011, Kerala Agricultural University was trifurcated into Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University (KVASU), Kerala University of Fisheries and Ocean Studies (KUFOS) and Kerala Agricultural University (KAU). Now the University has seven colleges (four Agriculture, one Agricultural Engineering, one Forestry, one Co-operation Banking & Management), six RARSs, seven KVKs, 15 Research Stations and 16 Research and Extension Units under the faculties of Agriculture, Agricultural Engineering and Forestry. In addition, one Academy on Climate Change Adaptation and one Institute of Agricultural Technology offering M.Sc. (Integrated) Climate Change Adaptation and Diploma in Agricultural Sciences respectively are also functioning in Kerala Agricultural University.

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Subject: Agriculture × Author: KAU × End date: 2004 × Start date: 2004 ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Cultural management of bacterial wilt in tomato hybrids
    (Department of Olericulture, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2004) Shino Shakthi; KAU; Abdulvahab
    The present investigation on Cultural Management of bacterial wilt in hybrid tomatoes was conducted at the Instructional Farm, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Thiruvananthapuram during November 2003 to April 2004. Three tomato hybrids were raised in a split plot design with three replications. Seven cultural practices and three hybrids susceptible to bacterial wilt along with a control plot with no treatments were carried out to find suitable cultural management practices for control of bacterial wilt in tomato hybrids. Majority of the yield and yield attributes were significantly influenced by the different treatments, hybrids and their interaction affects. Among the treatments, application of Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate P-I showed the highest yield per plant and highest yield per plot. This treatments also gave the highest plant survival and lowest incidence of bacterial wilt as well as low population count of Ralstonia solanacearum in soil. Application of lime as basal also showed result comparable to that of Pseudomonas fluorescens isolate P-I application. Among the hybrids highest yield per plant and yield per plot was shown by COTH-1. This hybrid also showed highest percentage of plant survival and lowest incidence of bacterial wilt. The worse performing hybrid was Naveen showing poor yield, plant survival, high incidence of bacterial wilt and lowest yield. Fruits per plant, yield per plant and yield per plot showed considerable variation among the treatment combination. The interaction between P. fluorescens isolate P-I and hybrid COTH-1 showed the highest fruits per plant. This treatment combination also showed the highest yield per plant and also per plot yield. The highest plant survival and lowest bacterial wilt incidence was shown by the treatment combination T6V¬3. Their performance was more or less on par with other treatment combination like T1V¬3, T3V¬3 and T7V¬3. The population density of bacteria in the experimental plot also showed a low value for the above mentioned treatment combinations. In the present study the highest yield/plot was recorded for treatment combination T6V¬3 with a high benefit : cost ratio of 3.33 followed by T7V¬3 with a benefit : cost ratio of 2.70.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Chartacterization of landraces of ashgourd (Benincasa hispida (Tunb.) Cogn.)
    (Department of Olericulture, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 2004) Reshmi, J; KAU; Sreelathakumary, I
    The research project "Characterization of landraces of ashgourd [Bcnincasa h ispida (Thunb.) Co gn.]" was carried out at the Department of Olericulture and the Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani during 2003-2004. The objective of the study was to catalogue the landraces based on the IBPGR descriptor for cucurbits, to estimate the genetic parameters for different traits in the germplasm for identifying superior lines based on yield, quality, pest and disease resistance and to characterize the landraces using molecular techniques (RAPD analysis). Twenty five landraces of Benincasa hispida collected from various sources upon cataloguing pointed out wide variation for several morphological characters. Analysis of variance revealed significant differences among the landraces for all the characters studied namely. vine length, internodal length, number of primary branches, number of secondary branches, root shoot length ratio, days to first male flower, node to first male flower, days to first female flower, node to first female flower, sex ratio, days to first fruit harvest, fruit length, fruit girth, fruits per plant, average fruit weight, yield per plant. seeds per fruit, 1000-seed weight and mosaic incidence. Among the landraces, BH 15 (Neyattinkara, Thiruvananthapuram) recorded the maximum yield (21.20 kg), average fruit weight (9.50 kg), fruit girth (78.05 cm) and 1000-seed weight (96.95 g). Among the landraces, maximum fruit length was observed for BH 25 (56.00 cm). BH 22 was the longest in vine length (875.00 cm) and had the highest number of primary and secondary branches (4.00 and 23.00 respectively). BH 24 (7.20 cm) was shortest in internodal length, which was also characterized by maximum fruits per plant (9.12). BH 8 was the earliest to flower (46.25 days) and harvest (88.00 days). BH 10 had the least vulnerability index for mosaic (27.50). High phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation were observed for seeds per fruit, average fruit weight, yield per plant and fruits per plant. High heritability coupled with high genetic advance was observed for average fruit weight, yield per plant, fruits per plant, fruit girth and fruit length. Correlation studies and path coefficient analysis revealed that fruit length and average fruit weight are the primary yield components as evidenced from its high positive correlation as well as direct and indirect effects on yield. In the discriminant function analysis, the landrace BH 15 (Neyattinkara. Thiruvananthapuram) ranked first, followed by BH 23 (KAU local, KAU) and BH 5 (CO-I, TNAU). They were found to be promising based on their superiority in yield, fruit quality, earliness in male and female flowering, narrow sex ratio and mosaic resistance and hence they may be utilized for further crop improvement. Based on the analysis for genetic divergence, the 25 landraces of B. hispida were grouped into seven clusters, with the highest intercluster distance observed between clusters V and VII. DNA isolated from the 25 landraces of B. hispida were subjected to RAPD analysis. Out of the 40 decamer primers, twenty nine yielded amplification products. A total of 83 RAPDs (average 2.08 bands per primer) were generated by the 29 primers, of which 92.77 per cent were polymorphic (77 bands) and six were monomorphic. Out of five primers showing high level of polymorphism, three prormsing primers viz .. OPA-O 1, OPA-07 and OPA-I3 were selected. The primer OPA-07 was unique as it could distinguish maximum polymorphism among the landraces tested while OPA-I3 produced maximum number of scorable bands. The selected three primers yielded 20 scorable bands (average of 6.66 bands per primer) of which 2 were monomorphic and rest, 18 were polymorphic (90.0 %). The overall Jaccard's similarity coefficients ranged from 0.14 to 1.00. Cluster analysis revealed that at about 0.35 similarity coefficient, the twenty five landraces of B. hispida grouped into two clusters. Landraces with morphologically distinct smooth and waxy textured fruits grouped into two major clusters. Considering the waxy textured group, it formed a more divergent cluster than smooth textured group. With in the group of waxy textured fruits, limited variation was detected among landraces with small and medium sized fruits. Further, morphologically similar landraces with large fruits form distinct clusters with in the major clusters. By characterizing all the twenty five landraces of Benincasa hispida using morphological (selection index and D2 analysis) and molecular (RAPD marker analysis) methods revealed that morphologically distinct and superior lines were genetically differentiable. Also the RAPD analysis gave a perfect differentiation of waxy textured group from smooth textured group, which is in line with morphological characterization.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Genetic variability analysis in Indian indigo(indigoferatinctoria L.)
    (Department of Plantation Crops and Spices, College of Agriculture,Vellayani, 2004) Neema, M; KAU; Reghunath, B R
    The study entitled ‘Genetic variability analysis in Indian indigo (Indigofera tinctoria L.) using Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique’ was carried out during 2003-2004 at Department of Plantation Crops and Spices and at the biotechnology lab of the Department of Plant Biotechnology, College of Agriculture, Vellayani. Indigofera tinctoria is a valuable medicinal plant, which is also utilized as a natural source of the blue dye, ‘indigo’. Twenty accessions of Indigofera tinctoria collected from different parts of Kerala state were assessed for morphological and molecular variability. The significant difference among the genotypes for different traits such as plant height, plant spread, height at first branching, number of branches, girth of stem, length and breadth of leaves, number of leaves, leaf area, root length, root girth at collar region, fresh and dry weight of leaves, shoots, pods, seeds, number of root nodules, number of effective root nodules, root fresh weight together with fresh and dry weight of root nodules and shell weight revealed considerable amount of genetic variability. The highest phenotypic and genotypic coefficient of variation was recorded for number of effective root nodule followed by pod yield and shoot yield. Correlation studies revealed that at both phenotypic and genotypic levels the characters such as number of branches per plant, number of leaves per plant and leaf area were positively correlated with leaf yield, shoot yield, root yield and pod yield. Root length had high positive correlation with root yield. Selection index was worked out and it was found that the accession IT 13 was found to be superior, followed by the accessions IT 11 and IT 9. All the twenty accessions of Indigofera tinctoria from different parts of Kerala state were used for RAPD profiling. Random Amplified DNA (RAPD) profiling of all accessions was done using polymerase chain reaction using OPA and OPB primer kits (each primer kit contain different primer sequences). After initial screening, the primers OPA 10, OPB 3, OPB 5 and OPB10 were selected for further analysis. The selection was based on the reproducibility of the bands, level of polymorphism, number and intensity of bands produced. These four primers produced a total of 26 RAPDs (average 6.5 bands per primer) of which 17 were polymorphic (65.38 %) and 7 were monomorphic (34.62 %). Similarity and variation among these accessions were observed by cluster analysis with the help of dendrogram. A similarity matrix was constructed and the similarity coefficients ranged from 0.46 to 1.0. The molecular variability analysis of twenty accessions of Indigofera tinctoria revealed that the accession IT 13 was found to be distinct from all the other accessions with respect to the polymorphic banding pattern. The study, thus indicated morphologically distinct, superior lines were also genetically differentiable.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Performance of mint (Mentha Spp.) under the humid tropical conditions of Kerala
    (Department of Plantation Crops and Spices, College of Agriculture,Vellayani, 2004) Palani Kumar, M; KAU; Jessy Kutty, P C
    A field experiment was conducted at College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the year 2003-2004 to study the ‘Performance of mint (Mentha spp.) under humid tropical conditions of Kerala’. The experiment was laid out in randomised block design with three shade levels (open, 25 and 50 per cent) as treatments and three replications. Artificial shade was provided using high density polyethylene shade nets. Observations of various growth characters were taken at two months intervals. PAR, stomatal conductance and chlorophyll contents were measured 4 MAP. Fresh herbage yield, dry herbage yield and oil content were measured at the time of harvesting. Under open, 25 per cent and 50 per cent shade condition M. piperita (S2) recorded the highest plant height, internodal length, number of branches, stomatal conductance, LAI, fresh herbage yield and dry herbage yield. This shows that the species is well adapted to open, 25 and 50 per cent shade condition. No significant difference in the total herbage and dry herbage yield was noticed in the fifteen accessions evaluated, irrespective of the shade condition under which they were grown. This indicates that shade has significant influence on the growth and yield of mint accessions. When the herbage yield of the three species under different shade levels is compared, it can be summarized that all species produced the highest herbage yield under 25 per cent shade condition followed by open condition. The lowest yield was noticed under 50 per cent shade condition in all species. Thus it can be concluded that among the three shade levels, 25 per cent shade was found to be ideal for all species evaluated followed by open condition and 50 per cent shade was found to be the least favourable for all species. From this it can be deduced that mild shade (25 %) condition is ideal for producing better yield followed by open condition, partial shade (50 %) is not ideal for getting higher yield in different mint species. With regard to the performance of different accessions, pepper mint accessions like S2A4, S2A3 and S2A2 recorded the highest fresh herbage yield, dry herbage yield and benefit cost ratio (BCR) under mild shade (25 %) condition. So these three accessions were found to be promising under Kerala condition.