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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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1986 - 19888
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Subject: Agriculture × End date: 1988 × Start date: 1986 × Type: Thesis ×
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Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Genomic relationship in vigna species
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1986) Neema, V P; KAU; Narayanan Namboodiri, K M
    Investigations on the genomic relationship in Vigna species were undertaken in the Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Horticulture during 1983-1985. Pure seeds of the two subspecies of Vigna unguiculata, viz. unguiculata and sesguipedalis were sown and crop raised. Direct and reciprocal crosses were made. Morphological and cytological investigations were done. It was found that the two subspecies easily crossable. In both the subspecies there was high prefertilisation shed. The chromosome number of subsp. unguiculata was 2n=22, of subsp. sesguipedalis 2n=24 and of F1 hybrid was 2n= 23. Both the parents and hybrid showed cells with laggards. Length of meiotic and somatic metaphase chromosomes was more in subsp. sesguipedalis, lowest in subsp. unguiculata and intermediate in their F1 hybrid. Both the subspecies and their hybrid had almost similar TF % which gave an indication of similarity in their karyotypes. Pollen fertility was more in subsp. sesguipedalis. Reciprocal difference was seen in the case of morphological characters like height of the plant, number of primary branches, internodal length, seeds per pod, seed colour and seed volume. However, these differences were not seen traceable in the cytology of the hybrid.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Variability studies on certain T X CDO F, hybrids of coconut (Cocos nucifera L)
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1987) Sreelatha, P C; KAU; Kumaran, K
    Investigations conducted on variability in 14 F1 parental combinations of T X CDO coconut hybrids at the KADP farm attached to the College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara revealed no significant difference between pollen parents in their contribution to the progenies in any of the 17 characters studied, unlike the female parents. The number of spadices was found to be highly correlated with the number of buttons set followed by the number of functional leaves and number of female flowers produced. The fourteen parental combinations were grouped into three clusters using Mahalanobis’ D2 analysis. Clusters I and II were the most divergent ones. Production of spadices and female flowers were found to be high during March, April and May and absent during October, November and December. Heavy rain during active female phase was found to affect setting of button adversely. Fertility and viability of pollen were found to be very high except during April and May due to high temperature.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Relative biological effectiveness of gamma rays and ethyl methane sulphonate on cardamom varieties
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1987) Benney Joseph; KAU; Kamalam, N
    The direct effect of 60 Co-gamma rays and ethylmethane sulphonate (EMS) on three varieities of cardomom namely Malabar, Mysore and Vazhukka was studied during the course of present investigation. The experiment was carried out at the Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Agriculture , Vellayani during the year1985-1986. Dry seeds were exposed to gamma rays at dose levels ranging from 10-70 kR at 10 kR interval and the pre-soaked seeds for 16 hours were treated with EMS concentrations ranging from 0.25 % to 1.75% at an interval of 0.25%. Soaked seeds were also exposed to gamma rays with 10 and 20 kR. The experiment was laid out in RBD with two replications. Direct effect of the mutagens was assessed by analysing the effect of various growth metrices like number of days taken to start germination , number of days taken to complete germination from the date of sowing and also from the date of first sprout, rate of germination , germination percentage, survival percentage, growth rate based on plant height , leaf number, leaf area and tiller number , frequency of chlorophyll deficient plants and cytological effects. The data collected were analysed statistically . Since sufficient population was not available at higher doses of both the mutagens they were not considered for growth metric analysis.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Intra and inter varietal variability analyses in cardamom (Elettarla cardamomum Maton)
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1987) Gopal Radhakrishnan; KAU; Chandramony, D
    The present investigation was conducted at the Cardamon Research Station, Pampadumpara to obtain Information on the magnitude of genetic variability In the population and the extent to which the desirable characters are heritable. Four popular cultivars viz. Malabar, Mysore, Vazhukka and PV-1 of two age groups three and six year old planted at the above station were used for the study. Observations were made on height of tillers, number of productive tiliers/plant, number of leaves/tiller, number of panicles/plant, number of capsules/panicle, fresh weight of capsules/plant, dry weight of capsules/plant, hundred capsule weight, capsule volume, number of seeds/capsule, length of panicle, number of nodes/ panicle and Internodal length In the panicle. The data collected was subjected to studies on genetic variability, estimation of genetic parameters, correlation and path coefficient analysis. Variability analysis revealed that significant differences exsisted among the varieties for eight of the thirteen morphological characters studied. They were number of productive tillers/plant, height of tillers, number of panicles/plant,internodal length in the panicle, number of capsules/panicle, capsule volume, fresh and dry weight of capsules/plant. The variability within the varieties was not significant.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    In vitro techniques In relation to induced nutations in groundnut
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1987) Arya, K; Krishnan Nair, N
    The present investigation entitled In vitro techniques In relation to induced mutations in Groundnut was carried out in the Department of Agricultural Botany College of Agriculture, Vellayani, during 1984-86.All the works related to tissue culture analysis was done at the Plant Tissue Culture Laboratory, attached to Tropical Botanic Gardens and Research Institute, Kumarapuram, Trivandrum. The main objective of the experiment was to standardise the best embryo culture technique in groundnut to standardise a successful mutation breeding programme by using the most potent chemical mutagen, etbylmethane sulphonate. The project has also envisaged to standardise the techniques to assess the correct stage of embryo treatment with the mutagen and to standardise the best mode of treatment of the mutagen solution to the embryoids and embryos.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Gamma ray induced polygenic variability in Bhindi
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1986) Ahmed, Regina; KAU; Krishnan, Nair N
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Genetic studies in red gram (Cajanus cajan L.)
    (1988) Radhakrishnan, V V
    The research project “Genetic studies in red gram (Csjsnus csjsn h. Mill sp.)* wae carried out at the College of Horticulture, Kerala Agricultural University, Vellanikkara, Trichur during the period 1983-86. The genetic diversity studies among the 112 genotypes of red grans obtained from NBPGR, Vellanikkera and THAU, Coimbatore during 1963-84 showed that the genotypes of the same place of origin fell into different clusters while those of diversified origin fell into seme cluster. All the genotypes studied were grouped into five clusters. Based on both the inter and intr©cluster distances 20 genotypes representing the broad spectrum of variability were selected and raised during 1965-86. The values estimated for phenotypic coefficient of variation and genotypic coefficient of variation showed that number of clusters per plant, number of pods per plant and seed yield possessed high estimates. Number of days from sowing to 50 per cent flowering and seed yield have exhibited high heritabllity coupled with moderately high genetic gain estimate* indicating the involvement of additive gene effect* Ku:ber of days from sowing to harvest and height of plant at harvest, have high or moderately high estimates of heritability together with low values of genetic gain indicating the action of non-additive genes. In nine out of ten cases there has been significant positive correlation between component characters and seed yield both in the phenotypic and genotypic levels, however the correlation of hundred seed weight with seed yield was not significant both at phenotypic and genotypic levels* Intercorrelaticna studies have shown that characters exhibiting significant association with seed yield per plant were also highly intercorrelated indicating that these characters can be simultaneously improved. Path coefficient analysis showed that number of poda par plant, hundred seed weight, number of primary branches at harvest, number of secondary branches at harvest and length of pod bearing branches had high positive direct effects on seed yield in th at order* The residual effect wea 0*07227 indicating that about 93 per cent of the variation in yield were contributed by the ten components considered in path coefficient analysis. The selection index formulated with characters like seed yield, number of pods per plant and hundred seed weight showed an efficiency of 8.4 per cent over direct selection and it includes 57 per cent of the factors determining the yield. Hence it is suggested for isolating superior genotypes. A comparison of different genotypes based on the index value has revealed the superiority of the genotypes NSPGR-XX-EC—10046-1 and HBPGR-124-PLA-345-1 over others. The study paved the way for understanding the source of variability for various factors contributing to yield, the degree of diversity among the genotypes, on the association between yield and its components and between themselves, and helped to formulate selection index for selecting superior genotypes.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Biological effects of gamma rays and EMS in the M1 generation of red gram(Cajanus cajan L.)
    (Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1986) Jayanthi, S; KAU; Narayanan Namboothiri, K M
    The studies reported herein were undertaken in the Department of Agricultural Botany, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara during the period 1983-'85. Seeds of SA_1 variety of red gram (Cajanus cajan L.) were subjected to induced mutagenesis using five doses of gamma rays (10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 krad) and five doses of EMS (0.3%, 0.4%, 0.5%, 0.6% and 0.7%) and their biological effects on the M1 generation were studied. In the preliminary laboratory test it was found that the two presoaking times viz., 2 hours an d4 hours did not differ significantly. Same was the case with the two durations of chemical treatments viz., 6 hours and 8 hours. The three concentrations of the chemical viz., 0.5%, 0.75% and 1% tried did differ significantly. The LD50 value was obtained as 0.7%. Lower doses of both gamma rays and EMS stimulated seed germination. No dose dependance on the percentage of germination was noticed in the case of gamma irradiation while in the case of EMS, germination percentage proportionately decreased with increasing concentrations of the chemical. Gamma ray treated seed took longer time for germination compared to those treated with EMS. Reduction was observed in the survival percentage of seedling with increase in doses of gamma rays and EMS. Root length, shoot length and plant height were reduced by gamma rays and EMS, the rate of reduction being directly proportional to the increase in dose. Pollen and seed fertilities decreased linearly with increase in doses of both gamma rays and EMS. Among the two mutagens, EMS was more effective in reducing pollen and seed fertilities. Chlorophyll chimeras, in very low frequencies were observed only in the EMS treated population. Morphological variations noticed included dwarf plants, plants with crinkled leaves, those with reduced canopy size, those with prolonged as well as reduced flowering duration, those with lesser number of flowers and fruits. These morphological variations were restricted to EMS treated populations.