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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: Agronomy × End date: 1978 × Start date: 1978 ×
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Now showing 1 - 7 of 7
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on the performance of two groundnut varieties, TMV-2 and TMV-9, under graded doses of phosphorus and potassium.
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1978) Purushothaman Nair, N; KAU; Sadanandan, N
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Intercropping tapioca (Manihot esculenta Crantz.) with pulses and groundnut
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1978) Ramakrishna Bhat, H; KAU; Sadanandan, N
    An experiment was conducted in the College of Agriculture, Vellayani during the year 1977-1978 to study the performance of tapioca intercropped with different legumes (Blackgram, cowpea, greengram and groundnut) applied with different fertilizer, half the recommended dose and full recommeded dose). The experiment was laid out in a randomised block design with three replications. The experiment was conducted under rainfed conditions. The results revealed that the growth as measured from height and number of leaves and yield of tapioca as adjudged by the various yield attributes was not depressed by growing the four legumes at the three levels of fertilizers. On the other hand the quality and size of tapioca tubers were improved due to legume intercropping. The dry matter content, starch content and the HCN content of tapioca tubers were increased significantly due to growing of legumes in association with tapioca.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on the effect of multiple cropping on soil fertility and crop yields in wet land
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1978) Sasidhar, V K; KAU; Sadanandan, N
    The problem entitled "Studies on the effect of multiple cropping on soil fertility and crop yields in wet land" was conducted at the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Trivandrum during the years 1974-76 to assess the effect of five cropping patterns, viz, rice-rice-sweet potato, rice-rice-cowpea, rice-rice-sesamum, rice-rice- groundnut and rice-rice-rice on the various physical and chemical properties of soil and yield of crops and finally to find out the most suitable and efficient cropping pattern. The study revealed that rice-rice-groundnut was the most efficient and suitable cropping pattern for the wet land. The maximum yield per hectare as well as per day was recorded by sweet potato and the minimum by sesamum. While the maximum annual yield was recorded by the cropping pattern rice-rice-sweet potato, the minimum was from the cropping pattern rice-rice-sesamum during both the years. The dry matter production per hectare per year from individual cropping patterns was maximum in rice-rice- sweet potato and minimum in rice-rice-cowpea during the first year and the corresponding rotations were rice-rice- groundnut and rice-rice-sesamum during the second year. The maximum economic returns were obtained from the cropping pattern rice-rice-groundnut during both the years. While the minimum economic returns were obtained from the cropping pattern rice-rice-cowpea during the first year it was from rice-rice-rice during the second year.. Soil fertility studies showed that cropping pattern rice-rice-sweet potato resulted in decrease in bulk density, pH and total nitrogen and increase in water stable aggregates, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, C : N ratio, extractable phosphorus, exchangeable potash, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable, magnesium, and exchangeable hydrogen. The cropping pattern rice-rice-cowpea resulted in decrease in bulk density, pH, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, c : 11 ratio, exchangeable calcium and exchangeable magnesium and increase in water stable aggregates, total nitrogen, extractable phosphorus, exchangeable potash and / exchangeable hydrogen. While there was decrease in bulk density, pH and total nitrogen there was increase in cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, G : N ratio, extractable phosphorus, exchangeable potash, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable magnesium and exchangeable hydrogen in the cropping pattern rice-rice-sesamum. The rice-rice-groundnut cropping pattern resulted in decrease in bulk density, pH,cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, G : W ratio and increase in,water stable aggregates, total nitrogen, extractable phosphorus, exchangeable potash, exchangeable calcium, exchangeable magnesium and exchangeable hydrogen. However, cropping pattern rice-rice-rice resulted in increase in bulk density, 0 * N ratio, exchangeable hydrogen and decrease in water stable aggregates, pH, cation exchange capacity, organic carbon, total nitrogen, extractable phosphorus, exchangeable potash, exchangeable calcium and exchangeable magnesium. While virippu rice was most efficient, in utilizing nitrogen for dry matter production, cowpea was least efficient in this regard. The groundnut crop showed maximum efficiency in the utilization of phosphorus and potash for dry matter production. While sesamum was least efficient in the case of phosphorus it was sweet potato in the case of potash. The highest and the lowest protein yields wereobtained during first and second years from the cropping /pattern rice-rice-groundnut and rice-rice-sesamum respectively
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Studies on the critical periods of weed infestation and effect of weed growth on yield and quality of a short duration rice
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1978) Abraham Varughese; KAU; Madhavan Nair, K P
    An experiment was conducted at the Instructional Farm of the College of Agriculture, Vellayani, Kerala Agriculture University during the second crop season, 1976-77 to study the critical periods of used infestation and effect of weed growth on the yield and quality of a duration rice ver. Triveni Simple randomised block design was adopted with 17 treatments. Band weeding was done to keep weed free conditions of 10,20 and 30 day intervals upto 60th day and for 1-60 days after transplanting. The above weed free periods with one unweeded control formed the 17 treatments.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of palm density and levels of NPK fertilizers on yield and quality of coconut
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Agriculture, Vellayani, 1978) Abraham, K G; KAU; Sadanandan, N
    A spacing cum manurial experiment on host coast tail coconut palms initiated in 1964 at the Coconut Research Sub Station, Balaramapuram of Kerala Agricultural University was utilised in this investigations with the objective of (1) determining optimum level of NPK fertilizers and density of planting to obtain maximum yield (2) to study the quality of nuts in torns of copra and oil nut turn and (3) to study the correlations, if any of vegetative growth characters and soil and leaf nutrient status with yield. Three levels of NPK fertilizers (control no fertilizers , 340: 225:450 g and 680: 450: 900g NPK per palm per year) and three spacings (5.0 m *5.0 m, 7.5 m *7.5 m and 10.0m* 10.0m ) were included in the experiment
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Effect of different levels of nitrogen,phosphorus and potassium on growth and yield of cowpea,(Vigna sinensis Savi) variety P.118
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1978) Mohankumar, B; KAU; Balakrishna, Pillai P
    An experiment was conducted at the Instructional Farm, Vellanikkara, during the second crop season of 1977 to study for effect of different levels of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium on the growth and yield of cowpea, variety P. 118. The experiment was laid out in a 33 confounded factorial design confounding N P2 K and NP2 K2 in replications I and II, respectively. The study revealed that plant height increased with incremental doses of nitrogen. Nitrogen at 20kg/ha level contributed to increased nodulation which in turn favorably increased the grain yield. Phosphorus also had significant positive effect on nodulation. Nitrogen at 20 kg/ha and phosphorus at 40 kg P2O5 /ha exerted significant positive influence on the total dry matter production of the crop at harvest. Through their increased response in terms of number of pods per plant, number of seeds per pod and length of pods, nitrogen, at 20 kg ha and P2O5 at 40 kg/ha increased the grain yield per hectare significantly. Application of nitrogen at 30 kg/ha registered the maximum haulm yield. The grain haulm ratio was maximum for the combination of 20 kg nitrogen and 40 kg P2O5/ha Nitrogen at 21.6 kg/ha was found to be the optimum level for maximum grain production. The optimum level of phosphorus could not be estimated since the crop exhibited a linear response beyond the maximum level tried. Nitrogen application increased the plant content as well as the grain content of the element. Similarly application of phosphorus and potassium increased the plant contents of phosphorus and potassium, respectively. The uptake by nitrogen and phosphorus was significantly influenced by the 20 kg/ha and 40kg P2O5 /ha The protein content of grain increased with increasing levels of nitrogen. Applied potassium did not exhibit any significant influence on the yield components and most of the growth attributes.
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Nitrogen nutrition and rhizobial inoculation on soybean
    (Department of Agronomy, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1978) Geethakrishnan, P; KAU; Vikraman, R
    An experiment was conducted at the Research Station and Instructional Farm, Mannuthy during 1976 on the nitrogen nutrition and rhisobial inoculation on soybean ( Glycene max (L.) Marrill). The investigation was undertaken to assess the nitrogen requirement of the crop under inoculated and uninoculated conditions. Also the study was aimed to arrive at the fertiliser equivalent of rhisobial inoculation. The experiment was laid out in factorial in randomized block with 12 treatments and 4 replications. The study revealed that nitrogen fixed symbiotically, was adequate for the crop. Application of nitrogen depressed symbiotic nitrogen fixation and with increasing levels of nitrogen, there was depression in symbiotic nitrogen fixation. The study also revealed that introduced strain of Rhizobium japonicum was less effective in nitrogen fixation on soybean than the strains already present in the soil. Application of nitrogen didi not influence the stover yield. Inoculation of an ineffective strain tended to depress the stover yield. Application of nitrogen increased the plant height in the early stages when symbiotic nitrogen fixation could not make any substantial contribution towards nitrogen supply. Significant increase is test weight with increasing levels of nitrogen indicated that enhanced soil nitrogen supply was beneficial towards the later stages of crop growth. The quality of nitrogen fixed by the soybean plant appears to exceed the fertiliser equivalent of 250 kg N/ha applied basally.