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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: Horticulture × Author: Joseph Pynadath, S × Start date: 1978 × Type: Thesis × Thesis Type: M.Sc ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Genetic variability and correlation studies in snake gourd (crichosanthos anguina L.)
    (Department of Olericulture, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, 1978) Joseph Pynadath, S; KAU; Gopalakrishnan, P K
    Studies were undertaken with 25 diverse snake gourd types in the Department of Horticulture (Olericulture), College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, to estimate the genetic variability, correlation coefficients and path coefficients in the crop, during 1977-78. The results have shown that the differences between the types were highly significant for all the 21 characters studied. The estimates of variance components and coefficients of variation have indicated that the major portion of total variability in most of the characters was due to genetic causes, heritabllity in the broad sense was found to be quite high for most of the characters but the heritabllity estimate of yield was only 45.90 per cent. The estimate of genetic gain has shown that by selecting five per cent superior plants from the available population, yield can be improved upto 35.66 per cent over the mean. Characters such as per cent ash content, crude protein per cent, percentage P, number of female flowers per plant, weight of individual fruit and vitamin C content which exhibited parallelism in the high estimates of heritabillty and genetic gain may be suggested to be due to the action of additive genes and can be straightly improved through selection. The type T.A.19 was found to be the highest yielder. Yield per plant was found to be highly associated with number of primary branches, days for opening of first female flower, weight of individual fruit, length of fruit and girth of fruit. The correlation coefficients among these yield components were also significant. Path coefficient analysis has shown that weight of individual fruit, girth of fruit, number of fruits per plant and node at which first female flower appeared are the more important characters contributing to yield, on account of their high direct effects. Number of female flowers per plant and length of fruit are also important characters as their direct effects were moderate and indirect effects substantial.