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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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20202
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Subject: Plant Physiology × Author: Saleena, M × Start date: 2020 × Type: Thesis ×
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    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Microencapsulation of Trichoderma viride for management of major soil borne fungal pathogens
    (Department of Plant Physiology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, 2020) Saleena, M; KAU; Reshmy, Vijayaraghavan
    Trichoderma spp, one of the widely exploited biocontrol agents in the arena of crop disease management, are known for promoting growth and inducing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. However, direct application in the field limits their efficiency due to several adverse factors. Hence, they should be adequately formulated to escalate the efficacy in field application. Eventhough, a number of such formulations have been developed in the recent past, many of them are bulky in nature, having reduced shelf life with a high risk of contamination and desiccation. Thus, a study was conducted to develop a novel formulation of T. viride, with sodium alginate, a biodegradable polymer as the encapsulating carrier material. Evaluation of the effect of additive substances viz., mannitol (2%), trehalose (15 mM), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (1%), polyethylene glycol (0.25%), carboxymethyl cellulose (0.5%), liquid paraffin (1%) and tween 80 (0.5%) in eight combination on the shelf life of T. viride was carried out. After seven months of evaluation, a combination of trehalose, PVP, CMC and tween 80 outperformed the other treatments. Beads were prepared using 0.75, 1.5, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent sodium alginate and 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent CaCl2 solution with and without additives. Without additives, no beads were formed at 0.75 and 1.5 per cent sodium alginate and spherical beads were formed at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent. When additives were amalgamated, 0.75 and 1.5 per cent sodium alginate yielded spherical beads, while beads were not formed at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent. Hence, the concentration of sodium alginate was standardized as 0.75 and 1.5 per cent. The impact of height of air column between the orifice of the separating funnel and the level of CaCl2 bath on the bead shape was evaluated at different heights where 2 and 4 cm yielded tailed beads while, rest of the heights yielded spherical beads. Hence, based on the shape of the bead, 8 - 12 cm was selected as the optimum height of air column. Previously standardized parameters along with 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent CaCl2 solution was adopted to prepare beads by employing ionotropic gelation and cross linking technique in 31 treatments. The beads were dried for 48 h at room temperature and stored in air tight containers. vii Properties like bead weight, diameter, yield and number of beads formed per ml sodium alginate solution was estimated. A maximum bead weight of 96.20 ± 1.8 mg and bead diameter of 2.42 ± 0.13 mm was recorded in control (T31-sodium alginate 2.5% and CaCl2 2.5%). Maximum per cent yield was documented in T19 (trehalose, PVP, CMC, tween 80, sodium alginate 1.5%, CaCl 2 2.5%) (69.09%) and a maximum of 26.91 beads were formed from each ml of sodium alginate in T9 while, it was 8.0 in control. Shelf life evaluation was carried out for six months, where T21 (trehalose, PVP, CMC, tween 80, sodium alginate 1.5%, CaCl2 3.5%) outperformed the other treatments even after six months hence, T21 was selected as the best treatment. Degree of contamination was estimated at 1, 3 and 6 months after preparation, where T1 - T6 and T19 - T30 remained free of contamination even after six months of preparation. Per cent of potentially infective beads were estimated where cent per cent germination was recorded at 72 h after incubation. Moisture content of the beads were assessed where the beads retained its intact shape at 48 h and therefore was selected as the optimum period of drying. Swelling behaviour of microbeads were estimated at pH 7.4 in phosphate buffer and at pH 1.0 in 0.1M HCl. A gradual increase in weight of beads at pH 7.4 confirmed the swelling behaviour while, reduction in weight at pH 1.0 revealed its shrinking nature. Time of gelation was standardized as 60 min as the bead weight declined until this time and attained stability after this time. The effect of pH on the selected bead (T21) was evaluated at pH 5.09 and 8.91 in soil under in vitro conditions where the release in former was sustained while a sudden release was observed in latter. Observations on biometric parameters, yield and the per cent disease incidence from pot culture experiments revealed that sodium alginate bead based formulation @ 5.0 g plant-1 performed superior to talc based and liquid formulations. The study on degradation revealed that the beads were biodegradable in nature. Thus, the present investigation succeeded in formulating T. viride using sodium alginate as the encapsulating carrier material, which would help to compensate the drawbacks associated with presently available formulations. However, the study should be complimented with multilocational trials to confirm its efficacy under field conditions.
  • Thumbnail Image
    ThesisItemOpen Access
    Microencapsulation of Trichoderma viride for management of major soil borne fungal pathogens
    (Department of Plant Physiology, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, 2020) Saleena, M; KAU; Reshmy, Vijayaraghavan
    Trichoderma spp, one of the widely exploited biocontrol agents in the arena of crop disease management, are known for promoting growth and inducing abiotic stress tolerance in plants. However, direct application in the field limits their efficiency due to several adverse factors. Hence, they should be adequately formulated to escalate the efficacy in field application. Eventhough, a number of such formulations have been developed in the recent past, many of them are bulky in nature, having reduced shelf life with a high risk of contamination and desiccation. Thus, a study was conducted to develop a novel formulation of T. viride, with sodium alginate, a biodegradable polymer as the encapsulating carrier material. Evaluation of the effect of additive substances viz., mannitol (2%), trehalose (15 mM), polyvinyl pyrrolidone (1%), polyethylene glycol (0.25%), carboxymethyl cellulose (0.5%), liquid paraffin (1%) and tween 80 (0.5%) in eight combination on the shelf life of T. viride was carried out. After seven months of evaluation, a combination of trehalose, PVP, CMC and tween 80 outperformed the other treatments. Beads were prepared using 0.75, 1.5, 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent sodium alginate and 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent CaCl2 solution with and without additives. Without additives, no beads were formed at 0.75 and 1.5 per cent sodium alginate and spherical beads were formed at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent. When additives were amalgamated, 0.75 and 1.5 per cent sodium alginate yielded spherical beads, while beads were not formed at 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent. Hence, the concentration of sodium alginate was standardized as 0.75 and 1.5 per cent. The impact of height of air column between the orifice of the separating funnel and the level of CaCl2 bath on the bead shape was evaluated at different heights where 2 and 4 cm yielded tailed beads while, rest of the heights yielded spherical beads. Hence, based on the shape of the bead, 8 - 12 cm was selected as the optimum height of air column. Previously standardized parameters along with 2.5, 3.0 and 3.5 per cent CaCl2 solution was adopted to prepare beads by employing ionotropic gelation and cross linking technique in 31 treatments. The beads were dried for 48 h at room temperature and stored in air tight containers. vii Properties like bead weight, diameter, yield and number of beads formed per ml sodium alginate solution was estimated. A maximum bead weight of 96.20 ± 1.8 mg and bead diameter of 2.42 ± 0.13 mm was recorded in control (T31-sodium alginate 2.5% and CaCl2 2.5%). Maximum per cent yield was documented in T19 (trehalose, PVP, CMC, tween 80, sodium alginate 1.5%, CaCl 2 2.5%) (69.09%) and a maximum of 26.91 beads were formed from each ml of sodium alginate in T9 while, it was 8.0 in control. Shelf life evaluation was carried out for six months, where T21 (trehalose, PVP, CMC, tween 80, sodium alginate 1.5%, CaCl2 3.5%) outperformed the other treatments even after six months hence, T21 was selected as the best treatment. Degree of contamination was estimated at 1, 3 and 6 months after preparation, where T1 - T6 and T19 - T30 remained free of contamination even after six months of preparation. Per cent of potentially infective beads were estimated where cent per cent germination was recorded at 72 h after incubation. Moisture content of the beads were assessed where the beads retained its intact shape at 48 h and therefore was selected as the optimum period of drying. Swelling behaviour of microbeads were estimated at pH 7.4 in phosphate buffer and at pH 1.0 in 0.1M HCl. A gradual increase in weight of beads at pH 7.4 confirmed the swelling behaviour while, reduction in weight at pH 1.0 revealed its shrinking nature. Time of gelation was standardized as 60 min as the bead weight declined until this time and attained stability after this time. The effect of pH on the selected bead (T21) was evaluated at pH 5.09 and 8.91 in soil under in vitro conditions where the release in former was sustained while a sudden release was observed in latter. Observations on biometric parameters, yield and the per cent disease incidence from pot culture experiments revealed that sodium alginate bead based formulation @ 5.0 g plant-1 performed superior to talc based and liquid formulations. The study on degradation revealed that the beads were biodegradable in nature. Thus, the present investigation succeeded in formulating T. viride using sodium alginate as the encapsulating carrier material, which would help to compensate the drawbacks associated with presently available formulations. However, the study should be complimented with multilocational trials to confirm its efficacy under field conditions.