NARI Annual Research Report 2016-17
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1 ANNUAL RESEARCH REPORT 2016-2017 NARI Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute, P.O. Box 44, PHALTAN-415523, Maharashtra August 2017 2 Index Page No. Report of the President 3 Safflower 1. All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Oilseeds (Safflower) 5 2. National Agricultural Science Fund (NASF) Project on “Developing high 11 oleic safflower genotypes through functional genomics” Sweet Sorghum Kharif (Rainy season) 2016 16 Rabi (Post-rainy season) 2016-17 19 Renewable Energy Lanstove 26 Leaf stripper for sweet sorghum 26 Solar water purifier (SWP) 26 Other projects 28 Animal Husbandry Division Research Highlights 31 Project I : Osmanabadi Goat Field Unit of the ICAR-All India Coordinated 32 Research Project on Goat Improvement Project II : Increasing profitability of sheep production by genetic improvement 37 using the FecB (Booroola) mutation and improved management Project III : Setting up a state of the Art A.I. centre for sheep and goats under the 40 National Livestock Mission Scheme under the component of „Interventions towards productivity enhancement‟ Project IV : Research in veterinary parasitology with special reference to sheep 44 and goats Project V : Establishment of a polyhouse for propagation of NARI Nirbeeja by 47 rooting cuttings I. Publications 50 II. Invited Talks/Lectures 55 III. Conferences/Seminars/Meetings/Workshops attended by staff 56 IV. Training and Extension Activities 58 V. Training received by NARI staff 62 VI. Visitors to NARI 62 VII. Appointments 71 VIII. Honors 71 3 Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI), Phaltan ANNUAL RESEARCH REPORT 2016-17 Report of the President I have the pleasure of presenting to you the NARI annual research report for 2016-17. Some significant events of this year were as follows : The major highlight of the year was the conferring of the prestigious Jamnalal Bajaj Award for „Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development -2016‟ by the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation on Shri B. V. Nimbkar, Founder President of Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute. He has been awarded for his pioneering work in the fields of agriculture and animal husbandry over five decades; and for being instrumental in increasing crop and animal productivity and taking the benefits of NARI research directly to farmers and livestock rearers. Because of poor health Mr. Nimbkar could not go to the awards function. His daughter Dr. Chanda Nimbkar, Director of the Animal Husbandry Division of NARI received the award on behalf of Shri Nimbkar. The CSR committee of Bajaj group approved our proposal to support four Bajaj fellows by sanctioning Rs. 60 lakhs spread over three years. This was due to the efforts of our director Dr. Anil Rajvanshi. These funds under CSR will be utilized for hiring the fellows to work on solar water purifier, mechanization of sweet sorghum syrup making, expansion of lanstove work to rural areas and holding of workshops and general management. We are extremely grateful to the Bajaj group for these funds and hope to get some good fellows to carry out the work successfully. The safflower variety NARI-96 developed at NARI under the supervision of safflower breeder Dr. Vrijendra Singh was identified for release during the annual group meeting. It has given nearly 19% higher oil yield than the national check PBNS-12. We have installed at NARI campus a dedicated high speed Jio 4G internet connection. We are grateful to Dr. R. A. Mashelkar, a board member of Reliance Industries, for his help in getting this done. This was after very poor landline, WLL and broadband services from BSNL over last two years which forced us to have them disconnected. Thus this is a seemingly small but significant step to remain connected to rest of the world. Dr. Anil K. Rajvanshi, our director was invited by IIT Kanpur to give an inspirational talk to incoming freshmen which included about 1000 undergraduates and 500 graduates. This was the first time that IIT Kanpur had invited one of their notable alumni to address the incoming class. 4 Dr. Anil Rajvanshi‟s book „Romance of Innovation-A human interest story of doing R&D in rural setting‟, was printed this year and is now available in a physical form. Previously it was published as an e-book. It also received a very good review in the journal Current Science. In March 2017, the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad (MVP) Mumbai, gave its lifetime honorary membership to Shri B.V. Nimbkar. This organization is involved in propagating science in society in the Marathi language. The Parishad is a recipient of the 1992 National Science Award from the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India. In past MVP has also given Dr. Jayant Naralikar, Dr. Anil Kakodkar, Dr. Madhav Chitale, Dr. Madhav Gadgil, Dr. Eknath Chitnis and Dr. Raghunath Mashelkar its honorary membership. The solar water purifier technology developed by Dr. Anil Rajvanshi was chosen by the Engineers For Change (EFC), a U.S.-based Shri J.B. Joshi and Shri A.P. Deshpande of organization as one of the 10 life-changing the Marathi Vidnyan Parishad conferring inventions from India, and as an example of frugal the award on Shri Nimbkar at NARI innovation. AHD Dr. Anil Rajvanshi published his autobiography in the form of an e-book, which is freely available online. Hon. Justice Smt. Mridula Bhatkar, High Court, Mumbai visited NARI and saw all the activities taking place here with great interest. We received generous donations for various research projects from our founder- president Mr. B. V. Nimbkar (Rs. 7 lakhs) and from Mukti Township Development Corporation Ltd., Baramati (Rs. 2,50,000). I gratefully acknowledge these donations. I look forward to suggestions from readers for making NARI a more vibrant organization and strengthen the program for application of our research for the benefit of the society. Please contact us if further information is required about any of the programs covered in this report. August 10, 2017 Dr. Nandini Nimbkar President 5 SAFFLOWER 1. All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Oilseeds (Safflower) Funding agency : Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New Delhi Scientists : V. Singh, Ph.D., R. R. Jadhav, Ph.D., R. V. Kale, M.Sc., G. E. Atre, M.Sc. Technical staff : M. B. Deshpande, M.Sc., Pournima Karande, M.Sc., P. R. Salgude, M.Sc., S. V. Choudhari, B.Sc. NARI is one of the centers of All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on safflower (Carthamus tinctorius L.) under limited irrigation since 1980. The program is monitored by the Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research (IIOR), Hyderabad, which is the nodal agency under ICAR for planning, coordinating and monitoring of AICRPs on sunflower, safflower and castor. The major objectives of safflower improvement at NARI have been to develop high- yielding and high oil-producing spiny and non-spiny varieties and hybrids with in-built resistance to wilt (Fusarium oxysporum) along with development of suitable agro-production and crop protection technologies for growing safflower under limited irrigation. Recently development of short duration genotypes and those with only primary branches and single- headed genotypes have been accorded higher priority in view of their future importance to the changing scenario of safflower production. Research highlights : The major achievements of safflower program implemented during 2016-17 are described below : Breeding : 1. Identification of high-yielding safflower variety NARI-96 for release : The safflower variety NARI-96 has been identified for release by varietal Identification committee meeting held at VNMKV, Parbhani during Annual Group Meeting of AICRP on oilseeds on September 3, 2016. NARI-96 outyielded the national checks PBNS-12 by 18.66% and A-1 by 14.24% for oil yield in coordinated varietal trials conducted at multilocations over three years. NARI-96 possesses an average oil content of 33.21% as compared to 28.08% in national check PBNS-12 and 27.25% in the other national check A-1. 2. Two hundred germplasm lines and four checks of a mapping panel for oil content received from germplasm management unit at the Indian Institute of Oilseeds Research, Hyderabad were evaluated for seed yield and its components under irrigated conditions. Twenty five entries out of the 200 evaluated gave higher seed yield than the best check NARI-57. The maximum seed yield of 2738 kg/ha was recorded by the entry GMU-5037 which was followed by the entries GMU-4178 (2444 Kg/ha), GMU-7214 (2378 Kg/ha) and GMU-4223 (2156 kg/ha). 3. Testing of 10 short duration parental lines revealed five short duration parental lines giving higher seed yield than the highest yielding normal duration check PBNS-12. The highest seed yield of 824 kg/ha was recorded by the short duration check JSI-99 which was followed by the short duration lines NARI-SD-128-3 (764 kg/ha), NARI-SD-38 6 (743 kg/ha), RSS-2011-1-2 (676 kg/ha) and NARI-SD-83 (668 kg/ha). Thus the highest yielding short duration variety JSI-99 out-yielded the normal duration check PBNS-12 by as much as 45.84%. 4. In prebreeding for development of high oil cultivars, 22 F1 crosses made using high oil containing and high yielding parents were evaluated for seed yield. They showed eight crosses giving higher seed yield than the best check PBNS-12. The highest yielding cross S-719 X NARI-106 recorded the standard heterosis of 56.95% for seed yield which was followed by the crosses NARI-95 X S-719 (54.62%), NARI-95 X NARI-106 (43.52%) and NARI-94 X NARI-95 (39.38%). 5. Twenty two crosses were attempted between 11 GMU lines and two recently developed cultivars NARI-96 and NARI-57 in order to diversify breeding gene pool.