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Research Advisory Committee meeting organized

The 19'n meeting of Research Advisory Committee (RAC) of IGFRIwas held during May 12-14, 2012 at IGFRI, Jhansi. Dr. y SRamakrishna, Chairman, RAC and Ex. Director CRIDA & Dr. EAHRoberts Chair on t{RM Tea Research Association, TocklaiExperimental Station, Jorhat, presided over the meeting. OtherRAC members Dr. K S Ramachandra, Advisor, National RainfedAreaAuthority, Govt. of lndia; Dr.S N Shukla, ExADG (FFC) ICAR;Dr. P S Pathak, Ex Director IGFRI & Ex ADG, ICAR; Prof. I D Tyagi,Ex Prof. & Head, Plant Breeding, CS Azad University of Agriculture& Technology, Kanpur (UP) and Prof. S R Agrawal, Ex pro ViceChancellor Bundelkhand University, Jhansi; Dr.S A Faruqui,Director IGFRI; Dr. Sunil Kumar, Head Crop Production Division,IGFRI and Member Secretary RAC, along with Head of Divisions ofIGFRI participated in the meeting.

Dr. S A Faruqui, Director IGFRI presented the major activities andachievements of the lnstitute during the past five years andhighlighted the important ones. Head of divisions presented thesalient achievements of their respective divisions during 11'n five yearplan and also those of past one year.

Dr. Y S Ramakrishna, Chairman praised the research outcome of thelnstitute during 11'n plan. Chairman gave valuable suggestions fororganizing the research programmes and projects of 12'n plan. Hestressed upon the need to take up the transfer of technologies evolvedby the institute and their up scaling to increase the visibility.

This was followed by the remarks from other RAC members.Members expressed that special efforts may be made in dairy richareas to promote lnstitute's post harvest technology. Members

suggested undertaking the need based research programmes byaddressing the region specific realistic problems of farmers onparticipatory mode. Members stressed upon to undertake theprogramme on improvement and management of degradedrangelands/wastelands and grazing practices management.

The Chairman opined that the efforts of IGFRI would enable foraEe

availability across the nation and empower livestock farmers toachieve higher level of efficiency and prosperity, On the following day,

RAC also visited experimental area and dairy unit at central researchfarm of the Institute.

Amliniiiry'rf,quality forage seeds : Be g i n n i n g of pro$pdrity

Seed is a potential source of technology dissemination and

crucial input for agricultur:al production. The path towards

fulfilling the demand of fodder goes through timely supply of

quality-geeds. Quatity seed production of forages in country is

aehieved through maintaining seed chain from nucleus seed to

certified seed which finalltrr goes to farmers' field for fo$der

production. This involves since.re effo(s. of ^ breeders,

production scientists and certification agencies. At present,

more than 250 varieties of various cultivated fodder; and range

grasses and legumes are available which can be made

accessible to farmers through developing suitable seed chain.

There exists acute shortage of fodder crop seeds including

those of range grasses and-legumes. As per current demand of

quality seedi the availability is only 25-30Ya in case of cultivated

fodder while it is only 1 5 b 2A0/o in range grasses and legumes.

Seed chain exists in some of the important crops like sorghum,

pearl millet, berseem, oat, lucerne, maize and. cowpea.

However, peoplelagencies including [rivate companies are not

coming fonruard forrange gg-ss and legume seed production'

Becauie of larger interest of farmers in harvesting the crop for

forage and not leaving for seed, production of fOrage seeds is

affeited. Recent example of this practice may be seen in the

case of berseem. A large quantity of berseem is imported.

However, many lndian cultivars of berseem are available which

give better forage yield than th:e imported Bersee'm, still farmers

are compelled to purchase imported seeds due to non-

availability of seed. There is need of par:ticipatory seed

production in cultivated forages and also to develop

lndia with 329 m ha geographical areal has 4% area under

pastures which are overgrazed. Rejuvenation of these

denuded grasslands needs mlssion mode programmes with

people's p-articipation. A fact remains that quality grass seed

availabilitlr is a ffi:ajor constraint. Range grasses can be

propagated by vegetative rneans for large_!9q|9 sqrrgad. bul

leed ii consideredagainst huge demand (758000 mQ the best

vehicle. Seed production of range species- -and ,

the.ir

incorporation in grasslands, wastelands, fringes of forestlands

shouid be made compulsory to utilize these alternate forage

land resources to their full potentiat, ln tropical grasses, seed

production is affected by poor seed setting. extreme climatic

gondition, seed shattering, non-synchronization in rnaturity and

presence of empty seeds. ln order to fulfill the demand, there is

research need of improving formation of pure germinating

seeds. Additionally for enhancing availability, there is need to

develop Micro seed production unils. Creation of seed

multiplication system for range /cultivated grasses and

legumes for sustaining as well as spreading from fringe areas

to other rangelands including deep forest zones is required.

Volume of giass seed is another issue which ne.e|: attention

for its r,eduition to have easy transportation- An initial attempt

made at IGFRI in de-fluffing the grass seeds has been found

encoura.ging ,.Hlt.:hanization of seed picking, threshing uF

processfflg *itt also augment the seed production. Perennial

crops like NxB hybrid do not set seed, hence, are to be

propagated through rooted slips only. Tf it leads tobumnersome transpor:tation of planting mater:ial from one.place

to other. Hence, research is needed to develop seed ProgucingNIB hybr:ids and also to develop technologies for reducing the

volume.

on forage seed production and quality,Networking of research on forage sr

utilization of natural forest and wastelands, involvement of

public and private sector in forage seed production,

par,ticipatory approach for fodder,and seed production, farmer

awareneSS programmes, mechanization, storage and

developing organised for,age and seed market may be viable

remedies tor, successful forage seed production and fodCer

availability.

High density nur$ery of Baiys-,Nfipier Hybrid teshd

Wafihe increasing requirement of green fodder, demand ofperennial cultivated grasses like Bajra-Napier (BN) hybrid and

guinea grass has rapidly increased in the past few years. Thesegrasses are being considered as most prom,ising forage ciopshaving wide acceptability among farmers. ln the absence of seed

setting, rooted slips are the sole, method of propagation in BN

hybrid. Rooted slips are collected from the grass tufts containing 5-

10 cm long stems with 2-3 nodes and basal roots. To meet the

demand, a new technique was tested at IGFRI for quick production

of rooted slips at large scale with minimum resources. The stems

from the BN hybrids were collected and each stern was further

chopped into 9-10 bi-nodal stem cuttings of approximately 20 cm

length. The stem cuttings were closely planted in upward direction

after a slant basa{ cut. Re'gular water supply was maintained fortheir establishment and growth. Within a fortnight, the cuttings

started rooting and shooting and by 4 to 5 weeks these were

ready for uprooting and transport. Results revealed that the bi-

nodal stem,cuttings of at lea,st 20 cm length and proper thickness

are most promising material for high density nursery. This

technique has several advantages like, ability to produce rooted

slips in shorter period of time, reduced labour requirement, easy

management such as irrigation, uprooting, counting, loading due

to small area and finally original tussocks are saved, This

technique further needs to be extended for production of planting

material in larger area and in different environments of BN hybrid

growing areas.

(D Vijay, CK Gupta, D Bahukhandi, DR Malaviya and OP Singh)

De-fluff the Deenanath grass seed to

The grass seed (caryopsis) is enclosed in fluff thereby giving protection

as well as dispersal mechanisms. However, for" prod,uction in hugequantities this fluff invariably adds woes during transport. Eight kg ofDeenanath (Pennisetum pedicellatum) grass seed with fluff occupies0,1 cubic m volume. The true seed (caryopsis) in this fluff is less than halfa kilogram and occupies very less volume due to its small size. The true

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U6ffi[#EffiHftt',0f Digitized Forage Herbariuffi

Electronic forage herbarium is a modern solution for assessment of forage

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information contained in plant specimens, and then effective retrieval and

mobile computing mechanisms for accessing this information. Digital

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photography techniques. Scanning was used for new plant type specimens

whose quality and Condition,.wa$..H,effif th.a.n,,.6ld,er.6r'0,4.ffi:a$ed.,,s'pe0[mGns:;

Photography technique was used for comparatively poor specimens to

avoid distortion 0r damage of specimen during scanning. Digital database

dfrs$qd.iffi6n'iffi$d$,4ffi.n$,,Wifhrp,iiffie,#',inf6ffieti-*,Cdhtdned group of webpages are being developed using specialized HTML ed{or and linked

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stored within toCat web server's file system (static web pages). Thus, the

Sryry-ffiry&oadentheforageherbarium'susagebyprovidinguserswithefficient,easy-to-usedmbonieq.ryli,:il.j.:.". "

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Organic turmeric for higher income: NICRA initiative

At NICRA Project site of village Kadesarakala, District Lalitpur,

farmers have been cultivating turmeric traditionally using non

descript variety. They get low yield often less than 30q from half

acre and earn less income Rs.13500/= only from selling of fresh

rhizome. The gap was identified during PRA and farmers were

motivated for scientific turmeric cultivation. Demonstration of

growing organic turmeric was conducted in progressive farmer's

field. Turmeric was planted in raised bed and rhizomes were placed

in shallow pits spaced at 20-25 cm apart. Locally collected

powdered Neem cake was applied @ 20 gmipits at the time of

planting. Rhizomes (5q) of improved variety'Roma' were planted at

50 cm row to row spacing of beds. Planted rhizomes were covered

with well rotten cattle rnanure incubated with Trichoderma

formulation @59/kg seed (developed at IGFRI) The crop was

ready in B months and it yielde d 4120 kg rhizomes from the above

plot. Produce was processed for value addition by curing the

rhizomes followed by boiling in water and sun drying. Processed

turmeric powder could generate income of Rs 40-45000 from half

acre. Results of this intervention motivated the other farmer's and

demanded improved variety of turmeric with full scientific advice.

(satyapriya, RK Agrawal, SunrT Kumar and HV Singh)

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Women farmers' access to scientific prod uction technologies forenhancing productrvity and alleviating drudgery is less, althoughtheir knowledge about traditional agricultural practices is high.Even the extension programmes are designed and implementedkeeping in view their rnaie counterpart. Less number of womenspecific technologies are available to increase their efficiency andreduce their drudgery To evolve women specific technologyassessment and refinement for fodder development, itnecessitates the organizing gosfhis efc. The year 2012, being theGolden Jubilee year of lGFRl, two Mahila Krishak Gosfhrs wereorganized in Jhansi District. One gosfhi was organised on March20, 2012 al village Birguan of Baragaon block and another wasorganised on May 'l 6, 2012 at village Dhikoli of Babina block.More than 20A women farmers engaged in agriculture and animalrearing activities participated in each of the goshthi. Lecture cumdemonstrations were organised on improved fodder productionand utilization, hortipature system in Bundelkhand, animal rearingand feeding practices, drudgery reducing hand tools andimplements for farm women, crop residue enrichment and fodderconservation, important diseases in fodder crops and diseases inanimals and their management efc. Exhibition of live materials viz.important fodder crops, perennial grasses, quality seeds, postharvest technologies-complete feed block, bales, low cost feedingmaterial etc., for animals was displayed and demonstrated by thescientist. Besides, research-extension-farm women interface wasalso organized in which lnstitute scientists, officials from NABARD,KVKs, developmental agencies and local NGOs also participated.The ovenruhelming response of women farmers in these Gosthiswas very encouraging. There was demand for organization of suchgosthis in othervillages in more frequent intervals.

(Sadhna Pandey, Maharaj Singh, Purushottam Sharma,Satyapriya, RK Sha rma and J P Upadhyay)

HRD New-s:

il{ulti $kill development training programmesfor Casual Lab,orers'with Ternporary status

Multi skill development training programme of 20 days at Jhansiwere organized in three batches dur,ingApril 16rto June 16,2012atIGFRI, Jhansi and one at RRS-IGFRI, Dhanruad. Total 165 casuallaborers with temporary status (commonly called Saman VetanShramik) were trained in various skills. Entire programme wasdevised in Hindi language.

Training Abroad

D_r Pankaj ,Kaushal, Principal Scientist(Biotechnology) and Head, Crop lmprovementDivision,, visited UniVersity of Georgia, Tifton,campus, GA, USAfrom March 21 toJune 18,2012to study'Molecular cytogenetic characterisation ofapomixis locus in grasses (NAIP-HRD)' techniques.

Training cum exposure visitfnllil.g_cyI gxp_osure visit of Trainees (35 participants each)of IWMB NRCAF, Jhansi was organized on rcfi4,12012 anti12t04t2012

New Appointments

Dr. Asht*tosh Kumar, MallSenior Scientist(Plant Breeding)

05.06.2012

Dr. Ritu MawarSenior Scientist

(Plant Pathologi)25.06.2012

IGFRITransfers from

Dr. Yashpal Singh SaharawatSenior Scientist

(Agricu ltural Chemistry)transferred to IARI, New Derlhi

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Published by the Director, tndian Grassland and Fodder Research lnstitute (lnllan Colncilof Agricultural Regeqlch),.Jhansi - ?8f{ 003.

Telephone:0510-ZZaOOOO;'far0510-27308331E-mail:igfrijhansi@y9.hoo 99 in, rgfri.direcbr@gmaitrom Webs'tte:http:lllrvww.igfri.res.in

Printed at \ber Bundelkhand Prcss, Jhansi

Editors: Sunil Kumar, AK Rai, AK Dixit, AK Saxena and Shailendra Sinha Photographs :AK Singh

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