Teaching:

The Department is catering the needs
of trained manpower in crop improvement to the NE region since its
inception.  The plant breeders engaged in
the crop improvement research in different RARS of AAU, as well as, the most of
the faculty members of this department are its product. Five alumni of the Department
obtained Commonwealth fellowship/scholarships, three secured Chinese Govt.
fellowships for PhD and Post-doctoral training. 
Some of the alumni have been in reputed positions in various
organizations within the country and abroad like Tezpur University, Assam
University, Central Agricultural University, ICAR institutes, University of
Hawaii, Iowa State University, USA etc. The teachers of this department have
developed 6 practical manuals as teaching aids for UG and PG classes.  

Teaching:

The department is catering the needs
of trained manpower in crop improvement to the NE region since its
inception.  The plant breeders engaged in
the crop improvement research in different RARS of AAU, as well as, the most of
the faculty members of this department are its product. So far 5 students of
this department obtained Commonwealth fellowship/scholarship, 3 obtained
Chinese Govt. fellowship for PhD and Post-doctoral training.  Some faculty members of Agril. Biotechnology
department of AAU is the product from this department.  The teachers of this department have
developed 4 practical manuals as teaching aid for UG classes.  The students of this faculty are serving in
other institutes like Tezpur University, Assam University, Central
Agril. University, Imphal, institutes of ICAR, University of Hawaii,
University of Iowa, USA etc.  This department has the distinction of
conducting 1^st summer institute in AAU under the sponsorship of ICAR
in 1987 on the topic “Utilization of PGR of Northeast India”. 

Research:

The department is contributing
significantly to the applied and theoretical aspects of crop improvement.  So far, the breeders of AAU have developed 68
varieties of various field and horticultural crops. These include 47 in rice,
five in pulses, six in toria, one in sesame, eight in sugarcane and one in
jute.  Some of the significant research
achievements of the department are as follows:

Rice

-        
Two rice varieties for low
input situation (JT-2, JT-7) have been developed and recommended for CBVZ, UBVZ
and Hill zones of Assam

-        
e gene for hispa resistance in rice has been
tagged with an RAPD marker OPK19.

-        
The gene for cold tolerance in
rice has been tagged with an RAPD marker OPT8_620.

-        
352 rice varieties of Assam have been characterized with RAPD markers
identifying duplication in the germplasm collection and revealing wide
diversity in Assam
rice.

-        
Ten promising advanced breeding
lines of direct seeded upland rice are in multi-location testing.

-        
Large number of (more than 300)
rice varieties have been screened for tolerance to low temperature.

Maize

-        
A number of maize varieties
such as Ganga-5, Ganga-101, Hi-starch, Deccan Hybrid, Kisan, Vijay, Vikram,
Diara, NLD, Dhawal, Navjot, Pratap, and Hunius have been identified and
recommended for cultivation in Assam.

-        
Some heterotic cross
combinations for development of early maturing high yielding composites have
been identified.

-        
High yielding QPM populations
have been identified.

Greengram

-        
Recommended the cultivation of
green gram in summer season for the first time in the state. 

-       
Developed two green gram
varieties, AAU 34 and AAU 39, from the advanced breeding lines of AVRDC, Taiwan.

Toria

-       
Two cycles of mass selection on
16 numbers of populations for improvement of seed yield under late sown
condition in rice fallow have been completed

Ramie

-        
In ramie, protocol for hybrid
seed culture, shoot tip and nodal culture along with their hardening has been
standardized.

Forage crops

A large volume of forage germplasm (110 ricebean, 7
napier, 3 seteria, 2 guinea, 1 para and 24 others) have been collected and are
being evaluated for higher green forage yield and performance under different
growing conditions.

-       
Evaluation of conventional and
non-conventional forage crops have revealed potential of a number of varieties
under Assam
condition (ex: cowpea UPC-4200, ricebean KRB-4, teosinte TL-1, TL-2, TL-16 and
maize DMRF-35, JHM-02-67 during kharif and oat SABZAR during rabi season).
Among non-conventional forage crops lablab (CAZR-10 and LP-2216) and pearl
millet (APFB-15-99, APFB-14 and Rajko) are found to have good potentiality in Assam.

Vegetables

-       
Four F1 hybrids have been
identified for off-season cultivation having desired heat tolerance and
resistance to bacterial wilt, TNV, fusarium wilt, leaf blight

 Orchids

-       
Asymbiotic germination response
of immature embryos from 20 species has been successfully tested.

-       
Dendrobium moschatum,
Cymbidium aloifolium, C. longifolium was
micropropagated using shoot tips from axenic culture.  Vanilla pilifera was propagated
through culture of shoot nodes.

-       
Pollen viability, stigma receptivity
and self-incompatibility barriers were determined for 4 species.

-       
Interspecific and intergeneric
crosses were made and hybrid pods obtained were cultured..

Breeders’ seed production

-       
Breeder seeds of rice, green
gram, black gram, oat and toria are being produced in accordance with the
indent of the State Agriculture Department, Assam.

Extension:

The department is also playing an
important role in extension activities of AAU. 
The department conducted a series of training programme on
popularization of greengram and blackgram cultivation in summer seasons to the
farmers and officials of state agriculture department under the project on
“Intensification of research and training on pulses and oilseeds’ operated
during 1981-85.  A specialized training
programme on ‘Wheat Production Technology’ for the officials of state govt. of
eastern zones under the sponsorship of Directorate of wheat development,
Ministry of Agriculture, GOI was conducted in Dec 2000.  The department regularly conducts state level
training programme on seed production technology for the officials of state
Department of Agriculture, Seed Certifying Agency and Seed Corporation.  The state training programme in maize
cultivation technology to the officials of state Agriculture Department is also
conducted by the department routinely. 
In addition to these, the department is also conducting FLD programme in
maize cultivation in the state.

The department has also organized a
series of workshops and seminar during 2007-2009 on “Promoting Conservation and
Use of Agrobiodiversity in Northeast India” in collaboration with Wageningen
International, Wageningen, The Netherlands, and M.S. Swaminathan Research
Foundation (MSSRF), Chennai, India.

Thrust Areas
of Research:

The department has identified some of
the thrust areas of research:

1.     
Genetic characterization of indigenous plant bio-resources to
target novel genes that can aid in developing productivity-increasing crop
varieties with in-built resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.

2.     
Quality improvement in important crops like rice, maize,
pulses and oilseeds etc. by conventional and non-conventional approaches.

3.     
Physiological improvements of crop for further enhancing
yield.

4.     
Genetic improvement of tea, bamboo, rattan, medicinal and
aromatic plants.

5.     
Seed technology research.

 Varieties
developed and recommended

1.      
Toria JT 90-1 (Jeuti)

2.      
Rice varieties: Swarnav

3.      
Rice varieties: Dinanath

4.      
Rice varieties: Gandhari

5.      
Rice varieties: Srimanta

6.      
Green gram varieties: AAU 34
and AAU 39

7.      
Brinjal  varieties: JC-1, JC-2, Abu

8.      
Amaranth varieties: Shyamali,
Rodali

9.      
Forage lathyrus: Madhuri

10.  
Forage ricebean: Shyamalima

 Varieties and hybrids in the pipeline

1.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-2

2.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-3

3.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-4

4.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-6

5.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-9

6.      
Rice hybrid AAURH-15

7.      
Brinjal varieties: Bhupendra

8.      
Okra hybrids: AAUOKRAHYB-1,
AAUOKRAHYB-2