The department got its initiation along with the start of the then Assam Agriculture College at Jorhat in the year 1948. The mandate of the department was initially teaching only. The post-graduate teaching programme was started in 1965 and the Ph.D. degree programme was started in 1985. With the establishment of the Assam Agricultural University in 1969, the mandate of the department was broadened to include research and extension activities in the state of Assam. Over the long span of activities, the department has added a number of feathers to its cap in the form of creating human resources both at Masters and Doctorate level. The department has so far produced 242 and 49 number of M.Sc. (Agri) and Ph.D. holders since the start of the respective programmes. The department has produced a number of holders of reputed scholarships at national and international level. The department is recognized as a centre of excellence in organic agriculture in the country.
Thrust areas of the discipline
Short term :
INMS : To make uses of INM packages for popularization amongst farmers of Assam
Bio-fertilizer : Demonstration of bio-fertilizer production technology and entrepreneurship development.
LUP : Assessment of land degradation pattern under various geomorphic situations in the state.
Acid soil management : Development of cost effective package for acid soil management in pulse, oilseed and vegetable production systems.
Long term :
Organic farming :
Development of cost effective organic farming packages for production of some high value crops.
Land use planning :
Block wise integrated land use planning for different agro-climatic zones of Assam.
Improvement of degraded land through integration of inputs.
Natural Resource Management :
Development of In situ soil and moisture conservation measures on mini watershed basis.
Generation of appropriate reclamation/improvement measures for location specific degraded land to arrest further deterioration and to restore the productivity.
Establishment of a Data Bank of Natural Resources under NRDMS (Natural Resources Data Management System) for developing a Decision Support System (DSS) on GIS platform .
Updating of data bank for NRDMS.
Assessment of adoptability of existing practices for maintaining soil quality and productivity and evaluation of new management strategies.
Bio-fertilizer : Large scale production of bio-fertilizer for easy access and use
Soil fertility Improvement:
Improvement of technology pertaining to fertilizer use efficiency.
Nutrient optimization for rice based cropping systems for sustained production
Development of alternate sustainable production system for easy choice and adoption.
The department boasts of a number of externally funded high quality research projects many of which have been concluded and a number of them are in operation. The Department is the nodal agency in implementing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the University and the North East Space Application Centre (NESAC), Shillong.
The department has a number of high end analytical instruments such as ICP-AES, AAS, etc. besides others.
The department is regarded as the frontal centre in organic farming in the country and operated a Niche Area of Excellence in organic agriculture and currently operating a Centre for Advanced Faculty Training in organic agriculture.
The department has strong, dedicated team of faculty members in all the 5 major areas.
1. Determining the soil characteristics of the char areas to add to the existing database of soils of Assam
2. Mapping of the flood scenario during peak flood, receding flood and winter to determine the suitable cropping period and availability of soil moisture using multi-spectral satellite data.
3. Detailed survey using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle to identify and understand the land use land cover situation.
4. Determine soil site suitability indices for different crops to identify limitations imposed by land situation and soil characteristics to undertake management measures based on special package of practices proposed for char areas.
1. To compute morphometric parameters of the drainage streams of Brahmaputra river basin.
2. To estimate soil loss in different physiographic units of the basin area.
3. To evaluate productivity and soil-site suitability for major field crops in the study area.
4. To prepare GIS based thematic maps of soil loss, productivity and soil-site suitability.
1. Collection of rice rhizosphere soils from Jorhat district of Assam
2. Isolation of Cyanobacteria from rice fields
3. Characterization of isolated Cyanobacteria
4. Characterization of Cyanobacteria for PGP activities
5. Mass scale production of selected strains of Cyanobacteria
6. Field inoculation trial with efficient strains taking rice as the test crop
1. Harnessing of novel strains having acid tolerance with plant growth promoting traits as biofertilizer agents
2. Development of superior bio-formulation with acidity tolerance suitable for acidic soil.
3. Comparision of efficacy of the commercially available bio-formulations with the formulations developed from novel strains of NE Region
4. Phylogenetic and Cluster analysis of selected isolates
5. Plant-microbial interaction studies for enhanced abiotic stress tolerance with respect to Aluminium and Iron in lowland rice.
6. Commercialization of efficient microbial bioformulation.
1. The project is working with the following objectives
To generate awareness on the importance of beneficial microbial inoculants in crop production
2. Isolation and screening of beneficial organisms acting as biofertilizer agents
3. Mass scale production, quality control and application of biofertilizer agents
Sl. No.
Name of the program
period
Number of participants
Internal
External
Total
1
Culturing Techniques for Biofertilizers and Biopesticides
7-27 November, 2017.
4
10
14
2
Recent developments in organic production systems
7th -27thFebruary, 2018
5
13
18
3
Techniques in Biofertilizers and Biopesticides production for organic agriculture
14thNovember – 4th December, 2018.
11
15
Developments in organic agriculture
6 - 26 February, 2019.
12
17
Exploitation of beneficial microbes in organic agriculture
4th to 24th September, 2019.
23
6
Organic agriculture and soil health
To be held
from February 20 to March 11, 2020
Fertilizer dose of 60:20:40 kg/ha of N:P2O5:K2O (Urea=18, SSP=17 and MOP=9, all in kg/bigha) is recommended for semi dwarf Sali rice varieties under low and medium soil fertility status.
Application of organic manure @ 1 t/ha (on dry weight basis) along with mixed inocula of Azospirillum amazonense A-10 and Bacillus megaterium P-5 @ 4 kg/ha (0.4-0.5 kg/bigha), rock phosphate @ 10 kg P2O5 per ha (rock phosphate 56 kg/ha or 7.5 kg/bigha) and muriate of potash @ 40 kg K2O per ha (muriate of potash 67 kg/ha or 9 kg/bigha) is recommended for rice in rice-rice, rice-legume-rice and sole rice sequences.
Furrow application of liming material (including industrial waste) for acid soil management even to the extent of 1/10th of LR by SMP method or full dose equivalent by Mendez & Kamprath (Method II), about 2-3 weeks ahead of sowing of pulse and/or oilseeds, coupled with 50% recommended dose of fertilizer based on soil test values and FYM @ 2 t/ha, sustains crop productivity in greengram-rapeseed sequence of NBP zone. Greengram variety “Pratap” showed promising result in regards of response to liming. “Sonmogu” a local variety was found tolerant to soil acidity.
Hosted 16th Dr. D. P. Motiramani Lecture which was delivered by Dr. Patiram of ICAR Research Complex for NE India, on October 11, 2008.
30 kg S/ha as Gypsum + 1.5 t FYM/ha + recommended dose of NPK is the cost-effective package developed for rapeseed cultivation in the state.
The optimum doses of NPK for HYV of sali rice is 60:20:40 and 60:20:20 for low and medium fertility classes of soils, respectively, in hill zone of Assam.