Kerala Agricultural University to release 12 new crop varieties ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Twelve new crop varieties developed by Kerala Agricultural University (KAU) have been recommended for release to farmers. The State Committee on Release of Crop Varieties and Seeds which met here on July 15 cleared the new varieties based on the result of farm trials . The list includes one variety each of rice, coconut, snake gourd, chilli, ginger, Asoka, fodder cowpea and rice bean and two varieties each of tomato and pepper. The rice variety, Ezhome-3 developed at the College of Agriculture, Padannakkad, is meant for cultivation in Kaippad tracts of northern Malabar. It is found to be tolerant to salinity and lodging with an average yield of 4.3 tonnes per hectare. Developed at Regional Agricultural research Station, Pilicode, Keramadhura is a green dwarf coconut variety preferred for tender nuts. Panniyur 8, a pepper variety developed at KAU’s Research Station, Panniyur, is tolerant to drought and quick wilt disease while Vijay, a variety developed at College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara, is high yielding and is characterised by large berries. Scientists at Agricultural research station, Mannuthy, claim that Manulakshmy , the new variety of tomato they developed, produces the largest fruits and is resistant to bacterial wilt. HarithaSree a snakegourd variety, Akshaya , another Tomato variety, Aswathy , a variety of Ginger and Aswin i 1, a variety of Asoka were developed at the College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara. Vellayani Thejus , a shade tolerant chilly variety with highly pungent round shaped fruits, Aiswarya , a variety of Fodder Cowpea with 18.5% protein content and Rice Bean variety of Surabhi with protein content of 18.9 % were developed at College of Agriculture, Vellayani. KAU Vice-Chancellor Dr. P. Rajendran said that the new varieties would add to the 271 varieties of different crops developed by Kerala Agricultural University till 2011. KAU Director of Research Dr. T. R. Gopalakrishnan said the new varieties had yielded appreciable results in field trials. Several more varieties, developed during 2012-13 would be recommended for release on satisfactory completion of testing process, he added. Headed by the Agricultural Production Commissioner, the State Committee on Variety release consists of the Director of Research, KAU; Head, Department of Plant Breeding, KAU; Director of Agriculture, Additional Director of Agriculture ( Crop Production), a representative of the National Seed Corporation and farmers’ representatives .
Posted on: Sun, 04 Aug 2013 14:05:31 +0000
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