The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) in New Delhi has earmarked about Rs.20 crore in the Eleventh Plan for advanced research on three important plant pathogens known as phytophthora, fusarium and ralstonia which affect a large number of crops including vegetables, fruits, spices, plantation crops, ornamental plants, pulses and oil seeds.Phytophthora diseases affect all major cash crops in Kerala. It causes foot rot of black pepper, 'mahali' of arecanut, bud rot of coconut and pod rot of cocoa.Considering the expertise available there Indian Institute of Spices Research (IISR), which has its headquarters in Kozhikode, has been authorised to lead this project involving 16 other crop-based institutions across the country. The project was officially launched in New Delhi by H.P. Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture), on February 23. Of the Rs.19.65 crore total outlay of the project, IISR-Kozhikode gets Rs.6.5 crore. The crops covered by IISR-Kozhikode are black pepper and ginger. The other crops in this project includes coconut, cocoa, banana, tuber crops, citrus, guava, oil seeds and vegetables. Dr. Anandaraj would coordinate the activities related to the project. This project also envisages establishment of centres of excellence on phytophthora, ralstonia and fusarium with state-of-the-art facilities. Dr. Parthasarathy, Director, IISR, said the project would provide thorough understanding of the pathogen diversity, develop tools for detection and diagnosis of pathogen in planting material and soil, resistance of host-plant and isolation of resistant genes, molecular tools for reducing the time taken for developing disease-resistant varieties and development of effective Integrated Disease Management strategies resulting in cleaner agri-products free of pesticide and fungicide residues.
The Hindu, 3rd March 2009
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