ANNUAL REPORT - Department of Biotechnology

Rural Bioresource Complex:
Five Rural Bioresource Complexes have been set up
at University of Agricultural Sciences, Bangalore;
Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar; G.B. Pant
University of Agriculture and Technology, Pant Nagar
and Marathwada Agricultural University, Parbhani
and Orissa University of Agriculture & Technology,
Orissa with the basic objective of economic
empowerment of the target group through income
generation and better employment opportunities
along with entrepreneurship development, social
benefits and environmental sustainability.
In the Rural Bioresource Complex at UAS,
Bangalore, inaugurated by Dr. V. L. Chopra, Member
Planning Commission. 17 types of interventions
were identified and 15 of them are being promoted in
the RBRC project area at Tubagere in Doddaballapur
taluk of Bangalore District involving the 6,067
families. The major interventions promoted were
seed productions in Ragi and Groundnut,
commercial production of Pop corn, Baby corn,
Tissue culture banana, Rose, Watermelon,
Drumstick, Mulberry, Improved fish farming and
Value added products in ragi In order to effectively
implement the interventions 42 training programmes
and two study tours were organized. Market linkages
are established to sell the produce of growers at a
profitable price.
At MAU, Parbhani, base line survey has been
completed. Seed production programme has been
taken on 271.6 hectare areas covering 678
beneficiaries directly. The intervention on
pomegranate cultivation (Bhagva variety) was
completed on 75 acres area benefiting 75 farmers.
The goat keeping intervention was extended to 40
landless beneficiaries by providing them most sturdy
Osmanabadi goats after vaccination and deworming,
25% of the total beneficiaries have reported birth of
single or twins among two-three goats. For Poultry
farming (Vanraja Variety), a low cost completely prefabricated
poultry shed was designed and developed
and is now under mass construction on the site of 40
landless beneficiaries. The shed is designed to
69
accommodate 100 poultry birds. Till date, 843
families are direct beneficiaries and 2297 are indirect
beneficiaries.
Medicinal and Aromatic Plants
A programme on biotechnological intervention on
medicinal and aromatic plants was continued for
conservation, characterization, micropropagation,
production of secondary metabolites, development
of standardized herbal products, isolation and
characterization of novel therapeutic agents,
genomics and metabolic engineering. A network
project on developing standardized herbal product(s)
for bovine mastitis has been initiated. The salient
achievements of the programme during the year are
as follows:
National Gene Bank for Medicinal and Aromatic
Plants
The four gene banks have been further strengthened
with emphasis on collection, conservation and
characterization:
Tropical Botanic Garden and Research Institute,
Thiruvananthapuram
A total of 370 accessions belonging to 96 species
were collected from Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu,
Goa, Andhra Pradesh and Andaman Islands and
introduced in to field gene bank. Morphological
characterization based on qualitative and
quantitative characters of 51 accessions belonging to
7 species and anatomical characterization of 10
accessions of two species were carried out. Seeds of
19 target species were collected and deposited to the
seed bank. Seven accessions belonging to three
species were added in to the in vitro bank. Zygotic
embryo cryopreservation was standardized in
Coscinium fenestratum. Molecular characterization
of 24 accessions of Costus speciosus and six
accessions of Trichopus zeylanicus using RAPD and
ISSR markers has been completed.
Research and Development