GERMPLASM MAINTENANCE
- One Controlled atmosphere Godown (Humidity and temperature controlled) and one -200 Celsius freezer is used in our R&D farm for storage of breeding lines and gemplasm respectively.
O.P PADDY VARIETAL DEVOLOPMENT
- Paddy varietal development programme started in Kharif 2009 with Modern varieties through hybridization and selection for better plant types, better grain types and improvement of duration in maturity, disease resistance, stress tolerance and yield.
- So far 1385 OP crosses were initiated using various types of parental characters like high yield, Earliness, Cooking quality, Biotic & Abiotic Stresses & other lines having good market preference. Out of which 286 Segregating lines, 90 advanced lines are under testing and 18 fixed lines are under Multi-location trial & trials in farmers’ field.
- Similarly 12 earlier selections are given in the seed market for commercialization has fetched very strong market demand.
HYBRID PADDY DEVOLOPMENT
- Hybrid Paddy Development work started during Boro/Rabi (Dry Season) 2010-11.
- So far 3546 Hybrid crosses were taken, out of which 3460 F1 were evaluated and 86 are under evaluation. Out of earlier evaluations, 12 combinations are identified for initial trial.
- After extensive trial at various stages 5 hybrid lines with duration group of 100 to 130 days were identified for commercialization and are currently being marketed. These 5 hybrid rice lines have already attracted farmer’s attention under trial marketing in the previous years.
- 4 more varieties are in advance stage of trial which will be marketed soon.
- 36 CMS lines are regularly purified and maintained by the R&D Unit.
- 250 Restorer lines are identified. In addition identification of desirable new R-Lines and development & identification of new CMS lines are under way. 3 new CMS lines are already under advanced development.
RAPID GENERATION ADVANCEMENT (RGA) IN PADDY TO ENABLE SPEED BREEDING
- Rapid Generation Advance breeding can shorten the growth duration of segregating population, thus making possible several generations per year.
- We have developed an RGA protocol for generation advancement among paddy genotypes.
- By integrating RGA method in our breeding programs we are able to reduce the operational requirement of time, expenses and save nearly couple of months in paddy breeding research.
- The duration for advancing from F2 to F5 generation generally takes about 4 years which can be shortened by 2 years using RGA method.
GRAIN QUALITY TESTING
- The company has engaged itself in analysis of qualitative traits to judge the cooking quality and consumer acceptability of its existing hybrid and high yielding varieties. Standard quality testing laboratory is established for this purpose.
- DUS (Distinctness, uniformity stability) characterization following national guidelines of these evolved high yielding varieties and hybrids is also being undertaken.
VARIETAL IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME OF MUSTARD
- We are maintaining a huge number of rapeseed and mustard accessions collected from DRMR Bharatpur, PORS , Baharampur and some local popular lines.
- We are also engaged in pure line maintenance and hybridization program to get improved hybrids of mustard specially heat tolerant lines.
VEGETABLE BREEDING
- Varietal development and germplasm maintenance of different vegetables
- DUS testing and quality assessment of vegetables
- Comparative trial program of different vegetable seeds
COMPARATIVE MULTI-LOCATION TRIAL PROGRAM AND FARMER’S FIELD DEMONSTRATION OF DIFFERENT CROPS
- Our product development team organize and conduct these trials to evaluate the stability and comparative performance of our own developed lines with popular checks.
- We are conducting Multilocation trial and demonstration in different location of West Bengal, Assam, Odisha, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand, Chattishgarh and Punjab.
TISSUE CULTURE AND AEROPONICS SYSTEM
- We have a sophisticated tissue culture laboratory with all latest facilities.
- Using Meristem culture and micropropagation technique we are developing protocols for production of disease free microplant of different crops.
- We usually harden the microplants and transplant them under aphid proof net house on nursery beds in both soil and cocopeat to evaluate the agronomic performance.
- We have established a well-equipped Aeroponics set up at our R&D firm to evaluate the performance of microplants under soil less medium. Protocol for Potato Aeroponics mini-tubers development with tissue culture back up was standardized by us under a collaborative project with CPRI, Shimla for the first time in the Eastern India.
APICAL ROOTED CUTTING
- Apical rooted cutting (ARC) of both tissue culture plantlet and sprout of early generation tuber was successfully done and was also found to be a very suitable alternative technology for multiplication of disease free plantlets in short span of time.