School of Crop Improvement
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Crop Improvement, Horticulture & Plant Protection
Focuses on enhancing the productivity, quality, and resilience of crops grown in North-East India through plant breeding, genetics, agronomy, and crop protection. EFC-mandated projects: genetic improvement of field crops for climate resilience; improvement of underutilised horticultural crops; and pest and disease management strategies for major crops.
1. School of Crop Science
The School of Crop Improvement works on enhancing the productivity, quality, and resilience of crops grown across North-East India, with a focus on developing varieties and technologies suited to the region's specific soil types, climate, and farming systems — particularly alluvial and acidic soils, rainfed lowlands, and flood-prone ecosystems.
Mandated Research Projects (as per EFC 2021–26)
Project 1: Genetic Improvement of Field Crops for Productivity and Climate Resilience
- Enhancing productivity of indigenous rice genotypes with specialty traits
- Development of climate-resilient rice genotypes suitable for rainfed and flood-prone lowlands
- Breeding climate-resilient, short-duration rapeseed/mustard varieties for rice fallows
- Breeding pulses and buckwheat for utilisation of rice fallows
- Development of rice/rabi maize hybrids for improved yield and disease resistance
- Pre-breeding in rice for tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses
Project 2: Improvement of Cultivated and Underutilized Horticultural Crops of North-East Region
- Collection, evaluation, conservation, and improvement of cultivated, indigenous, and underutilised horticultural crops of the NE region
- Develop and refine sustainable production and protection technologies for horticultural crops of the NE region
- Develop appropriate post-harvest management protocols for horticultural crops to reduce losses, improve marketing, and enable product diversification
- Generate wealth from waste and by-products of horticultural crops through value addition and processing
- Design, develop, and refine process and equipment to reduce drudgery in production and processing of horticultural crops of the NE region
Project 3: Pest and Disease Management Strategies for Major Crops
- Bionomics and epidemiology of insect-pests, nematodes, and pathogens and their natural enemies in lowland rice ecosystem
- Development of integrated pest management module for major crops in multidisciplinary mode
- Diagnostics and management of important diseases prevalent in the North-Eastern states
- Identification and formulation of agrochemicals of natural origin for efficient crop protection
