Research Activities

 Thrust Areas of Research:

     1. Crop Improvement
     2. Crop Production
     3. Crop Protection
     4. Post Harvest Management
     5. Biotechnology
     6. Transfer of Technology

On going Research Projects: The Centre has formulated and working on 5 Projects in the disciplines of Horticulture, Pathology, Soil Science and Soil/Water conservation and Engineering.

Surveys: As per the directives from ICAR, surveys of pomegranate orchards in the Maharashtra state were carried out during July 3 to 5 2006 and February 19 to 22 2007 by the scientist of NRCP Solapur, MPKV Rahori, IIHR Bangalore, Directorate of plant protection Nagpur and Bangalore to assess the damage to pomegranate crop due to importanat diseases and insect-pests prevalent in the region.

 Research Achievements:
 Crop improvement

• A national pomegranate gene bank has been established in 2006. More than 85 accessions collected from different places.

 Crop production

• In all 75 orchards were surveyed, 15 in Nashik and 60 in Solapur district during December 2005 - July 2006.

• Ganesh, Bhagwa, Phule Arakta and Mridula were the important pomegranate cultivars grown in Solapur and Nashik with cv. Bhagwa covering the maximum area.

• Air layering (gootee) was the most common method of propagation.

• Multistem (2-4 branches) system of training was being followed by growers and plants were kept in proper shape through pruning.

• All pomegranate orchards revealed drip irrigation, in addition some orchards had also irrigation channels.

• Sole cropping system was more common. Intercropping with gram ,watermelon, onion and brinjal was also practiced in some of the orchards of 1-3 year age.

• Use of FYM and NPK fertilizers was common. However, some growers also applied neem cake at the time of bahar treatment.

• Majority of the growers practiced Hasta bahar , while others practiced Ambe and Mrig bahars.

• Analysis of soil samples, revealed that pomegranate was cultivated in all soil types in the state from Lithic ustortherns to typic haplustrs .

• Soil pH varied between 7.6 to 8.1, EC between 0.16 to 0.31 dS/m, organic carbon between 0.92 and 1.43 %.

• Soil fertility status showed that available N, P and K ranged from 196 to 266, 8.61 to 19.2 and 179.0 to 627.0 kg/ha, respectively while soil Micro Nutrients Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu were present in sufficient range.

 Crop Protection

• Surveys of 82 pomegranate orchards in the State were carried out to identify the major diseases , disorders and insect pests in the region .

• Diseased samples collected during the surveys were observed under the microscope and used for isolating the pathogens in pure culture.

• The main diseases observed during the surveys were bacterial blight caused by Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. punicae (upto 100.0% severity in some orchards) , Pomegranate wilt (70.0% severity), known to be a complex problem due to association of abiotic ( improper drainage and heavy soils) and biotic (association of pathogens like Fusarium oxysporum, Rhizoctonia solani, Ceratocystis fimbriata) factors.

• Other diseases of minor importance were leaf and fruit spots ( 5-60% severity) caused by Cercospora punicae, Colletotrichum gloeosporioides, Alternaria alternata, and fruit rot (13.63%) caused by Rhizopus sp., and Colletotrichum spp.)

• The major disorders observed were i) Internal breakdown of arils ii) Sun scald and iii) Fruit cracking.

• No commercially growing cultivar was found resistant to either bacterial blight or pomegranate wilt.

• Amongst insect pests fruit borer (Deudorix isocrates) infestation was observed in 13.6% orchards . Stem borer (Coelosterna isocrates) and bark eating caterpillar (Inderbela quadrinotata) were also observed in some orchards.

• Besides, aphids, white flies, mites and nematodes were prevalent in isolated orchards.

Committees: The Centre has constituted different Committees to monitor the functioning of the Research Centre and provide guidelines for further strengthening its Research and Development activities. Important Committees constituted are: -
      1. Institute Management Committee (IMC)
      2. Staff Research Committee (SRC)
      3. Research Advisory Committee (RAC)

Meetings: The Centre has successfully organized meetings of different committees to incorporate valuable inputs for bringing further improvement in its ongoing Research and Development Programmes. Various meetings organized are as follows-
      IMC meeting held twice in February and July 2006.
      SRC meeting held in July, 2006.
      RAC meeting held twice in November 2006 and February 2007.