Crop Protection

Crop Protection

The Department of Crop Protection deals with the management of pests and diseases affecting the growth of the crop plants. The students will learn about integrated pest and disease management measures and strategies with special emphasis on Host Plant Resistance, Bio-control, measures using bio-pesticides and judicious use of chemical pesticides. The various fields under this department are

Agricultural Entomology

Hands on training help the students to acquaint themselves with external morphology of the insects, basic aspects of anatomy of different systems and identification of insects up to family level with hands-on experience. The students are exposed to the knowledge about the economically important insects like Honeybee, Silkworm, Lac insect, Pollinators, Weed killers, Parasitoids and Predators and principles governing the management of insect pest, including the concept and components of Integrated Pest Management. Students were exposed to different Pests of Field and Horticultural crops that throws light on the distribution, bionomics, symptoms of damage and management strategies of pests of crops like Cereals, Millets, Pulses, Oilseeds, Cotton, Sugarcane, Green Manures, Forage Crops, Stored Products, Vegetable Crops, Fruit Crops, Tuber Crops, Spices and Plantation Crops, Flower Crops and Medicinal Plants. Students are taken to farmer’s field to real assessment of pest incidence and their management.

Nematology

Students have been taught about the methods of extraction of plant parasitic nematode from soil and root, morphological characters of different plant parasitic nematodes, different symptoms and damages caused by nematodes, nematicide application methods and dosage calculation of nematicides. The students are taught about mass production of nematophagus fungi (Paecilomyceslilacinus & Pochoniachlamydosporia) for the management of plant parasitic nematodes.

Plant Pathology

The students are provided with training to identify the symptoms produced by various plant pathogenic organisms and their relationship with factors and host and also they are familiarized with the characters of plant pathogens through dissection and herbarium. Apart from this, they also learn about the taxonomic characters of plant pathogens. The students are provided with the dissection and Herbarium collection which are used to learn Etiology, symptoms, mode of spread, survival, epidemiology, host parasitic relationship and integrated management of important diseases due to fungi, bacteria, viruses, phytoplasma, phanerogamic parasites and non-parasitic causes of cereals, Millets Pulses, Oilseeds, Cash crops, Fruits, vegetables and Plantation crops. Students are also taken to farmers field to get exposure about symptoms produced by different plant pathogens for better understanding of the subject and identification of pathogens.