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Sanction Date: |
21-01-2019 |
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Project Category |
MG |
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Year |
2018-2019 |
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Project Duration |
3 Years + 9 Months project extension |
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BTA : |
Biodiversity Conservation & Management |
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Project Site/ State/ Districts/ Villages Covered: |
Tea growing region of Assam (Upper Assam and South Assam)
Tea growing Darjeeling region of West Bengal
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Organization/ Implementation Agency: |
Tea Board of India, Darjeeling Tea Research and Development Centre, Kurseong- 734203 Dist. Darjeeling (WB) |
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Project Partners: |
S.No. |
Name |
| 1. |
Tea Board of India, Darjeeling Tea Research
and Development Centre, Kurseong- 734203
Dist. Darjeeling (WB) |
| 2. |
Tea Board of India, Department of Microbiology, Assam University,
Silchar-788011, Assam |
| 3. |
Tea Board of India, National Centre for Microbial Resource,
National Centre for Cell Science, Pune-411007 |
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Lead Proponent: |
Mr. Rajesh Chauhan
Tea Board of India
Darjeeling Tea Research and Development Centre
Kurseong, Darjeeling
West Bengal-734203
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Project Brief Description: |
The cultivation of tea plants in the same soil for several years results in the reduction of tea crop productivity and quality. Contamination of garden tea soil with toxic chemicals and changes in microbial diversity occurs due to increased use of agrochemicals for better production. Identification of soil microbes thriving in such contaminated soil would be helpful in screening for tolerant bacteria that can be exploited for sustainable cultivation practice using microbial inoculants. However, the dynamics of the microbial community and the relationship between microbial dynamics and the quality and yield of tea remain unknown. The use of pesticides in sub Himalayan and North-eastern region has increased in subsequent years. As the use of chemical pesticides increases day by day in the sub Himalayan regions and North East Indian tea plantation process, the soil health also reduces in subsequent years. Since the existence of close relationships between tea yield and atmospheric variables, long-term climate change is likely to cause major effects on the key physiological and developmental processes that conclude the yield and yield components of tea. Moreover as chemical fertilizers and pesticides are vulnerable to erosion by water. Therefore, to enhance the tea yields in bulk amount, large scale of chemical fertilizers has to be applied in tea plantations. Such activities lead to serious soil degradation, with soil acidification, soil compaction and fertility loss. Consequently the efficacy of chemical fertilizers in decreasing tea yields was observed over time. So, various studies are desired to exhibit the restitution of soil degradation by the use of organic fertilizers or manures with addition of plant growth promoting bacteria that help in improved biological activity (Joergensen et al., 2010; Chen et al., 2016). The solution to the heavy chemical inputs in terms of chemical fertilizers is considered into the use of microbe based biofertilizer technology. However, the major challenge with biofertilizer technology as an inalterable part of sustainable agriculture is that, it has to fit the basic requirements. Though, in several instances, such inoculation does not produce the desired effects due to lack of cohesive interaction between plant and bacteria. This can be overcome by understanding the indigenous and inherent microbiome of plants. Therefore, in this project, a cutting edge technology is being proposed based on recent development in microbiology and plant-microbiome science. Due to availability of techniques like next generation sequencing, we now know that there are numerous microbes associated with host plants (rhizosphere and endosphere), and the functional genes available in this gene pool to plant is seldom referred as its "second genome". Therefore, here we have proposed to identify the core microbiome of tea plants and to isolate important members of microbiome and make a formulation of bioinoculant, that will be useful to improve the yield of plants and therefore productivity, by reducing the chemical load on environment. |
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Beneficiaries/ Stakeholders: |
All the stakeholders associated with tea cultivation in Himalayan region. |
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Activity Chart (For 3 years) |
Click Here |
| Project Objectives |
Quantifiable Deliverables |
Monitoring Indicators |
| Deciphering the microbial communities associated with tea cultivated in Darjeeling and Assam regions of India. |
Details database of the population dynamics of bacteria and their functional role, associated with tea plant in Darjeeling and Assam. |
Number of key microbial species/ strain isolated (Nos.) |
| To determine the effect of chemical inputs on yield in correlation to change in microbiome structure, and its comparative assessment in different zones. |
A Collection of microbial strains with plant growth promoting (PGP) activity. |
Developed Demonstration model (Nos.) |
| To isolate the key microbial species using improved cultivation techniques and identification using MALDI-TOF MS and DNA sequencing |
Establishing field demonstrations at 2 farms in selected sites. |
Database developed (Nos.) |
| Screening of microbial strains for multiple plant growth promoting attributes |
Improvement in / income of tea worker by least 30-40% through crop improvement. |
Improved the economic condition/income (%) |
| Development of microbial formulation based on efficient strains and field demonstration in tea gardens. |
Imparting training to at least 100 SC/ST and other tea workers in 2 sites. |
Number of Training Programme Organized (Nos.) |
| Number of beneficiaries village/ local people (Nos.) |
| Impart training to tea workers to produce and apply the bio-inoculant. |
No. of Reports/Research articles/Policy documents prepared and published (Nos.) |
