Volume 2, No. 3 July-Sept 2007

Executive Committee

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Editorial Board

Patron :El Tel Agro Marvels Pvt. Ltd.

P.K.CHATTOPADHYAY, F/Hort

R. K. BISWAS, Dean PG

After spending a year, the toddling AAPP, stood up to the testing times to organize its firstAnnual General Meeting on 30 May, 2007 while trying to live up to its logo '

Teething problems for the first year were enormous, a resultant of trying to meet the fundrequirement on a shoe-string budget and the variable commitment of its core groups atacademic and professional levels. It became obvious that it takes a little time and a lot ofenergy to grow up and mature into a coherent team. This seems to be true of the moresunburnt teams like the BCCI, in cricketing parlance.Be that as it may, one can look back to the year 2006-07 with some kind of satisfaction inhaving achieved the small things. The first english newsletter was collated, printed and kickstarted in a record time of only two weeks to be launched by the Chief Minister of WestBengal, Sri. Buddhadeb Bhattacharya on 30. 01.06. Since then the Newsletter, scheduled tobe produced quarterly, did so almost too regularly to be true. Yet the Newsletter, far frombeing a routine publicity material of an Organization, became a source of breaking news inthe gray margins of crop protection. Our distribution system is still to get over the initialhiccups, be it through internet or post copies. We however keep on inviting the PlantProtection fraternity to give us a feedback, of projecting their thoughts on the character orother peripherals, almost invariably in vain. We have failed as yet to pack enough punches tobring out our fraternity from its subtropical languor. We hardly receive any response, noteven calls for hard copies, PDF copies, less said the better about becoming members orfilling up our proforma for a National Register for Plant Protection Scientists.Midway through the first year, the Association, having felt a void in the approach to reachout to our primary target population - the farmers, came up with a regional language version

designed and specifically targeting the former. Sashya Surakshaidentified the primary pest problems of coming crops through descriptive and pictorialpresentation albeit briefly, so that the farmers can by themselves identify the majorproblems and decide on a pest management schedule. We were at a phone calls distance toresolve the more contentious issues and believe me, we were on call repeatedly. The firstissue was a brilliant success, both for its sudden appearance in the horizon as a silver liningand its contents and all prints, priced modestly, were used up avidly. Unfortunately, havingpublished 3 issues almost on schedule, the tropical somnolence is perhaps catching up withthe team and the 4 issue is inordinately delayed. Hopefully it will be out on the racks soon.Sashya Suraksha was incidentally launched formally on 28 June 2006 by Dr. G. C. Tewari,the ADG (Education & Planning), ICAR, who appreciated the efforts of the AAPP for massawareness and participation in plant protection.The 8 July, was another landmark day forAAPPwho, jointly with EI TelAgro Marvels Pvt.Ltd., organized a with the objective of providing both dealersand farmers a ground level, hands-on training on identifying nematode problems and theirmanagement, both in the field, in nurseries and greenhouses. Over 80 participants fromNadia, 24-Parganas (N), Maldah, Murshidabad, Bankura, Purulia, Birbhum, Bardhaman,W. Dinajpur and Jalpaiguri districts assembled and benefited from a no-frills trainingprogramme. The only frill was a brief inaugural session, wherein Dr. S. K. Laha, PrincipalScientist, CRIJAF (ICAR) made a power point presentation on the

. For those participating, it was almost a firstvisual glimpse of truely plant parasitic nematodes! Unfortunately, the proposedcontinuation of the programme on the same date each year could not materialize this yearfor lack of backing from the Industry so indispensible in organizing such programmes.Without the enthusiastic participation of the market managers, such training are likely tobecome an academic exercise.The AAPP scientists also participated in several programmes and workshops like StateLevel Workshop on Exploring Export Potentialities of Mango from West Bengal and itsSecretary, Dr. Shantanu Jha remained involved in several programmes of the State Council

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Together wewill protect our crops'.

'Sashya Suraksha'

,

'Nematode Awareness Day'

'Association ofnematodes with man, animal, insect and plants'

Contd. on page 2

AAPP Alerts

AGM of AAPP

News in Brief

Greetings to all.

Enjoy the festive season

Looking Back

The biological process of co-evolution between plants and theirenemies such as fungus, bacteria, virus, nematodes etc. mighthave emerged simultaneously in the domain of biologicaldiversity. More associations of host-pathogen interactionsresulted during the domestication of crop plants by humanintervention. It is also evident that this co-evolution of host-pathogen occurs in cycles. Initially, natural selection forces theevolution of new resistance character. Later, morphologicaland chemical diversity result in the process of evolution toacquire the adaptation for the defensive role against themicrobial attacks. The current cycle continues as the breedersrelease new resistant variety and moves on with the breakdownof the resistance and as counter co-evolution continues in thesame or modified manner. Disease or pest control is based onthe principle of maintaining yield loss below an injury level. Inmost cases, fungicides/pesticides and biological controlincluding crop rotation, IPM (integrated pest management) isused for plant protection. Conventional breeding for plantprotection suffers from a series of limitations that include lackof resistant genotype (e.g. sheath blight of rice caused by

), reproductive barriers between plantspecies preventing transfer of resistant genes, etc. Plant speciesgenerally possesses its immune system, which signals acellular response and leads to the death of the attackingpathogen. Plant recognizes pathogen encoded moleculesthrough probable receptors encoded by disease resistancegenes. A signal transduction study provides an excellentunderstanding of gene for gene resistance, which explains plantpathogen co-evolution in a given environment. The firstcloned R gene, was obtained through transposon tagging.Later, chromosome walking (positional cloning) andheterologous transposon tagging made it possible to clonemany genes used for plant protection. Developing varietiesresistant to natural enemies (virus, fungi, bacteria etc.) wouldprovide a solution for sustainable agriculture. This approach isinexpensive, environmental friendly and management wouldbe easier than before.Genomics implies DNA sequencing, routine use of DNAmicroarray and proteomics. Genomics based strategies forgene discovery, coupled with validation of the transgenes bytransgenesis have accelerated the identification of functionalprofile of candidate genes. Genomics indicates the biodiversityin a crop and the inventory of allelic diversity at locicontributing to agronomic traits and ultimately to molecularbreeding aiming for crop improvement including plantprotection. Since the paradigm of the genome as agenetic roadmap of plant genome, rice emerged as a modelcereal food crop for plant gene function of agronomic traits andlegume genomics is placed with the diversity and thephylogenetic relationship with distantly related species. It is

Rhizoctonia solani

R

Hm1

Arabidopsis

also important to explore the wild species and characterize thegenes for further use rather than only storing them in the genebank. The recent genome sequence developed by Monsanto,Syngenta, BGI (Beijing Genomic Institute) and the ongoingresearch at International Rice genome Sequencing Project atTsukuba, Japan in rice and genome sequencing byNSF and partners in Europe will accelerate gene discovery andhelp crop improvement.Databases in Systems Biology studies on genomics aregenerating enormous knowledge, which requires organized orcentralized system of storage of what is referred as databases ofmodern biology. Bioinformatics allows the dissemination ofthis information-based well managed databases. The currentknowledge allows us to understand the integration ofGenomics, Physiological Functioning, Host-pathogen/pestinteraction, Genetics and Plant breeding translating intoSystems Biology. Considering the tremendous value ofgenomics research for crop improvement, broad collaborationsin genomic research involving private and public sectors withemphasis on the need to provide the best science to serve thefarmers' perspective of economic gain of agriculture growth isan urgent need. Improved seeds and germplasm of high valuegenetic resources remain in the public domain whereas themost of the genomic tools used in modern bioscience includingfunctional genomics are patented under the National andInternational agreements. The present gene evolution based ongenomics study should provide wide scope of its applicationacross the ecosystems and crop barriers.Farmers require improved seeds/crops. Biotech basedpackages of improvement as complimentary tools of plantbreeding can be incorporated in the seeds which should reachthe farmers with further information and confirmation of itssafety, practice and management. The availability of variouscultivars with different resistance genes could significantlyreduce the yield loss. Assuming a minimum yield loss of 1%due to bacterial blight (BB) disease caused by

around $320 million over 30 million ha with an averageyield 5.5 t/ha in China whereas, a yield loss of 0.75% covering132.5 million ha with an average yield of 3.6 t/ha in Asiatranslates into $715.5 million. This analysis shows theeconomic impact of BB protected plants in Asia. Genespyramiding for broad spectrum plant protection will have muchgreater economic impact when available. The policy makersshould look into its potential use and make necessary access tothe Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) irrespective of the natureof ownership. IPR should not be a barrier of moving thetechnology for the benefit of human welfare.

Medicago

Xanthomonasoryzae,

ex ante

Genomics and Plant ProtectionSwapan K Datta,Rashbehari Ghosh Professor, Department of Botany, University of Calcutta, Kolkata-700 019.

E-mail: swpndutta@gmail.com

& Technology and Department of Food Processing, Industries &Horticulture. It is to be hoped that both public and private sectorswill join hands with the AAPP to make such programmes morefarmer friendly.The initially proposed

was delayed but has now beenfinalized to be held on . We have severalsessions on plant protection all at the cutting edge technologies thatare breaking into the agricultural arena. We are, fortunately,receiving international participation especially in the morefundamental platforms of the Symposium. We hope all Institutionshaving an agenda in plant protection will put in their representationand thus help finalizing a future line of action commensurate withtheneeds of theNation.

National Symposium on 'PlantProtection-Technology Interface'

28-29th December, 2007-

Another breaking interface on agriculture in general and plantprotection in particular is the climate change coming on to usonerously like a Nostradamus unplugged and we focused on thevarious aspects of it briefly in our Jan-March issue of 2007. Finally,the matter of climate change was brought to greater focus with elitediscussions on the various issues involved by several stalwartsincluding Prof. A. N. Bose, Chairman, WBPCB, Ex-Vice-Chancellor of Jadavpur University and Dr. L. S. Rathore, Advisor,National Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasting on theday of our AGM, i.e. 30 May '07 under the garb of a seminar on

Dr. Rathoreaptly concluded his presentation saying 'we can keep on warningabout the serious consequences of climate change but, as theAAPP says, will the concerned administrative authorities wake upto this stark reality!

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'Global Climate Change: Impacts on Agriculture.'

(Brought from page 1 : Editorial)The editors solicit comments,opinions, for or against the thought muted by the author.They will be published in the next issue.

3

Crown gall of Cabbage and Cauliflower : A new record fromWest Bengal, India and its significance -

Partha Pratim Ghosh M K Dasgupta,

p p g h o s h _ s a n t i n i k e t a n @ r e d i f f m a i l . c o m ,oikos_santiniketan@rediffmail.com

For the first time crowngall has been found on seedlings of cabbage and cauliflower in India.The problem occurred in seedbeds of field soil (collected from a plotwith rice-vegetables annual cropping pattern) and farmyard manuremix on platforms raised on and with bamboo sticks. Collapse anddecay of 100% seedlings were observed in two to three weeks inaround a thousand seedlings of each sub-species. Both seeds hadbeen supplied by a roving vendor.

A number of round, tiny, spongy, soft and whitish girdlingoutgrowths first appeared in root, stem and crown on each seedlingbut became evident obviously in the opposite sequence. The minutegalls soon turned into large, convoluted, rough-surfaced, knotty,dark brown tumours that seemed to rot in a few weeks. The tumourswere discontinuous running into one another but mostly composite,looked as if a number of infection foci was present on a singleseedling. Once the Ti plasmid is formed, it translocates and causestumours to form and develop without any active presence of

(At). The At tumours ranged from 3 to 7mm in diameter with the host axis at the centre. Gall sizes oncrowns, stems and roots were the largest to the smallest, respectively.Leaves appeared chlorotic and drooping (Figure 1 a-f)In India, temperate stone fruits innurseries grown in the subtropicalhills such as peach, pear, plum, andraspberry are affected in HimachalPradesh, and in the subtropicalplains in grape vine in AndhraPradesh.At is able to survive as a saprophytein soil for several years without anyhost, when the population isdiminished. It survives at low levelsfor less than two years--being bestat the optimum temperature of22 C. Host penetration is possiblethrough any injury to roots,commonly inf l ic ted by theintercultural tools. It spreads withrunning water and soil drift &agricultural tools & implements.Yet seedlings may remain symptomless for long.Excellent biological control of crown gall can be achieved bysoaking germinated seeds or dipping nursery seedlings in asuspension of a particular strain (K 84) releasing bacteriocin,agrocin of or else, var.

Strain K1026 live culture can be used, if available. It istime to make one or both isolates available to farmers across thecountry in short noticeWe are thankful to , District PlantProtection Officer, Paschim Medinipur, and ,Agricultural Development Officer, Binpur 1 who brought theproblem to our notice during September, 2006.

, Research Scholar, andFormer Professor & Hony. Professor, Department of PlantProtection, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan, WB, 731236. :

( .:More evidence of pathogen identity above symptomproduction is required to justify this first claim report.)

Agrobacterium tumefaciens

.

Agrobacterium radiobacter A. radiobacterradiobacter

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Sri Himangshu MondalSri Ranajit Poddar

E-mail

Ed

Block ,

White tip nematode problem in rice :

M.R.Khan & P. Chattopadhyaya,mrkhanbckv@rediffmail.com

The white tip disease of rice iscaused by The species also induces floralmalady in tuberose. is a seed-borne nematode distributedin all rice growing areas of the world. However, in West Bengal, thisdisease was never seen in serious form in rice. Recent survey in 14districts of the state revealed occurrence of the nematode in rice fieldin almost all the districts investigated but no development of typicalwhite tip symptom in growth phases of rice was noticed. In Khatrablock of Bankura district of West Bengal, about one acre of rice field(selection GS-3) was affected by . The plants probably

suffer from multiple infections of nematode sheath blight pathogenand mite problems. The standing crop showed abnormalities inbranching, formation and initiation of panicles, twisting of leaf andleaf sheath, corrugated leaf margin, concealed abnormal paniclearrested within the leaf sheath, distorted and shortened flag leaf; afew panicles emerged but bearing mostly chaffy and poor number ofgrains. Laboratory analysis of plant samples revealed involvement ofwhite tip nematode, with the disease symptoms. Theimpact of this nematode on the standing crop is huge and the growersfelt cheated by the seed supplying companies in the areas. It ispresumed that seeds used by the growers are infected withbecause the nematode is primarily known to be seed-borne and

spreads through infected seeds.The same nematode is a seriousthreat to rice in other states likeAndhra Pradesh, MadhyaP r a d e s h a n d G u j a r a t .Unregulated movement of poorquality seeds across the Statethrough seed business companies

is an alarming threatto introduce new

pests includings e e d -b o r n e

nematode in thepests-free monocrop

areas of dry tracts of the State.

:

The nematode can be effectively managed through seed disinfection

and growing resistant varieties. Following options and practices are

effective to reduce the problem:

(1)Presoaking of seed for 12 hr followed by hot water treatment at

52-53ºC for 10 min is most effective to denematise the seeds; (2) Sun

drying of rice on concrete floor on a bright sunny day for 6 hr for four

consecutive days reduces nematode in grains ; (3) Field hygiene with

clean cultivation and burying of rice stubbles, straw, debris, weeds

and new growths after harvest reduce nematode infection;(4) If

required, 2-3 sprayings at 10-15 days interval on the standing crop

with monocrotopohos at 1 Lha may give good result.( : BCKV, Kalyani.

: )

Aphelenchoides besseyi.A. besseyi

A. besseyi

A. besseyi

A. besseyi

Management approaches

SourceE-mail

AAPP Alerts

(a)(b) (c) (d)

(e) (f)

AAPP celebrates its first AGM:Seminar on 'Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture’

The AAPP having focused on emerging and gray areas of PlantProtection through its , and more down to earthproblems through , celebrated its march over ayear through its (AGM) on 30 May,2007 at the auditorium of the Directorate of Research, BidhanChandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani. The highlight of theAGM was the prefixing of a concurrent seminar on

where invited speakerspresented the awesome future of climate-change interfaced withagriculture in general and plant protection in particular.The seminar was chaired by the President of AAPP, Dr. D. K.Bagchi, Vice-Chancellor, BCKV, Mohanpur.At the onset, the Secretary of the Association,while welcoming thegues t s and memberso u t l i n e d t h e s a l i e n tach ievements of theAssociation over the year,underscoring it's high andlow tides.The President

r eca l l ed thepleasant memories he hadwith AAPP since itsinception and pointed outthat the two quarterlypublications acted asb r i d g e , t h e E n g l i s hNewsletter meant for themen who matter in pilotingthe nation's science andtechnology mission forward and the Bengali 'directed solely towards the farmers working at the grass root tierof agriculture. The success of , he pointed outwas indicated by all copies being sold out within months of itspublication.Reverting to the topic of the Seminar, Dr. Bagchi said that thefocus of attention in the agricultural scenario has shifted toclimate change especially since the release of the SummaryReport of the 4 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC, 2007) at Paris. The overall picture painted was one ofgloom and doom on the long run if the direction of the climatechange is not reversed or at least halted on its tracks. The primary

culprit of thisg l o o m a n ddoom appearedt o b e t h eu n b r i d l e dr e l e a s e o fg r e e n h o u s egasses (GHGs)primarily bythe developedc o u n t r i e s ,t h o s ebelonging tothe G-8 group,who use fossilf u e l s b o t h

extensively and intensively to meet their energy requirements.These primarily are the countries that refuse to sign the Kyotoprotocol while imposing restrictions on the less developedcountries outside the G-8, blaming them to be primarilyresponsible for this impending debacle. If the world is to succeedin its mission to arrest the climate change, it has to impose the

NewsletterSashya Suraksha

“GlobalClimate Change: Impact on Agriculture”

'Sashya Suraksha

'Sashya Suraksha'

Annual General Meeting

Dr. Santanu Jha,

Dr. D. K.Bagch i

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Kyoto protocol mandatorily on all countries uniformly or evenbetter, primarily direct it for those countries that have a higher percapita use of fossil fuels.The answer to the question of alternative biosafe options of energy(like the biofuels) that are emerging today, need careful scrutinyand they may prove tricky and elusive as long term uniform supplysource. Thus, a world wide word of protest is needed to prevent theGHGs from engulfing the world by changing the consumptionpattern. This is more applicable to the G-8 countries till at leastsuch time as when the disaster management became feasible.Dr. Bagchi closed his address by wishing good growth of AAPPlocally, nationally and internationally.

The first lead speaker of theSeminar, ,Hony. Chairman of the W.B.Pollution Control Board,Retd. Vice-Chancellor ofJadavpur University, ChiefGuest of the occasion, statedthat climate change as it isinterfaced with differentfacets of agriculture hasmany views, options andcritiques. He said he willattempt to present his viewsas an individual and in theinterest of taking

.'Let us start with a very briefconsideration of the 4Summary Report of the

IPCC', Dr. Bose said. The IPCC based its projections on ascientific basis, based on knowledge available at the time ofdrafting the report. These views are largely vague because of theX-factors that remain unidentified, lacking clarity.In fact warming is unequivocal - glaciers will melt; sea board willrise. A 0.2 C rise in temperature is predicted even if the emissionsare held at 2000AD level.The GHG emission projections far exceed the earlier estimates ofIPCC report (2004). The GHG components, primarily CO , CH

and N O are the major causes of global warming of which CO

contributes about 70% of the greenhouse effect. For the majoremissions of CH and N O, agricultural sector is identified as

primarily culprit, leading to India and China being marked up asmajor players in the climate change scenario. Natcom imposes amandatory restriction of CO emissions to the environment after

2012 on India. Unfortunately, he said, the extent and database ofsuch emissions from India are lacking, less said the better for WestBengal.Quoting from IPCC report (2007) the major impacts of climatechange appeared to be the rise in the sea level thus affecting notonly the huge population of coastal settlements especially in Southand South EastAsia but also the habitat of marine life. Thus higherocean acidity was likely to affect the marine biodiversity and thecoral reefs due to a depletion of calcium.He expressed that the effects of global climate change will depletethe GDPover a range of 1.5% to +2.5% globally, 4% forAsia, -2 to4% in Africa while there will be a net gain of GDP in NorthAmerica till about a projection period of 2030. West Europe willlose in all areas. Dr. Bose said that in agricultural sector, crops willbe faced with severe abiotic stress and the temperature rise willhave differential effects on soil health and fertility due to enhancedlevel of decomposition of organic matter.

Dr. A.N.Bose

technologyto the people

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Warmer situationalso changes pestprofile. Thus, suchsituations maye n h a n c e p e s tpopulations,andi n t e n s i f y - -g r a s s h o p p e r -r e l a t e d p e s tp r o b l e m s a r epredicted underglobal warmingscenario; alteredwind patterns are

likely to intensify wind-damage caused by wind-borne pathogenpropagules, and virus vectors and these may change thecharacter of pest profile more importantly in perennial crops.Under Indian conditions, increase in rainfall, thundershowersand thunderstorms are predicted in almost all the States exceptfew like Punjab, Tamilnadu, Gujrat etc. Acute drought ispredicted in Krishna-Kaveri command areas while floods will bemore frequent in Mahanadi,Assam, Orissa, West Bengal, andNorth Eastern States will become more malaria-prone.Dr. Bose pointed out that: (1) increased storms, drought, floodsetc. will affect food production. (2) Developing countriesalready have food problems. Such problems will become moreacute. (3) Habitat changes are already visible bringing aboutindigenous changes in biodiversity. (4) Developing countrieswill have ca 30% reduction in food production. (5) Higher oceanacidity will affect the coral reefs and shelled organisms.The impact of climate change needs to be investigated at bothbiophysical and social level, he said. At the biophysical level arethe increased weed and pest problems, altered land contours dueto sea level rise; rise in sea temperature may alter the fishmovement routes and ocean salinity affect coral reefs and shellfishes. On the other hand, initially rice production in NE Indiamay be higher.Availability of potable water due to shifts in rainfall patterns andevaporation may emerge as a constraint of most aggravatingproportions. Crop pest interactions may shift and may requirechanges in the art of management approaches. In conclusion Dr.Bose highlighted the thrust areas of agricultural research underthe regime of global climate change: (i) Need to develop theability to predict the crop calendar. (ii) Developing of cultivarstolerant to drought, high moisture and salinity. (iii) Water-savingcrop varieties, flood resistant seed. (iv) Livelihood security, and(v) replacing soil carbon loss.At the social level major population shifts from coastal areas(very densely populated in S. & S.E. Asia) due to sea level risewill cause severe sociological problems that need to beaddressed at gigantic proportions.‘The whole scientific community needs to gear up along withsupport systems from legitimate administrative groups if we areserious in trying and circumventing the impending scenario’,Dr.Bose concluded.Finally the keynote address of the seminar was delivered by

Advisor, National Centre for Medium RangeWeather Forecasting New Delhi who highlighted that climatechange is something which we have to accept as reality in thepresent day situation and its impact is visible in different sectors.He said that eleven of the last 12 years were the hottest ever whilediurnal change in temperature did not show any major shiftsfrom 1979 to 2004. He further emphasized that even now 40% ofthe population faces acute shortage of potable water, half of theworld's grasslands are overgrazed, 1/5 of the 10,000 fresh waterspecies are becoming extinct in contaminated water and airpollution kills 5.2 million people every year globally. What is

Dr. L. S. Rathore

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t h e n , c l i m a t echange?

H epointed out thatnatural factors(solar variability,v o l c a n i c d u s tlevel, geologicalchanges ) , andhuman factors

(GHGs, aerosols, ozone depletion and land use changes) aremainly responsible for global climate change.Dr.Rathore identified the reasons for global warming andexplained that variable gases (CO , CH , N O) are the main causes

contributing 70, 23 and 7% respectively of the climate change.Energy requirements and industrial sectors are the majorcontributors of CO emissions while agricultural sector largely

contributes to CH and N O emissions.

Natural systems, Dr.Rathore said, are the most vulnerablebecause of their sensitivity to climate and limited capacity toadopt. Global warming affects agriculture in various ways.Damage due to insect pests and diseases will be more underincreased precipitation and high temperature and temperatureflux situations and weed flora are likely to benefit under elevatedCO concentration level. He pointed out that a rise of temperature

by 2 C is likely to reduce rice yields by 0.75 t/ha and rise in 0.5 Cmay reduce wheat yield by 0.45 t/ha.

In conclusion, Dr. Rathore identified some key areas towardswhich agricultural research needs to be channelised to evaluateand mitigate the impact of climate changes:(I) Development of crop simulation models for impactassessment under changed climate situation.(Ii) Development of abiotic (drought, flood, salinity etc.) stresstolerant varieties.(Iii) Change in land use pattern.(Iv) Watershed management practices.(V) Development of improved disease, pest and weedmanagement strategies.(vi) Development of region specific crop calendar.

Finally, ,Director of Research,BCKV congratulated theSociety for successfuls u s t e n a n c e o f i t sNewsletter and quarterly

and fororganizing the NematodeAwareness Day. Hee x p r e s s e d t h a t t h eAssociation is filling amuch needed void between

the stakeholders in the Plant Protection discipline. He expressedhope that the Association will continue to perform in functioningas the much required link that is often found lacking in our R & Dmodules. Dr. Sanyal finally, conveyed the vote of thanks sayingthat the concurrent Seminar and its carefully selected speakers,Dr. A. N. Bose and Dr.L. S. Rathore added a dimension to theAGM of the Association and showed the level of theircommitment. Dr. Sanyal declared the Seminar closed.

Climatechange is a shift inc l i m a t i cc o n d i t i o n srelative to a givenreference timep e r i o d .

Sashya Suraksha

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Dr. S. K. Sanyal

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AGM Minutes -Highlights : Having done with the Seminar theAGM agenda was discussed. The Secretary's report waspresented by Dr. Santanu Jha, was appreciated and accepted.The Audited Report of accounts, presented by the Treasurer,was adopted. The plan for organizing the National Symposiumon ' was presented indetail by Jt. Secretary, Dr. Matiyar-Rahman Khan and the plan

Plant Protection-Technology Interface'

was adopted. Other comments by members on the format ofpublications were recorded and the members assured that theywill receive due attention. TheAGB approved the continuance ofexisting Executive Body for the year 2007-08. The AGM waschaired by Profs. Chitreshwar Sen, Nilangshu Mukherjee andManoj Ranjan Ghosh. The vote of thanks was expressed by theSecretary.

:AAPP, 30.05.2007 )(Source

( brought forward from p.3)

Rust Disease of Groundnut: Alarming scenariofor Groundnutgrowers---Rustdisease of groundnut( c . o .

Speg) wasintroduced in India inearly seventies andh a s p o s e d m o s tserious problems inthe cultivation ofg r o u n d n u tprincipally becausethe crop is growncontinuously throughout the year indifferent States ofthis country. Podyield declined 10.2 gto 15 .1g /4m indifferent seasons forevery 1% increase indisease sever i ty.Orange colouredpustules appear on the lower surface of the leaves. Originalpustules are often surrounded by colonies of secondary pustules.Corresponding to the sori, on the upper surface of leaves, smallbrown necrotic spots appear. Under severe epiphytotic

P u c c i n i aarachidis

2

AAPP Alerts conditions, lower leaves wither and drop prematurely.Kernels formed in the affected plants are shriveled and small in

size. Disease appears in plantwhen the crop is six weeksold.Movement of uredospores inair was highest in April. T

35 to 38 C, T 23 to 25 C

Rh 79- 80% and Rh 42

46% and wind velocity 4.5km/hr increase the diseaseseverity. Early sowing 1 to15 February in summer, 1Nov. 1 Dec in winter and 1to 15 July in rainy seasonreduces the disease severity.Application of carboxin-0.1% and also tridemorph(0.2%) gave significantreduction in disease severity.G r o w i n g o f r e s i s t a n tvarieties ICGS (FDRS) no. 4and ICGS (FDRS) 23 forminimum disease andm a x i m u m y i e l d i s

recommended.

rofessor of Plant Pathlogy, Bidhan

Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, W.B.-741252. :

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E-mail

Srikanta Das,

sridas_bckv@rediffmail.com

Recipe unveiled for 'Green Super Rice –

Engineering papaya for pathogen resistance --

New rice DNAmap-www.ars.usda.gov.main,

Writing in the

, scientists from HuazhongAgricultural University report that mostdesirable traits necessary for the rice havealready been isolated. The new review, byQifa Zhang, highlights the potential oftransgenic 'Green Super Rice' (GSR),which would also require less fertiliser.Development of GSR, with improved

insect and disease resistances, N- and P-use efficiency, droughtresistance, high grain yield, and superior quality, is critical for amore sustainable rice production. Such a super rice can beachieved in two stages with research firstly necessary to createelite lines carrying the single genes. Such work is partly realised,and thorough evaluation already performed. The second stagefocuses on combining and introducing the genes into cultivarsthat could be considered to display the desired traits for the GSR.Utilisation of these cultivars will result in increased riceproductivity with much reduced inputs to ensure a greatersustainability of rice production and agriculture in general. A bigchallenge is the assembling process to combine all of thefavourable alleles into a single cultivar and ensure their properfunctioning. In this regard, it may be more advantageous to breedfor hybrids than conventional pure line cultivars, because it maytake less effort to have two complementary sets of genes in twoparental lines than stacking all the genes in a single geneticbackground.( :Article #07-08013: Published on-line. Author: S. Zhang.03.10.07).

Proceedings of the National Academy ofSciences

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesSource

Becauseof inadequate genetic resistance, commercially produced papayacrops are heavily sprayed with a broad range of pesticides to

control the fungal diseases such asroot and fruit rot

( ), anthracnose( ),powdery mildew ( ), andblack spot ( ).Collaborative research in Hawaii

between the ARS and the HawaiiAgriculture Research Centre reported results of research togenetically engineered papaya with several heterologous genesencoding the production of antifungal proteins. Over 50independent papaya lines, containing transgenes for expressingchitinase, stilbene synthase, or antifungal peptides wereproduced, molecularly confirmed for genomic integration of thetransgenes, and evaluated in greenhouse and field trials forincreased fungal resistance. Genetic transformation forresistance to fungal diseases has the potential for decreasing theuse of pesticides and significantly improving fruit quality andyield.( : Aug. 15, 2007)

Researchers at the University ofDelaware and Ohio StateUniversity, USA, have used newtechnology to construct acomprehensive “expressionatlas” of the rice genome. Aswell as identifying individualgenes, the new map indicatesregions of nongene DNAthat are“expressed” that is, transcribedinto RNA and may thereforeplay a regulatory role in the cell(genes are transcribed into RNA,which is then translated by the

PhytophthoraPhytophthora palmivoraColletotricum gloeosporioides

Oidium caricaeAsperisporium caricae

Source

cell into proteins some RNA is not translated but instead plays arole in the regulation of cellular processes). The study, discussedby Antoni Rafalski, in the April 2007 issue of

(Tagging the rice transcriptome), increasesresearchers' knowledge about the functionally active regions ofDNA between genes and will thus help crop biotechnologistsdevelop improved rice varieties.( , July-Sept. 2007).

A new classof compounds has been discovered that should help shed morelight on how plants respond to insect attacks. Plants, and theinsects that feed on them, engage in a relationship involvingmany resultant hormonal and chemical changes in the plant,including induced production and emission of volatile organiccompounds, or VOCs. These physiological changes, broughtabout by a group of compounds known as elicitors, vary--notonly for different plants, but also with the insect species feedingon a plant. Understanding the plant-insect interaction isimportant in crop science and insect pest management.Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists isolated thecompounds from oral secretions ofgrasshoppers fed corn seedlings. They named them caeliferinsbecause preliminary analyses of oral secretions collected fromseveral species of Orthoptera (grasshoppers, katydids andcrickets) indicated that the compounds may be present in most, ifnot all, grasshoppers--members of the suborder Caelifera--but

not in crickets or katydids inthe suborder Ensifera

The caeliferins havesome unique properties, sothey should provide newbiological tools and directionsf o r e x p l o r i n g t h ephysiological ecology of, andinteractions between, insectsand plants.

Scientists study elicitorsof plant volatile releases tofind ways to induce defensiveresponses to help crop plantsunder insect attack remainhealthy and vigorous. It iswell known that insectchewing may induce releaseof plant VOCs that summonnatural enemies of theattacking insects. But insects'oral secretions may also

provoke direct plant defenses that impair the pests' performance.( : , Aug.18,2007)

;

Source:--

Source

NatureBiotechnology

Rice Today

Schistocerca americana

.

Plant Health Progress

New Plant-Insect Interaction Discovered

www.usda_ARS,

Fungal Control for Root-Eating Insects--Root-eatinginsects could soon be eating themselves sick--if their favorite

food has been treated with a fungalbiocontrol agent. Agricultural ResearchService (ARS) scientists in Corvallis,Oregon, are discovering new ways touse fungal spores for controlling theblack vine weevil and other root-eatingnursery pests.

Current control methods involve applying large amounts ofentomopathogenic fungi to the soil in which at-risk plants grow.This approach is both costly and inefficient. ARS entomologistDenny Bruck discovered that using plant roots as an underground"delivery system" for the fungi is cheaper and more effective thanbroad distribution. He and his colleagues tested several fungalstrains and found that some of them thrived in the areaimmediately surrounding a plant's roots. In fact, some fungal

populations were 10 times denser there than in the surroundingbulk soil.

When plant roots were dipped in solutions containing sporesof , a fungus that occurs naturally in fieldsbut not in container-grown plants they observed that black vineweevil larvae died after eating the fungus-treated roots.

Dipping roots in entomopathogenic fungal solutions mayprove to be economical and efficient, because growers would onlyneed to treat that specific area. Another study demonstrated thatblack vine weevil larvae actually prefer the colonized roots, sothey are more likely to snack on roots that will harm them.Perfecting a fungal solution to root-eating pests could potentiallysave the nursery industry millions every year.

While permitting the field trialson transgenic crops, the GOI has prescribed twotypes of containment measures to be adopted forrestricting the possibility of gene flow to theneighboring crops.T h e s e a r e : a )isolation distances

as prescribed in the Indian MinimumSeeds Certification Standards (asphysical containment measure) andb) planting non transgenic plants ofthe same crop up to 2-5 meters width(as pollen trapper rows, dependingon the type of crop) all round theexperimental plot with in theisolation distance to trap the pollencoming from the transgenic plants(as b io log ica l con ta inmentmeasures). The combination ofphysical and biological containmentmeasures are prescribed to ensurethe restriction of cross pollination tothe highest possible levels.

These adequate biosafetyduring the conduct of field trials forGM crops has been prescribed forcotton, rice, okra, groundnut, potato,tomato, brinjal, castor, cauliflower & cabbage andoilseed brassicas, crops that are in various stages oftesting in India.

GEAC informed that the RCGM in itsmeetings held on 28.6.2007 and 24.7.2007 hasrecommended one proposal for MLRT withtransgenic brinjal, 5 proposals for pollenflow/biosafety studies with Bt brinjal, transgeniccotton, Bt okra, Bt rice and Bt tomato and 4proposals for Strip trials with transgenic rice,transgenic groundnut, Bt cotton and Bt brinjal expressingnew gene event. RCGM has also recommended 52 proposalsfor MLRT and SAU trials, 8 proposals for strip trials and 31proposals for experimental seed production with Bt cottonexpressing approved gene events.

Incidentally, the SC had directed the Govt. to increase theisolation distance up to 200m between fields in which GM cropshave been planted and other fields, in order to prevent gene

Metarhizium anisopliae

( : , ,Aug. 15, 2007).Source Plant Health Progresswww.usda.ars.com

Gene flow in transgenics --

contamination. On May7, it lifted the curb on field trials of GMcrops adding that tests be conducted under stringent conditions toprevent contamination.

.

An unusual species ofbamboo blankets Mizoram, a remote state with an ethnicallydistinct tribal population. flowers onlyonce every 50 years or so; their seeds turn the local rats intoincredibly prolific breeders. But, when the seasonal rains arriveand cause the seeds to germinate, the rodents suddenly lose thissource of food. Now present in huge numbers, the rats invade therice paddies in their quest for food, destroying the crops thevillagers depend on for their survival. In a single night, the legionof rodents can clip the ears from every rice stalk in a field. Local

villagers callthe once-in-5 0 - y e a r sphenomenon' , or“ b a m b o odeath.” Thelast time it hitin 1959, itwas indeeddeadly. Thes t a t egovernmentd i s m i s s e dl o c a lforecasts atthe time assuperstitiousraving, andw a sunpreparedto fight offthe rodents or

provide adequate relief for themassive food shortages thatfollowed. The famine wasestimated to have caused morethan 10,000 deaths, and theconflict itself took more than3,000 lives. Now, one of themovemen t ' s l eade r s , Pu

Zoramthanga Mizoram's ChiefMinister has released more than

Rs.50 crore to fight the problem. The Statepaid villagers 100 rupees for every 50 traps

they set and distributed more than 15,000 kg of rodenticide. Alocal government reward of kg.one rupee per rat has already ledto more than 400,000 rats killed by early May 2007.( on 30 March2007; July-September 2007).

It also added that in so allowing therelease of 4 vars. of Bt cotton it is to be seen that no newvarieties were evolved in the process of field trials. On May 1last year it also said that GEAC and not RCGM should beresponsible for field trials and approval of GM crops

Melocanna baccifera

mautam'

: , Toronto Globe and MailRice Today,

( : , May 9, 2007).Source

Source Jason Overdorf

www.expressindia.com

Talking about about rat menace --

AnnouncementThe Association for Advancement in Plant Protection is organizing a

December 28-29, 2007National Symposium on 'Plant Protection: Technology Interface'

Interested persons may contact:PROF. SHANTANU JHA, Organizing Secretary, NATIONAL SYMPOSIUM ON

Association for Advancement in Plant Protection, Plant Health Clinic Laboratory, Directorate of Research, BCKV, Kalyani, Nadia-71235, West Bengal, IndiaTel: 033-2580 5811 Ext.35/ Mobile: 09433011529/9433362293FAX: 033-2582 8630 / 033-2582 8407. Email: aapp_bckv@yahoo.co.in

'PLANT PROTECTION: TECHNOLOGY INTERFACE’

Secretary

Published by

Printed at

: Dr. Shantanu Jha, designed & composed by Sankar Dhar: Secretary, Association for Advancement in Plant Protection, Bidhan Chandra Krishi Visvavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia W.B.-741252,E-mail:

: B-9/107, Kalyani, Nadia, Ph: 9874364984, 9330873808, Email:kaushik_lap@sify.com:

aapp_bckv@yahoo.co.inLaser Aid Printers,