About the Department
Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics was established since inception of university in 1970. Till date department has conferred MSc (Ag) in Genetics and Plant Breeding degree to more than 210 students and conferred PhD degree in Genetics and Plant Breeding to more than 65 students.
Vision:
The holistic vision of this department is to substantially enhance the crop production in the region by developing trained professionals by imparting them the basic and advance plant breeding acumen and by its own dedicated crop improvement programme and promoting its (techpology/variety) percolation to the end users through its strong technology transfer system so as to bring not only food rather nutritional security in the region.
Mandate:
The mandate of the department is to impart core knowledge in genetics and plant breeding and to develop skilled professionals in the discipline. It also undertakes basic and applied research focused on genetic resource development and crop improvement to enhance national and regional food production. The department also engages in technology dissemination through frontline demonstrations, farmer fairs, meetings, and outreach via radio and TV talks.
Objectives/Goals:
- Development of competent and trained professionals in the field of plant breeding and genetics.
- Development of high-yielding and biotic/abiotic stress-tolerant cultivars of field crops.
- Population improvement and heterotic grouping in maize to develop high yielding single cross hybrids, composites and synthetics in maize that is resistant/tolerant to biotic and abiotic stresses.
- High precision molecular breeding in various field crops for fast delivery of cultivars.
- Improvement of specialty traits in crops (baby corn, sweet corn, pop corn, coloured rice, and glutinous rice, high fiber wheat, etc).
- Development of climate-resilient cultivars of various field crops, including small millets.
- Development of nutri-rich crop cultivars (Biofortification).
Degrees Offered
S. No. | Degree Offered | Subject/ Discipline | No. of Seats | Eligibility Qualifications |
i | M. Sc. (Ag) | Plant Breeding & Genetics | 17 | B.Sc. or B.Sc. (Hons.) Agriculture/Horticulture/ Forestry |
ii | Ph.D. | Plant Breeding & Genetics | 04+02* | M. Sc. (Ag.) Plant Breeding & Genetics / M. Sc. (Ag.) Genetics & Plant Breeding / M. Sc. (Ag.) Genetics. |
Facilities and Infrastructure
The department has state-of-art, air-conditioned smart class rooms, acoustically designed conference hall equipped with OHP, Smart writing board and LED light systems.
- Fully furnished molecular labs with advanced research instruments like Real-Time PCR.
- Rain-out shelter for conducting drought related research.
- Deep water tanks for screening submergence tolerant genotypes.
- Crossing block with photoperiod calibration facility to enable research on crops requiring altered photoperiod for flowering.
- Various farm instruments for conducting on-farm research (tractor, mechanical weeder, sprayer etc.)
- Primary and secondary processing machines for value addition in millets.
- On-farm storage house for research materials and threshing floor.
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Achievements
i.Varieties: More than 60 varieties of different crops have been released by the department. Some of the popular varieties developed in different crops are given below:
1. | Rajendra Sweta Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2004 Salient Features: It is a medium duration (135-140 days) dwarf (90-100 cm) variety suited to medium land ecosystem having medium slender fine grain type with yield potential of 40-50 q/ha. It is moderately resistant to Sheath blight disease and better choice of cultivation in place of Sonam and BPT 5204.
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2. | Rajendra Suwasani Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2003 Salient Features: It is a semi dwarf scented rice variety which matures in 120-125 days. Its grains are long slender. It is most suitable for Biryani & Polao. Its yield potential is 45-50 q/ha. It is suitable for medium irrigated land. |  |
3. | Rajendra Mahsuri 1 Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2002 Salient Features: It is a long duration (145-150 days) dwarf (100-110 cm) variety, suited to shallow lowland ecosystem having medium slender grain type with yield potential of 50-60 q/ha. It is moderately resistant to Sheath blight and Bacterial leaf blight diseases. It is a better replacement of Nati Mahsuri (MTU 7029) in the State. |  |
4. | Rajendra Bhagwati Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2010 Salient Features: It matures within 110-112 days. It has been recommended for irrigated up land. It has 45-50 q/ha yield potential. Its grains are fine, long slender and mild scented.
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5. | Swarna Sub-1 Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2010 Salient Features: It matures within 140-145 days. It has been recommended for low land. Its yield potential is 50-55 q/ha. |  |
6. | Rajendra Nilam Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2017 Salient Features: It is a short duration (110-115 days) with plant height 95-100 cm, high yielding (35.00 q/ha) aerobic rice variety. Suitable for upland and mid land condition. It has short and bold grains with good cooking quality. 30-40 per cent water saving can be achieved as transplanting is eliminated with crop being grown in non-puddled and non-flooded condition. |  |
7. | Rajendra Saraswati Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2020 Salient Features: It matures within 110-112 days. It has been recommended for irrigated up land. It has 45-50 q/ha yield potential. Its grains are fine, long slender and mild scented. |  |
8. | Rajendra Genhu-1 Year of Recommendation/Notification: 2020 Salient Features: It is a biofortified wheat variety of medium duration (126-137 days) with plant height 95-100 cm and its average yield potential is 50.00 q/ha. It is resistant to major diseases and insect pests prevalent in Bihar. |  |
9. | Rajendra Genhu-3 (WB02) Year of Recommendation/Notification: 2021 Salient Features: It is a biofortified wheat variety of medium duration (126-137 days) with plant height 95-100 cm and its average yield potential is 50.00 q/ha). It is resistant to major diseases and insect pests prevalent in Bihar. |  |
10 | Rajendra Genhu -4 Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2025 Salient Features: It is a timely sown variety and moderately resistant against leaf blight, leaf rust and spot blotch. It is biofortified wheat variety with high zinc and iron content. Matures in 126-137 days and yields 52 q/ha. 50 q/ha.
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11 | Rajendra Kauni-1 Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2017 Salient Features: Its average yield is 24.50 q/ha. It is erect, having light green colour leaves medium lobe, brown colour panicle, brown awns with medium attitude with height of 122-140 cm. It matures in 81 days. It possesses high degree of resistance against leaf blast, rust, smut, brown spot, downy mildew and leaf blight. It has superior quality with high iron content (15.45 mg/100g) and zinc (5.02 mg/100g). |  |
12 | Rajendra Madua-1 (RAUF – 17) Year of Recommendation/ Notification: 2025 Salient Features: It is erect, having light green-coloured leaves, brown coloured panicle with height of 105-116 cm. This variety contains high calcium and iron content in grains. It possesses high degree of resistance against leaf blast, rust, smut, brown spot, downy mildew and leaf light. Matures in 118 days and yields 38q/ha. |  |
13 | GI tagging of Marcha Dhan RPCAU acted as facilitator in granting Geographical Indication of Marcha Rice. GI tag has been granted exclusively under technical guidance of the university.
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ii. Faculty awards/ honours:
Various national and international awards are conferred on eminent scientists of the department including Fellow the Linnean Society of London conferred to Dr. Sweta Mishra
iii. Student awards/achievements:
Many students of the department are recipient of awards and accolades from various prestigious registered professional societies and national organizations (ICAR & CSIR) that includes:
ICAR-JRF
ICAR-SRF
ICAR-NET
CSIR-JRF & LS
Young Scientist/Researcher awards
Many of the students are serving in various capacities in ICAR, SAUs, MNCs and Nationalised banks.
iv. Research activities:
National & International projects with details of PI/ Co-PI:
- Centre of Excellence on Millets and Value Chain (CoEMVC)
- Development of heat tolerant and preharvest sprouting resistant high yielding wheat genotypes through induced mutagenesis
- AICRP on Millets
- AICRP on Rice
- AICRP on Potato
- AICRP on Wheat and Barley
National and International Collaborations with other organizations/Institutes:
Department has collaborations with various national and international organizations like:
- HarvestPlus
- Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC)
- International Crop Research Institute for Semi-arid Tropics (ICRISAT)
v. Extension Activities:
Ongoing various extension activities:
- Department organizes various extension activities like-
- Front Line Demonstrations (FLDs)of newly developed varieties on farmers’ field on large scale.
- Farmers’ Fairs
- Farmers Meeting
- Distribution of seeds of newly developed varieties for their rapid adoption (Minikit trials)
Seminars/Conferences/Workshops/Trainings/ Brainstorming sessions organized:
- Residential training to the farmers on various aspects of millets value chain.
- Trainings for scientific cultivation of various crops are organized to train the farmers.
- Conferences to spread awareness on various contemporary problems in agriculture are organized time to time.
- Scientists are delivering invited lectures in various training programmes organized by external agencies and NGOs.
Faculties
1 | Dr. Sweta Mishra | Professor & Head | 9898128548 | sweta.mishra@rpcau.ac.in |
2 | Dr. Satish Kumar Singh | Professor | 7250209227 | satish.singh@rpcau.ac.in |
3 | Dr. Nilanjaya | Associate Professor | 6202843136 | nilanjaya@rpcau.ac.in |
4 | Dr. M. K. Singh | Assistant Professor | 7983312594 | mithilesh.pbg@rpcau.ac.in |
5 | Mr. Aman Tigga | Assistant Professor | 7992380388 | aman@rpcau.ac.in |
6 | Dr. Harshavardan J Hilli | Assistant Professor | 8971054492 | harshajh1995@gmail.com |
7 | Dr. Priyanka Upadhyay | Assistant Professor | 8004396221 | upriyanka42@gmail.com |
8 | Dr. I. Gopinath | Assistant Professor | 7005979052 | gopiikkurti@gmail.com |
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