Role of AICRP nematodes in advancement of nematological research in India

The Department of Science and Technology, Govt. of India, New Delhi sponsored the All India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) on Nematode Pests and their control w.e.f. April 1, 1977. This project was then taken over by ICAR, New Delhi as Plan Project w.e.f. April 1, 1979. Separate Department of Nematology now exist in several Agricultural Universities, e.g. HAU, Hissar; OUAT, Bhubaneswar; TNAU, Coimbatore; RAU, Udaipur; RAU, Pusa (Bihar); NDUAT, Faizabad etc. Several basic Universities and ICAR institutes have also taken up nematological work. Studies carried out by cooperating centres of AICRP have generated information on the effect of economically important nematode population on crop yields. However, since the inception of this project and the information generated has brought forward the awareness about the nematodes as one of the limiting factors in crop production and in the recent past a few nematode problems viz. root-knot nematode infecting rice-wheat cropping system; lesion nematode infecting pulses and soybean; root-knot nematode infecting cotton and many horticultural crops including flowering plants. The studies carried out by 15 different centres under AICRP (Nematodes) has generated information on effect of these nematode pests on crop yield from identified hot spot areas.