Horticultural Research Station, Vijayanagaram, Ooty

1. Establishment

Horticultural Research station, Udhagamandalam, was established during the year 1988 under the control of Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore. The Research Station along with the farm and greenhouses are located in the Vijayanagaram Farm, near the centenary Rose Park. The field experiments are conducted at Wood House Farm with an area of 42 acres near Doddabetta. The seed production of temperate vegetables is taken up at Nanjanad farm with an area of 8 acres with the following objectives.

2. Mandate

• To breed high yielding varieties and develop suitable production technologies of temperate vegetables and cut flowers suitable for the Nilgiris
• To develop new varieties in temperate fruits and develop suitable production technology
• To collect and maintain germplasm of herbal spices, medicinal and aromatic plants and develop suitable varieties for the Nilgiris
• To introduce new horticultural species to increase the income of the farmers
• To develop new varieties of mushroom for commercial cultivation, impart training to the farmers and to supply spawn
• To work out the production techniques for biodynamic organic farming system to reduce pesticide and chemical fertilizer application
• To collect native acid tolerant strains of Azospirillum, Azotobacter, Phosphobacteria, Rhizobium and VAM for mass production and supply to the farmers
• To mass produce bio control agents for the management of pest and diseases of hill crops
• To impart training on  conservation of biosphere to preserve the Nilgiris ecosystem
• To develop mixed farming and dry farming systems to the Nilgiris ecosystem.
• To mass multiply medicinal and aromatic plants for supply to the farmers.

• Activities
• Vijayanagaram Farm

Large scale production of biofertilizers viz., Azospirillum, Phosphobacteria, Rhizobium, VAM and azotobacter , biocontrol agents viz Trichoderma viride, Beauveria bassiana, Metarrhizium anisopliae, Verticillium lecani, Pseudomonas fluorescens and  Paecilomyces lilacinus are prepared as talc based products and provided to farming community at subsidized cost. Animal based products namely Panchagavya and dasagavya for plant protection and plant growth promotion are prepared for commercial sale. Vermicompost and biodynamic compost are also prepared and provided to farmers.

• Woodhouse Farm

Totally 350 species are maintained among which Rosemary, Thyme, Geranium and Pepino are occupying the major area since the soil is fertile, rich in organic matter, high water holding capacity, favourable climatic conditions for the maintenance of mother plants, from which the cuttings are produced in large scale. From the medicinal plants viz., rosemary, thyme, lemongrass and eucalyptus, essential oils are being extracted and dry leaves of rosemary are also produced.

• Germplasm collection of rare medicinal plants are being maintained
• Different varieties of Apple namely Oregon spur, Red Fuji, Golden Delicious, Royal  Delicious, Lal Ambri, Silver Spur and soft Pear have been maintained
• Mushroom production and Tea cultivation

The temperature and relative humidity at the farm which is around 12-200 C and 80-90% respectively is found to be ideal for growing button, oyster and shiitake mushrooms. The tea crop is fully maintained as organic for the past five years without the application of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

• Nanjanad Farm

Cultivation of hill vegetables like Carrot, Potato, Radish, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Palak, Faba beans, Garlic, Elephant garlic, Amaranthus, Chakravarthi Keerai, Buck wheat and Lupin are taken up for research purpose. Seed production units are being maintained for temperate vegetables and also rainwater harvesting sources are maintained. A germplasm comprising of 72 garlic accessions were evaluated during the year 2010-11. 

• Education
• Guiding M.Sc (Hort.) and Ph.D (Hort.) students for their research areas on cut flower and Hill Horticulture and exotic vegetables.
• Every year students from Cornell University under the dual degree program visit HRS to get hands on training in Organic farming.
• Extension
• Farm advisory services are taken up for the management of pests and diseases in horticultural crops.
• Conducted one day seminar on ‘Production and Post harvest Technology of Garlic’ and disseminated various farming techniques.
• One day training is being organized on the 1st  of every month on the topic “Button and Oyster mushroom cultivation
•  Rendering training to the farmers on different areas such as
• Commercial Mushroom cultivation
• Cut flowers production technology
• Production technology of high value exotic vegetables
• Organic inputs preparation
• Post Harvest Technology of Hill Fruits and Vegetables
• Production technology of medicinal plants

• Schemes undertaken by the HRS, Ooty: The research work is being implemented as a routine through several sub projects. A few major schemes undertaken are as follows:

            Weather based Agro advisory service
The GOI scheme is being implemented since 2009. The daily weather observations are sent to Regional meteorological centre, India Meteorological Department, Chennai. Weather Forecast is received based on the weather data sent from HRS, Ooty, based on this Agro Advisory Services (AAS) Bulletins are generated and sent to the farmers. The AAS is uploaded in the website and also disseminated to the farmers through mobile SMS in tie up with the Nokia services.
            Sustainable Agriculture / Horticulture as an entry point activity in Kookalthurai
The scheme funded by the HADP has been launched in the Kookalthurai watershed area in an area of 500 acres for the benefit of the Kookalthurai farmers at a budget of Rs. 56 lakhs. The farmers of the Kookalthurai watershed area are having no awareness on organic farming and intensive chemical farming is being practiced. Few decades ago the Kookalthurai area was popularly known as the orange valley and traditional grain cultivation was adopted, but these days it has vanished. Thus, this scheme has been implemented to introduce organic farming and to  reintroduce, traditional food grain cultivation like ragi, samai, wheat, buckwheat, etc, orange, fodder grasses, mushroom cultivation and to enhance  self production of compost, panchagavya and dasagavya so as to lead a sustainable cultivation. Training programmes and demonstrations on organic farming and preparation of organic inputs like panchagavya, dasagavya, homa therapy farming and composting have been imparted. Bio inputs have been distributed to 211 beneficiareis of the Kookalthurai Watershed area. Farmers tour to various organic farms at Mysore, Bangalore and Sathyamangalam has been conducted.

Development of eco-village through sustainable farming system at MelKavatty village

HADP has sanctioned the scheme entitled “Development of eco – village through sustainable farming system” at Mel kavatty village at a budget of Rs. 6.3 lakhs.    The scheme would cover an area of 270 acres. Hands on Training programmes on organic farming, production of bio inputs like compost, panchagavya and dasagavya will be imparted to the beneficiaries. The preliminary survey has been completed and the scheme will be launched shortly

Achievements
The station has been  imparting intensive training in the field of organic farming of hill vegetables and on  mushroom cultivation. So far around 9000 farmers have been benefitted from the training programmes. About 127entrepreneurs have been developed out of the mushroom cultivation training programmes. 

Details of varieties released by the Horticultural Research Station, Ooty

Publications
            The following books and manuals were published from this research station.
Books

• Commercial Cut flowers
• Commercial Strawberry cultivation
• Medicinal plants of Nilgiris
• Organic Horticulture
• Mushroom production technology (Tamil)
• Organic Horticulture (Tamil)

Manuals

• Plant protection in potato
• Club root disease of cabbage
• Different types rooting diseases in cabbage
• Biofertilizers for hill crops
• Vermicompost Production
• New Zealand Spinach Ooty(Tt) 1
• Thyme Ooty (Tv) 1
• Rosemary TNAU OTY-1
• Celery TNAU OTY-1
• Garlic TNAU OTY-1

Awards received

• HRS, Ooty received the Best Research Station Award  for the year 2002
• Award for best publication for the book entitled “Malaipaguthikaana Thotakkalai Payirgal” for the year 2001 -2002.
• Best stall award for HRS, Ooty  during the 109th Annual Flower Show conducted at Ooty, 2005.

A view of the HRS, Ooty	Demonstration on production of panchagavya
Organic rose unit in Vijayanagaram farm	Woodhouse farm
Button mushroon unit of HRS, Ooty	Oyster Mushroom Unit

Herbal and medicinal plants park

Contact:

Professor and Head
Horticultural Research Station, Rose Garden,
Vijayanagaram Farms,
Ooty - 643 001.
The Nilgiris (Dt)
Phone: 0423-2442170
e-mail ID: hrsooty@tnau.ac.in

Updated on Oct 2013