National Phytotron Facility

The National Phytotron Facility (NPF) was established in 1997. It is first of its kind facility in the country where live responses of the plant under controlled conditions are studied round the year. Genetics, physiology, and various biochemical parameters are studied by growing the crops under regulated growth conditions of the NPF. The facility is being maintained with prescribed bio-safety norms to test the transgenic crops. It has a self-contained area of 2700 m2, housing 22 growth chambers and 10 greenhouses.

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Nanaji Deshmukh Plant Phenomics Centre

Development of climate resilient crop varieties and precision agriculture management techniques are necessary for sustaining the food security in the climate change scenario. One of the fundamentals requirements to achieve this goal is precise quantification of response of plants to different stresses for identification of superior genotypes and genes. Conventional phenotyping is time and labour intensive, and often destructive and hence is a bottleneck in breeding crop varieties with climate resilience. Since genotype x environment interaction is dynamic, spatial and temporal phenotyping is necessary to understand the plant phenome. To bridge the phenotype-genotype gap, the multi-disciplinary science of “Phenomics” has emerged recently. Similar to MRI or CT-Scan used diagnosis of health status and diseases in humans, Phenomics also uses non-invasive sensors and advanced image processing computational programmes to non-destructively characterize plants in near real-time. The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) through National Agricultural Science Fund (NASF) established a state-of-the art plant phenomics facility at the Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. This facility is the largest in India and one of best facility in terms of analytical capabilities among the public funded Institutions in the world. The centre also comprises of “Climate Controlled Facility” with 8 different greenhouse chambers developed by the Institute through the funding support from National Initiative on Climate Resilient Agriculture (NICRA), ICAR.

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National Pusa Collection (NPC) -- Division of Entomology

National Pusa Collection is an integral section of the Division of Entomology, ICAR-Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi. Division of Entomology is one of the first five Divisions of the Indian Agricultural Research Institute established in 1905. The Division has pioneered in investigations in insect systematics and economic entomology vis-a-vis important crop pests. Over the last 50 years, NPC has directly contributed to the discovery and description of more than 1500 arthropod species previously unknown to science. Several taxonomic treatises on agriculturally important insects belonging to orders Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, Orthoptera, and Hymenoptera and class Acarina have been published.

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HCIO-ITCC -- Division of Plant Pathology

The Herbarium Cryptogamae Indiae Orientalis (HCIO), a National herbarium established in 1905, not only serves as an educational resource for the National Agricultural Research System (NARS), but also conserves fungal biodiversity. At present, HCIO is enriched with nearly 51,000 specimens with Type Specimens (3800), New species records (570), New Indian Genera recorded (19), Indian Exsiccati sets (18) and Foreign Exsiccati sets (188) which are being maintained from 1892 onwards. For the researchers, students and others working in the field of Mycology and Plant Pathology, it is not always possible to visit HCIO and see the precious disease specimens. Therefore, an attempt has been made to develop a digital version of diseased specimens deposited in HCIO by various workers. The species have been arranged in alphabetical order. The specimen data in this checklist includes name of the fungus, the host or substrate, date of collection, name of the collector and a unique HCIO accession number of the specimen with a digital picture of HCIO specimen. We are very sure that, this compilation will serve as useful source to the researchers for the identification as well as recording of newer fungal species. The authors are thankful to Dr. A.K. Singh, the Director, IARI, New Delhi for providing necessary facilities to maintain and conserve the fungal biodiversity in natural and digital form. Authors are also thankful to Dr. Amrender Kumar, head, AKMU, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi for managing the database and uploaded on IARI website. The digital form of Herbarium specimens will render a wonderful facility to researchers for explore the vast collection of HCIO at their end. Authors are also thankful to Indian Council of Agricultural Research for financial support.

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