PRESS NOTE - 24/02/2009   IISR, Calicut identified as the lead centre for ICAR network project on wilt diseases   The Indian Council of Agricultural Research, New Delhi has earmarked about Rs. 20 crores in the XI plan to take up advanced research on three important plant pathogens Phytophthora, Fusarium and Ralstonia affecting large number of crops ranging from vegetables, fruits, spices, plantation crops, ornamental, pulses and oil seeds. Late blight of potato alone causes crop losses up to 20 billion rupees in epiphytotic years. Phytophthora diseases are very important for Kerala as it affects all the major cash crops in the state. It causes foot rot of black pepper, ‘mahali’ of arecanut, bud rot of coconut and pod rot of cocoa. Considering the expertise available, Indian Institute of Spices Research has been identified to lead this project involving 16 other crop based institutions across the country.   The project was officially launched at New Delhi by Dr HP Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture), on 23 Feb 2009 in the presence of Dr VA Pathasarathy, Director, IISR and Dr. M. Anandaraj Project Coordinator, Spices. The meeting was attended by Dr Umesh Srivastava, Dr. T.P Rajendran and Dr. S.Rajan Assistant Director generals of ICAR, New Delhi and about 25 Principal Investigators from the cooperating centres. The total outlay of the project is Rs.19.65 crores with IISR Calicut getting 6.5 crores. The Crops covered under Calicut are black pepper and ginger. The other crops covered in this project includes coconut, cocoa, banana, tuber crops, citrus, guava, oil seeds and vegetables. Dr Anandaraj has been identified to coordinate the network project. This project also envisages establishment of Centres of Excellence on Phytophthora, Ralstonia and Fusarium with state of art facilities; a repository of various isolates of Phytophthora, Ralstonia and Fusarium; a data bank and digital information and expert system and development of PHYTOWEB - A Web based portal on Phytophthora for ready reference and utility. The portal also will have an internet based interface for research communication, monitoring and evaluation. According to Dr V A Parthasarathy, Director, IISR, the project upon completion would provide through understanding of the pathogen diversity, developed tools for detection and diagnosis of pathogen in planting material and soil, host resistance and isolation of resistance genes, molecular tools for Marker assisted selection (MAS) to reduce the time taken for developing resistant varieties and development of effective Integrated Disease Management (IDM) strategies resulting in cleaner agri- products free of pesticide and fungicide residues. Visit PhytoFuRa website     Dr. V. A. Parthasarathy (Director, IISR, Calicut)     Dr. M. Anandaraj (Project Coordinator, Spices, IISR, Calicut) and Dr H. P. Singh, Deputy Director General (Horticulture),